Scott Swezey The more I learn, the less I know.

Getting Google Voice and RingCentral to play nice

Today I decided to take another whack at getting my local business number, currently run by Google Voice, to forward into my new 800 number at RingCentral. I never managed to make it work in the past, but today everything changed. So want to do the same? Here's how:

Update 5/31/11: Before I let you read the instructions on how to accomplish this, I should tell you that after using this for a while, I consider it to be a far less than optimal solution. For reasons unknown to me, sometimes Google picks up the line, plays its voicemail message, and records the voicemail in its own inbox. Ideally, everything should always be handled by Ring Central, but I suppose if Ring Central doesn't answer fast enough, or there is some kind of delay... then there are problems. Ideally, you should really just port the number to Ring Central and pay the extra few dollars per month. Proceed at your own risk.

1. Backup everything first. Make notes of your current settings in Google Voice and RingCentral for when you are done, or in case there is a problem or you ever wish to go back to how things were. Also, try to do this when your phone isn't likely to be ringing.
2. Log into RingCentral and setup the forwarding number. Go to "My Settings" > "Account Summary" and under the header of "My Numbers Forwarded to RingCentral" setup your Google Voice number. There is no need to call any phone company or do any of that stuff, just type in the number and pretend you followed the rest of the directions.
3. Temporarily, we are going to setup RingCentral to instantly forward to your phone, without any menu's or similar stuff. This is so you can get the verification code from Google. Still under "My Settings" go to "Answering Rules." Select business hours or after hours based on what time it is for you and when you are going to set this up. Set your answering mode to "Ring a number only." Continue like normal setting this up to ring a phone you're at.
4. Go to google voice. Under Settings for Google Voice, go to phones, add a new phone, and enter your RingCentral number. Proceed with the instructions they show you to receive the verification call, get the code, and enter it on your screen. The RingCentral number should be verified before you continue. If you have problems with this (like going to voicemail or not getting to your phone in time), make sure you set RingCentral to go directly to your phone. No delays, no extensions, no departments, no voicemail, no nothing. When the call comes in, it has to make your phone ring instantly.
5. Undo everything we did in step 2 now that Google Voice has verified your control of your RingCentral number. You're ok to put departments, extensions, full call control, and everything else back now. Setup RingCentral however you want or however you had it before.
6. Back in Google Voice settings, go to the calls tab and turn call screening off. Set caller ID to display the callers number. Save things, then go to the phones tab in the Google Voice settings and uncheck all phones except your RingCentral phone.
7. Test things out. Calls to Google Voice should now get forwarded to RingCentral and handled by its rules. Voicemail won't work at Google Voice anymore, but that is probably for the best. You can still setup SMS messages to forward to email or any cell phones on your account. You can also still block callers in Google Voice or setup calling groups to make some contacts ring your phone instead of Google Voice. That said, if RingCentral offers the same feature, you may wish to setup things there instead of in Google Voice.
8. Don't blame me if things go wrong. I'm just telling you what worked for me, and I wrote this on November 11, 2010... So things could have changed since this was written.