Idea

RingCentral for Google is a Google Chrome browser extension that integrates your RingCentral service with your Google account. This primary functions of the extension are: 

Use the Google Chrome browser on your Mac and Windows computers
Search Google and RingCentral Contacts to call or SMS easily
 Enable click-to-dial on any phone number 
Send as well as receive text messages
View you calls, missed calls as well as voicemails and faxes
Schedule RingCentral Meetings as well as Conference calls directly from the Google Calendar

Visit:  RingCentral for Google Overview  for more details.

Hi Mike,

My point with this post was that your press release and other online information about this Chrome extension is misleading. Specifically when the graphics show a dial pad next to my emails in Chrome, and the description says "The app runs in your Gmail account and can be used to place and receive calls." I assumed that "place and receive calls" means that I can place and receive calls, but that's not exactly true.

Right now I'm sitting in a conference room waiting for a meeting to start with a client. It appears that I can't use this new Chrome extension to make a call now. When I press the green Call button I can't make a call - it says either "Calling your RingCentral device" or "Call is in progress" which I assume means that the desk phone in my office is ringing. After a minute or so it says "Your call could not be completed." Not particularly useful.

I'm not suggesting this extension isn't useful. In particular, when I'm sitting at my desk it's nice to have the dialer integrated properly, at last, with my Google Contacts (something that's sorely missing in the softphone apps). It's just not at all what I was expecting.

I'm with Robert 110% on this: I read the kb Mike shared several times and finally contacted support to learn that the extension is not a softphone. All we are asking is to say "this is not a softphone replacement" somewhere in the documentation (preferably near the top). I'm pleased with the direction, but I'm sure many more users saw the announcement and thought "Hooray! It's just like Google Voice!" only to be dissapointed. Please update your dox and let us know when we can actually dial out via the extension (we know you'll get there). Thanks! John

Thanks for your comments gentlemen!  I've changed this post to an "Idea" topic so it gets viewed by our Product Team.  This is good feedback. 

Mike 

Yes I agree. It can recieve calls but I can not make phone calls out my clicking the number in my email. It wants to send the call to my softphone which defeats the purpose of wanting to use it for me. I was trying to avoiding having to go back and forth between pages to find the ringout feature on ring central/ soft phone.. oh well. Will probably be disabling it / removing.

This thread was extremely helpful. Helped with the 30 minute hold times with support. I'm disappointed with the over-promising as well here in the promotional materials but I hope Ringcentral will probably get around to this. I too thought this was finally able to compete with google voice.

Well let me add that the app is not deployable at all. They designed it assuming you'd have one and only one Google account. There is NO awareness that people MIGHT just MIGHT have a work account and a personal account. So what happens is, you get logged out of your other google accounts when you use the RC Google App. Drives me crazy (since I use 2 Factor Auth - PAIN). SO I report the problem and got brushed off. Honestly I think it's crazy that an app written in 2014 doesn't use Google's account chooser functionality that's been around for years. Here's the ridiculous exchange with support:

I want this ticket referred to design as this has become a major problem. With the Ringcentral app installed in GMail, it consistently logging me out of my other Google account. This is simply not acceptable and ensures I will NEVER deploy this with my customers - because so many who use Google for Work will also have personal google accounts they login to. If they're constantly getting logged out - I'm going to receive a lot of support calls/requests.
I have two accounts.  mike@xxxxxxx.xxx (personal) and  mike@itxpress.biz (work) When the Ringecentral app is logged in and used, the next time I start my browser, the secondary account (in this case my work account) is logged out and I have to login again (which I use two factor auth so it's a pain).

This is 100% reproducible. This app has GOT to gain awareness of multiple Google accounts. Even if it only links to one. But it's causing problems outside of the app. I'm uninstalling it and again will NOT recommend it to any customers (sadly because I have a 20 phone install in the pipeline and they're eager to see the Google/RC integrations.) 


