Google To Say Goodbye to Gizmo5 in April

Google has quietly decided to put Gizmo5 to rest. The company, acquired last year from Michael Robertson and his investor partners for $30 million dollars has been integrated into Google Talk for the most part, including the video components that were part of Gizmo5 last incarnation.  TechCrunch and others have written the story as well.

The service will shut down on April 11 of this year, and starting March 11 users will no longer be able to buy credit. Google is providing options to Gizmo5 users to port their numbers to GoogleVoice, to receive a credit from Google that can be used with Google Voice or receive a refund.

There was no mention of credit for International numbers that had been paid for, or if those International numbers can be ported to Google Voice though, something that will likely get sorted out next week.

Here's the note from Google/Gizmo5:

Hello,

Gizmo5 is writing to let you know that we will no longer be providing service starting on April 3, 2011. A week from today, March 11, 2011, you will no longer be able to add credit to your account.

Although the standalone Gizmo5 client will no longer be available, we have since launched the ability to call phones from within Gmail at even more affordable rates. In order to make this change as smooth as possible for you, we’ve put together a couple of options to help you transition off of Gizmo5’s service.

• Keep your Gizmo5 call-in number by porting it to Google Voice. To initiate the port, please log in to http://my.gizmo5.com and follow the instructions at the top of your account page. If you don’t have a Google Voice account, please create one first so that we can port your call-in number.

• Transfer your call credit or get a refund. If you purchased calling credit and have a balance remaining in your account, log in to http://my.gizmo5.com and select from one of the following options:
• Transfer your call credit to your Google Voice account, which can be used for calling from Google Voice or Gmail. If you don’t have a Google Voice account, please create one first so that we can transfer your credit. If you are outside of the United States and Google Voice is not yet available, a transfer will not be possible, so please request a refund of your remaining call credit.
• Request a refund.Please request your number port, call credit transfer or refund by April 3, 2011. If you don't request a call credit transfer or refund by this date, we will automatically refund your remaining call credit via the payment method originally used to purchase the credit. Note that if you paid via Moneybookers or if your credit card on file has expired, we will not be able to automatically refund your remaining credit, so please log in to initiate the refund process.

Thank you,

The Gizmo5 Team

 

Back in the era of GrandCentral, I played a part in bringing Gizmo and GC together for a very simple SIP interop. The idea was simple. Since both were SIP based, the ability to make inbound calls routed into my GrandCentral would be possible, and more importantly, I could answer my calls using the Gizmo client and using a SIP based endpoint in my home for all my GoogleVoice/GrandCentral calls.

With this move, it looks like Google has also moved away from that process and instead is using only GoogleTalk as the end point, but with the new Android OS, especially Honeycomb, they become the endpoints in my opinion. What's more it also appears that Gizmo's parent SIPPhone and all of its core assets, including voice federation, college switchboard interoperability, and more have also been mothballed. Those features were actually well ahead of their time.

 

 

Comments

[Robwolpov]

It's no surprise this happened, but for some, it's unfortunate. Gizmo5 was a peer of ours and helped to push the pace of SIP adoption. Google seems to have other plans or at least a different perspective on timing. OnSIP has focussed on SIP adoption for years. While it's target audience is the business community, with PBX replacement apps, the core is a free SIP voice & video service along with free XMPP Instant Messaging. We welcome folks to get free SIP addresses which can be used to register devices and receive inbound SIP calls.

[Cqvoip]

I would like to see Google Voice implement iNum +883 call routing as an alternative to the removal of Gizmo5 as a viable GVoice call forwarding medium.

iNum call routing makes good sense, as most reputable VoIP carriers are now supporting iNum +883 and iNum SIP URI routing (most for free). If GVoice replaced the Gizmo5 call forwarding drop-down option with iNum routing, I could still receive my GVoice calls on my ATA's and IP-Phones like I did with Gizmo5.

Routing calls via iNum costs Google nothing, or at least next to nothing. The Voxbone iNum Initiative currently gives away iNums for free to participating carriers and routes iNum calls over their network for free. This would be very easy for Google Voice and Google Chat to implement.

If Google only gives us the option to forward GVoice calls to PSTN and Mobile numbers, we gain very little in the way of reducing overall costs as consumers.

Jeff - cqvoip.net

[Donna_crawford]

I contacted Skype to see if they would consider implementing a feature to allow us to transfer our existing Gizmo5 numbers in addition to their Skype One service, to avoid loosing our online phone numbers. I received the reply,

"In connection to this, we appreciate your feedback and will definitely look into it.

However, implementing changes and creating new features can take time, which means that the suggestions you make today might not be available in the near future.

Please be patient while we work to make Skype even better."

Perhaps we need to let them know how many people are now stuck.

[Anzolace]

Terrible Google destroys a a good service like Gizmo5, I have on my Nokia since many years, also on my Siemens VoIp Base, in my house in France, I make Voip calls all the time, members of my family to and friends . You could forward Skype, Google Phone etc.WiFi in Hotels etc In my House in FL.
Google Voice is a very simple service that has different features than Gizmo5, why did not sell instead of destroying!
For travelers Gizmo has been an excellent service. They should fire who ever made that decision.

Carlos

[Donna_crawford]

As a UK resident my email said,

"Unfortunately, we are not able to transfer your Gizmo5 call-in number to Google Voice. If you’d like to keep your Gizmo5 call-in number, we recommend that you check with your local carrier to determine what options are available to you."

What are UK users to do?? Google have dumped and abandoned us.

[Cqvoip]

For a long time now, I've used GrandCentral and then Google Voice to forward my GVoice calls to my Gizmo5 accounts, which in turn forwarded to my VoIP provider URI where I could pick up my calls on my ATA or IP-Phone. I guess the day to say GoodBy Gizmo5 is finally here.

This doesn't leave any viable options for receiving my GV calls on SIP devices (for free) any more. I always knew that free would never last forever... (we all get lured into the "free" marketing trap...) And, come the end of 2011, even GV calls will no longer be free (now that they have built up a viable user base built upon the free service premise...)

So, now I suppose Google Talk will be the next to die like Gizmo5?

I think I'm seeing the signs of a GTalk slow death already. For example, GTalk (and Gizmo5) used to route calls to iNum's. Now that Gizmo5 is virtually dead, no more free iNum calls thrugh that route. While GTalk used to reliably route calls to iNum SIP URI's, I'm now seeing the green lights on my iNum contacts dimming and going grey (not available). And, my GTalk is not allowing any more new iNum contacts - they just stay in "Invited" mode at infinitum. Unfortunately, Google Voice and Google Chat do not route iNum calls like GTalk does (or should I say did).

I think my enthusiasm for G-Telephony is starting to dwindle...

Jeff - cqvoip.net