What’s the replacement service for google voice?

I like having a proxy number that I give out and route to my “real” number. So I have an unchanging number and don’t risk revealing my actual contact info.

I also like getting texts through a web/app interface.

Is there a similar nice, simple, and cheap voip service that I can just drop in? (When google inevitably kills their another awesomely useful service that doesn’t make them money.)

https://jmp.chat/ has been great for me, uses bandwidth behind the scenes and wraps the experience in a nice XMPP UX.

Calls and texts work, only issues I've run into are the usual some services don't accept VOIP numbers, and group texts > 10 people I can receive but not send messages (bandwidth provider limitation AFAIK).

Bonus is that their stack is all open source and since it's XMPP you can use whatever clients or server you want, or stick to their Cheogram app + a hosted server included through https://snikket.org/hosting/

I like anveo.com, it's $2/month if you use the "free" plan and a $2/month US number. The UI is kind of dated, but the US phone number accepts incoming SMS, and they offer a drag/drop IVR type interface where you can route calls in most any way you want. Also includes in/out faxes, not that it comes up much, but when it does, it's nice to be able to do.

Note the other responses regarding some places requiring a "real" mobile number for SMS verification. Anveo's numbers won't work for this kind of thing. Similar to how Google Voice numbers don't work for it either.

A couple of years after Google Voice split out from Hangouts and, while there were plenty of VOIP options, they all sucked for use as a personal number (even Google Voice kind of did to be honest). The latencies for ringing, not being accepted at ever more places, the weird connection quality and delay issues, one way audio issues, and so on were just so rampant compared to a "traditional" (now also really just data, but more integrated into the transport system) number. Also so many places started to block the use of VOIP numbers it was becoming hard to use the number anyways. If they hadn't already there was no guarantee it'd still be a valid option 3 months later. Maybe there is some whizz bang new VOIP service that actually kicks ass in all of these marks and someone will recommend it but even if they did I'd have more expectation it's a false positive report than a real positive.

If privacy/secrecy via obfuscation is your #1 criteria and not a nice to have then I'd just go with an enterprise cloud VOIP solution like RingCentral because they'll have real support and it's their core (and very successful) business, not another something that'll disappear in 2 years anyways.

If privacy/secrecy via obfuscation was just a nice to have and you really liked it for having the web interface then RingCentral (and I'm sure others) have a PWA and you can still go that route or you can try a sync tool like Beeper. I went the latter route as it gave a significantly better call/texting delay and quality experience to give up the obfuscation but the other cost is your phone has to be connected to the internet for the messages to relay through Beeper.

google didn't split from hangouts. It got merged into hangouts (and both apps existed) because some PM bonus was tied to hangout active users or something. Same reason you automatically logged into a gmail-plugin-hangouts client when you opened gmail by default.

They just undid that shenanigans after the PM got his bonus. Maybe by then their bonus was tied to simplifying the tech stack :)

edit:

> If privacy/secrecy via obfuscation is your #1 criteria

lol, no. the only usecase for gvoice and the likes is to have a fixed phone number without a montly bill that you can use to make international phone calls for business. or to receive calls when abroad.

Nobody who cares about privacy etc (or any quality of network protocol for that matter) would care about gsm and sms. at all. it's mostly for cheap convenience.

(Bracing for the downvotes) As an end user, looks like the bonuses resulted in a pretty good UX.

I love having Mail, Meet, Voice, and Chat in a single web app. (The Gmail app now also has Meet and Chat all-in-one, but Voice has its own app)

I can definitely see how merging the services would boost MAU/DAU, but in this case it seems like increasing DAU means you’re making it easier for users to access + use the service, which is a win win.

Argue it split or merged til the cows come home, that PM bonus should have been 10x as much recurring if that's what caused it to be. Hangouts was years ahead of its time in functionality to the user - I could SMS/MMS, call, IM and video/voice chat all from the same interface on web or app on any of my devices without a dependency on any of them. If the offering were still available today I'd go back in a heartbeat - it was glorious.

