Friday, August 13, 2010

Make Sipdroid and Google Voice Callback work together

Many of you (including me) use Sipdroid for calling over internet. The setup can be made pretty convenient, but not enough for me! Thankfully Sipdroid is open-source, so I modified Sipdroid to make it work a little better with Google Voice Callback.

DISCLAIMER: this is a purely fun personal project that I did for myself. I made no guarantee of usability or suitability for you! Use at your own risk, and don't complain if it makes your current GV-SIP setup not working, or burns down your house, or causes global warming.

The modified version of Sipdroid is based on an older version, 1.3.7 beta. I have not had the need to update (and got burned once when one update broke the callback mechanism). I may consider update my changes to a newer version of Sipdroid, but don't count on it!

The major changes I made to Sipdroid are:
  • Exposes some internal functions so that Google Voice Callback can start Sipdroid's service on background. You can enable the option to start Sipdroid when callback occurs (in the main setting screen for Google Voice Callback, press Menu -> Preferences).
  • I added an option to auto-answer incoming call from your Google Voice number (and optionally disable ring for such incoming calls). To find the option, open Sipdroid, press Menu -> Settings -> Call Options -> Auto-Answer number / Disable Ring for Auto-Answer.
  • I removed the annoying red LED notification from Sipdroid when network is not available.


You can find the modified version of Sipdroid and the modified source here:
http://code.google.com/p/google-voice-callback-for-android/downloads/list

Be warned that the download apk file is signed with my key, which means that you cannot install it on top of existing Sipdroid. You must uninstall Sipdroid from your phone before installing the modified Sipdroid apk.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi, first of all I would like to thank you very much for making Google Voice Callback free and updating it.

Seeing the integration with sipdroid is very nice. However, I would like to suggest whether you can integrate it with csipsimple, an open source client, which I think is coming along nicely and will surpass sipdroid.

http://code.google.com/p/csipsimple/

thank you!

Anonymous said...

Great app and its one of my most used apps! Question, i noticed when i make a call using thee callback, there is 2 entrys on my phone log; one for the actual person im calling, and one for my google voice number calling me back. The person im trying to calls number shows 0 mins for the call but will it still be picked up by my cell carrier as a call and will i still get charged a minute for it?

Thanks for the hard work

x said...

Anonymous 1: Looks like csipsimple is still on alpha/unstable stage. I'll wait at least till it's stable.

Anonymous 2: The call log should be cleaned up automatically with the latest version. The clean up may miss a call or so, but no, you won't get charged for the 0 min "outgoing" call since it was never made!

Hosung Song said...

I'm so glad and grateful to see your software get better timely. Thank you so much for all your effort. I have really wanted the auto-answer-on-number feature, even thinking that I could modify the Sipdroid source myself, but I now see you already accomplished it! However, I'm wondering if you could actually contact Sipdroid team and ask them to apply your patch (for the features you implemented) to their source code base? I'm not sure if they will be all happy about your patches, but I certainly would like to see your features be included in the official Sipdroid app. If you need any support/endorsement, please let me know (hosungs@gmail.com) !

x said...

Hosung: auto-answer single number feature request has been on the Sipdroid issue tracker for over a year now (http://code.google.com/p/sipdroid/issues/detail?id=189). It's a really simple change; I even took the idea from one of the comments. It's up to the Sipdroid team to implement the feature.

Neil Speer said...

Thank you so much for all your hard work on this. When I tried it on my T mobile Vibrant (2.1), I could hear the person I called but they could not hear me at all. I had to go back to the current market version.

That Peel Kid said...

Thanks so much for your work on GV Callback and Sipdroid. =D

Sterling said...

Nice work x. I've been a fan of yours since Evan stopped developing his callback app.

I check in occasionally to see what you're working on. When I stopped by today, I noticed the comment above that mentioned csipsimple. Curious, I checked it out. It's currently in Beta stage, but it's a refined beta; everything looks, feels, and functions well.

I'd like to add my vote to integrating GVoice callback with csipsimple. They work ok together currently, but callback doesn't seem to recognize when csipsimple picks up (via an auto-answer rule). I think with a few integrations here and there, you and the guys at csipsimple could have an excellent combination (better IMO than what GVcallback and sipdroid have).

Anonymous said...

Can you please update the sipdroid apk to the latest version. I need the option to keep screen on for wifi. As soon as it shuts of I loose the call. Thanks great program.

Hari said...

I am just switching to android and the "google voice callback" app is fantastic in combination with your modified SipDroid. Unfortunately, the version you modified seems to have an issue with my samsung intercept phone, as the other party can't hear me. The newest SipDroid doesn't have this problem, though I would have to miss this feature. It would really appreciate if you could apply this patch on top of the newer version and save me the trouble of figuring out android dev env and applying the patch.

Hari said...

Never mind my previous comment, I was able to easily apply your diff to the latest beta and was able rebuild. It took me some effort figuring out how to setup the environment, but it was worth it. Thanks for publishing the source with .svn directory.

Anonymous said...

Installed the modified version sipdroid 1.3.7 and google callback 0.9 on Samsung Vibrant Tmobile. I cannot hear the other party, but they can hear me. Uninstalled and installed again, still the same thing.

Anonymous said...

Hi, I am using a Samsung Galaxy Tab and it does not have a native dialer. When I use CSipSimple or SipDroid to make a call, it does not bring up GV Callback. Therefore, if a dialer could be added to this GV Callback, that would be fantastic for me and all other tablets. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Love this app... working great...

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Anonymous said...

Hi was wondering if hari, who sucessfully modified the latest version of sipdroid with your patches from sipdroid 1.3.7, made his version of the souped up sipdroid app (including your patches) available for download ? And where would someone be able to download it?