On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 5:04 PM, RingCentral Web Portal Support < webportalsupport@ringcentral.com> wrote:

Case Number: 03319126
Case Subject: Google for Work Integration - issue with multiple accounts
Case Created Date: 2/1/2015
Account Name: IT Xpress
Contact Name: Mike Baptiste
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Product Area: Configuration/Work Flow - User Settings
Description: I have two Google for work accounts. By default my personal account is 'primary' in Chrome. My business one secondary. When I launched the new Google for Work extension, it by default tries to login and authorize against the primary account. The Google API offers a screen that lets you choose the account to authorize against (it lists all accounts with Google you're currently logged in to). I would suggest this route be used instead.

Now when I click "Authorize' for contacts and it sends me to the primary account asking for authorization, if I select my secondary account from the Google account pulldown in the upper right corner, it DOES authorize against the correct account, but that's not intuitive and there still seems to be some confusion in the app as to which account is active.


Hello Mike Baptiste,

Your case #03319126 has been updated.

Latest Comment:
Hi Mike,

My name is Bianca with RingCentrals Customer Care Team, and I will be handling your case.

I understand that you want to have the ability of choosing the account to authorize on the RingCentral Google Integration. This behaviour or capability is not currently available on RingCentral.  It is possible that this feature will be included in a future release.  To help us prioritize the development of new features, you can submit a new feature request in our feature request community forum.  Your input, including the submission of new feature requests as well as votes for existing requests, helps to drive development decisions.

Please follow these steps to submit a new idea in the RingCentral Community.

1. Log in to  https://www.ringcentral.com/community
2. If youre new in the community, click the Get Started Today tab.
3. Fill out the required fields, or use your Facebook or Google account to sign up.
4. After completing your registration, you can access the feature request form.
5. Follow Steps of Submitting a New Idea in the RingCentral Community.

You can also view the ideas forum and vote on bright ideas from other customers. In addition, you can connect with fellow RingCentral users to find and share answers to questions you have about RingCentral phone system.

We truly appreciate receiving feedback from our users and take all suggestions into consideration. Our Product Enhancement Team is working toward making new feature requests available.

If you have other inquiries, feel free to use the Support Portal again.

Thank you for choosing RingCentral as your communications provider and have a great day.

Sincerely,

Bianca Santos
Global Customer Care
RingCentral, Inc.
https://success.ringcentral.com


If you wish to view or post a comment to the case, please log in to the support portal here:  https://success.ringcentral.com/RCContactSupp

You can also reply to this email with any updates.

I just had my third Implementation Meeting today for bringing our company on board with RingCentral.  We were told about the Google integration during our demo and were very excited since we use Google Apps for just about everything. We were also told that our users would be able to log into their softphone from home or the office, or wherever they may be.  

We maintain a paperless environment and most of our company works in the community or split time between working from home and in the office. In our office several of our computers are set up as shared machines for whomever happens to be in at the moment. In researching new options I wanted one that did NOT require me to purchase phones. We previously operated with a combination of CommuniKate (don't laugh) and Skype accounts. Moving forward I simply do not see the point in cluttering up workspace with a mini-computer with a separate microphone and speaker when we have a perfectly good one (called a PC) already sitting there. Desktop phones are (or should be!) a thing of the past. Like fax machines; antiquated, cumbersome, and completely obsolete.

So now that we're signed on I find out from other customers rather than the people who've been setting us up that not only can we NOT place or receive calls from RingCentral for Google, but the integration is completely useless to us without using desktop phones.  

On top of that I find out that in order for a user to go from one computer to another they have to go into their settings and 'deauthorize' the previous computer they were logged in on.  Rather than having the account itself only be able to log in from one softphone at a time they tie it to the machine it's on.  

The pros are still outweighing the cons so far, but I'm quickly losing faith when the material I was given just today tells me I can enter a number and click the Call button right from my Google. It doesn't say anything about  then having to pick up a desktop handset, or even having to  have a desktop phone.

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled Google App: Direct Calling From Plugin. I'd love to see the app and chrome plugin allow direct click to call instead of always being set to ring out mode. The popout softphone seems lacking compared to the desktop app.