> lol, no. the only usecase for gvoice and the likes is to have a fixed phone number without a montly bill that you can use to make international phone calls for business. or to receive calls when abroad.

Please ignore assuming meaning of a term so you can laugh at me in response. It was actually quite handy to pass out VOIP numbers for interviews, sign up forms, and the like because they could never tie back to reaching me once I stopped the forwarding. I realize that is different than worrying about government actors tracking you via standard telephony but you should realize there is more than that specific interpretation of the term, especially when GP named the same use case I just mentioned.

I've been a user since grand central and held on to my same number since. At a time when carriers were still competitive, it was great for switching to whatever company were offering the best incentives and not having to worry about telling everyone your new number. Porting numbers sort of resolved this, but I still don't have to worry about it since I only use my GV number.

GV provided online text messages and voice mail before everyone else. GV also allows you to add multiple lines to the same number. At one point I lost my phone and was still able to receive and make calls from the web and my SO's phone.

Its used for a lot more

I used to use Skype for this when I was traveling outside the US. I also imagine you can set up something simple with Twilio as well, IIRC they have a no-code configuration tool for this kind of thing (simple forwarding, text to email, etc.)

Main downside of Skype is that you afaik can't port a number into it. Otherwise it would be a great alternative to Google Voice.

If you want a real US phone number (as increasingly banks are blocking VOIP numbers like Google Voice), you can get the lowest tier plan from providers like Tello or Ultra Pay Go. For $3-5/month, you get a US phone number, and ~100 texts (international) and ~100 voice minutes (international if you use Wifi calling).

You can pay for more data or voice minutes, but it's expensive and not a great deal.

eSIM is available.

But if you need a cheap US number, it can't be beat. Works great for people working overseas who need a 2FA US phone number or need to make occasional calls to US numbers (hi IRS!).

I use Hushed app. It gives me a phone number that I can use for WhatsApp and to receive SMS confirmation codes from various archaic services that still validate you thorough the insecure SMS. https://hushed.com/

Could not find any country list or minute rate list anywhere on their site. Their FAQ is just a bunch of questions by users without answers.

edit: but they have a dedicated UI to sell you number from a specific neighborhoods all over the US. I'm guessing their main market is online catfishers. (not saying the service cannot be a gvoice replacement, but catfishing is clearly their market)

Several options: jmp.chat, voip.ms, mysudo, etc

OpenPhone is really nice. Definitely built for more business use case but it’s a very complete and well-built solution.

it's not even the same concept and doesn't even came close to the use case for google voice. But knowing google PMs, I think you are right!

NumberBarn

My voip provider does this

What provider?

Hey OP, I had the same issue (also in France), and I believe it’s just a settings change that you have to do for this.

Under Settings -> Make and receive calls -> Ensure it’s set to Prefer Wi-Fi and mobile data.

If it’s set to use carrier, then you cannot make calls. Hope this work because this would scare the crap out of me!

[SOLVED]

indeed this is the right answer. Thanks! Is this a new feature or they just changed a default on last version, because i've been making gvoice calls from that account on this phone without a sim card for months.

well, now i don't have a US phone number associated with my account anymore, hopefully i don't get kicked out for some other reason before i'm back home.

I think an update flipped the setting, or added it.

Glad this worked for you!

This has been the behavior for many years now.

What do you mean by "randomly"?

Like it asks you to re-validate it every week or month or something?

I haven't encountered this at all. Honestly it sounds like a bug (try deleting and reinstalling the app for starters), or it's flagging your specific number as high risk for some reason.

I share your frustration but there really needs to be more evidence that it's either a widespread problem or an intentional policy change. (Because it's also hard to see why it would be intentional, and also it would have been implemented on the site as well if so.)

I mean exactly that. If you have a phone number associated to your account and gvoice, they will ask you to re-validate it via SMS at random. If you don't have a US number (as I just tried to switch to one number I can access) they will just display that it must be a US number.

You might just have a US number and not yet be flagged to revalidation. Or maybe going overseas flags you for revalidation (great timing!)

...anyway. Good luck waiting for Google-I'm-altering-the-deal.-Pray-I-do-not-alter-it-any-further to be upfront about their changes.

I think this title is misleading for a post about your personal experience, without a news article or an announcement. I don't really even understand what you're saying.

Been on Google Voice as my primary number for about 7 years. Mostly smooth sailing. I spend a few months a year out of the US and it makes it seamless. I also switched between cell carriers as I find deals or need different service and have never bothered with the number porting.

Guess it’s time to think about a new place to get a US number that works internationally for 2-factor sms. Any suggestions?

Verizon offers a web interface to send/receive SMS. I’m guessing other providers may have the same. (This is also useful for getting a 2fa code while on airplane WiFi)

Edit: Sadly Verizon is discontinuing it at the end of the year: https://www.verizon.com/support/verizon-messages-faqs/

I ported my Google voice number to voip.ms a few years ago. It has worked well except for the very occasional system that refuses to attempt to send my number SMS on account of believing it to be a landline. I think that may have just been one time. A few months ago, I dropped my cell plan and switched to a data-only plan from Ubigi. It's dirt cheap even for a US+EU data plan, as long as you don't need a ton of data. In the us, it uses T-Mobile's network I think, which is fine in my area but not the best in some areas of the country.

i've been on gvoice since it was announced. And honestly, it is the only thing still holding me to my google account (and in the end I end up using everything else, from gmail to owning several pixels with stock OS).

But now it seem it will end as everything else from google is low cost to switch.

silent link. Cheap & easy Esim, so you can still use your existing sim - or as you travel, local sims.

doens't cover some big countries.

Personally I'm shocked this service still exists at all, I imagine abuse is a huge problem.

Must be something Googlers themselves use?

This is what I imagine. People try to kill it, but there’s thousands of googlers using it and it’s harder to make it internal only than just to keep it running.

So every time someone tries to kill the project some fancy pants google person kills the idea because it personally inconveniences them.

This logic doesn't make sense considering how many Googlers used Inbox and Plus and so forth. I imagine they don't kill it because their ads feature where you can click to call the advertiser uses the same infrastructure. It's the ultimate sales conversion tracker.

I think very few googlers cared about Plus.

Inbox had a pretty easy substitute as gmail was still around.

If Voice goes away there’s nothing else googlers can use, even at reduced functionality.

I guess since I never used it I don't understand what this irreplaceable feature is. Isn't it just VoIP?

It’s voip with a decent web ui and app and seems to work in lots of situations where other voip providers don’t (ie sms).

The irreplaceable feature is that if you use it, switching out all your phone parts of your life interface is a pain.

ding ding ding.

When you say validate, would giving another US persons phone number work? I use this while living abroad for my US banking. It’s only solution I’ve found.

Absolutely not if that "other person" also have a google account.

This will associate the phone number permanently to your google account as well. And remove from the other account (and you cannot switch phones between accounts in the same 3month period... don't want know how I know this)

This is why relying on google for anything is shooting yourself in the face. Thanks for the information.

If they will enter the OTP for you, yes.

That seems like an annoying change but if your phone doesn't go voice over Wi-Fi or your carrier doesn't offer that, it's time to change. It's nearly 2024. I travel a lot and use Google voice as my primary number but always have T-Mobile backup that can be used with WiFi only.

I've been using Google Voice while living outside the USA for 4+ years. I've never been able to make calls to the USA when using a foreign SIM. On my phone, I've only been using it for SMS, and I make the occasional call from the website.

I’m in the same situation. Calling and receiving calls worked for a year or so via the app, but at some point this year, it asked me to verify that my (former) US number was still valid (which I obviously couldn’t do). Probably what OP is referring to.

Guessing I’ll have to find another alternative soon.

Did you have the number configured as forwarding number? At some point I got asked to verify an old forwarding number, but I just deleted it and Google Voice continued to work fine (I mostly use it in VoIP mode instead of forwarding calls).

I guess they really want the world to use whatsapp

whatsapp is just... better...

Mobile networks have dropped the ball for years on functionality. (it's 2023 and most mobile networks still won't let me make a call or send texts from my laptop!).

And across most of the world, mobile networks still charge $10/minute or more for group video calls... Forget about the fact video calls are impossible between some networks and others too. The UK's largest network, EE, says on it's site "Video calling isn’t available direct from EE at the moment.".

Completely different use case though. WhatsApp doesn’t give you a virtual phone number. Also, GV is immune to SIM hijacking which makes SMS 2F more secure when it’s the only 2F option offered (often the case for US banks). Since GV is your normal account you can secure it with passkeys/U2F/OTP to improve the effective security you get for 2F sms. It’s not perfect but it’s something. Additionally, this authentication is available when traveling just from an internet connection whereas SMS charges you roaming rates / you might be using a different provider while traveling.

you are not wrong. But not right either. Google voice and a phone are clients to a network you must use.

You can complain all you want about the network, but "requiring some nonsense to use the client in a way that is not related to the network" is not excusable for the client software, no matter how bad the network is.

>having a phone number when traveling, when you cannot receive SMS on your US phone number (thanks verizon)

Is there a good reason why carriers in USA and Canada refuse to provide free incoming sms (& calls at expense of the caller) while abroad?

My experience might be limited to only a handful of sims from different countries, but prepaid Telus (Canada) failing to receive sms while visiting USA was a first and a big surprise to me. Made me transfer to PM which offers this.

I've never used Google Voice, but I do use Google Fi, and they offer unlimited calls and sms in what looks like every country on the planet. What's the advantage of Voice for the traveling caller?

With Google Voice I have a phone number not tied to a particular SIM card or to a particular phone. When I travel internationally I can use a cheap local SIM and I'm still reachable on my US number for calls and texts.

With Fi you run into issues if you use it for too long outside the US. And also I read that people had troubles re-activating a Fi eSIM from outside the US in cases where they (for example) lost their phone.

Fi has started to threaten that they will cancel your account if you are overseas for extended periods a month, maybe two or three. So far it seems to reset if you usage is low and you visit the US often enough, but if you want to take an extended trip, it may simply stop working at some point.

I don't live in the US, so far my Google Fi is fine except for international data. "Your international data roaming has been suspended".

The error message says you need to stay in the US, with "significant usage" for at least 30 days for access to international data to be restored.

I typically visit the USA a few times per year for a week at most (which is why I have the Fi plan in the first place), so this message has been on my account for over a year, and so far I have not seen any indication that Google is going to cancel my Fi plan.

I have cancelled my Fi service, so I looked back and you're right, it's the data (the important part) that gets suspended. Here's the message:

> As a reminder, Fi's Terms of Service require you to use our service primarily in the United States (territories not included), and it looks like you've been predominantly using Fi abroad. In 30 days, we'll need to suspend your international roaming data capabilities unless you start using Fi in the United States again (territories not included). Your calls and texts will not be impacted.

I have both Google Voice and Google Fi. With Fi, it's not meant to be used perpetually outside of the USA. If you stay outside of the USA long enough, they'll disable your data connection until you return to the USA, although I believe voice & SMS continue to work.

The biggest problem I've had with Fi is that I destroed my phone while traveling, and I couldn't find a phone internationally with which I could activate Fi while traveling abroad. I could only associate the new phone w/ Fi once I returned to the USA.

I use Google Voice as my phone for nearly everything, unless it doesn't work.

Does Google Fi work for 2FA? I’ve been using Google Voice for more than a decade, have lived in half a dozen countries during that time and never once lost my primary phone number.

Especially if you’re a digital nomad, relying on a phone number tied to a specific country and SIM card as a verification mechanism is a problem. Even if you’re not a DN, Google Voice is a much more secure 2FA than a phone that could get sim hijacked.

Yes, the 2FA is tied to your google account.

> Does Google Fi work for 2FA?

Yes, it does.

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