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I have always been worried about Google Voice completely shutting down. I use it a lot. Is there an alternative to it? At this point, I am willing to pay a coup

I have always been worried about Google Voice completely shutting down. I use it a lot. Is there an alternative to it? At this point, I am willing to pay a couple of dollars a month for the service. Things that I like: 1. Secondary phone number 2. SMS to email 3. Transcripts to email 4. Relatively cheap international calls Although they haven't shut down the above four features, I am concerned about the future of this product.

paulkon 7y ago
https://www.bandwidth.com/ https://www.bandwidth.com/ Google voice, Skype, Zoom and others use their network.
- 7h3kk1d 7y ago
  Do they have consumer app versions?
- rsync 7y ago
  I'm curious - if I get a number from bandwidth, is it an actual mobile number that can receive SMS from shortcodes ? That is one downside of twilio - they cannot provide a true mobile number and so therefore you cannot get 2FA and other texts that come from shortcode numbers ...
  - notyourday 7y ago
    Nope. Tried it. It failed SMS verification.
stevenicr 7y ago
I have been using grooveip ( https://snrblabs.com/Grooveip/FAQ https://snrblabs.com/Grooveip/FAQ ) for 2 out of 4 of those things and been mostly happy with it. I have not been using all the functions that snrb makes available. Just peeked at the commercial api thing and such. Think I had an android app at one time that would auto forward sms to email, but that's been a while / a few phones ago.
scrollaway 7y ago
Google Voice is an officially-supported GSuite feature now, so it's unlikely to shut down (although so is Google+, and that … had to change, sorta). But it's weird how they have this overlap between Google Fi and Google Voice. And it's impossible to forward a Fi/Voice number to/from another Voice/Fi number.
kogir 7y ago
You can pay for it now, and I do: https://cloud.google.com/voice/ https://cloud.google.com/voice/ It's great if you need multiple numbers.
- dhd415 7y ago
  Wow, I didn't know it was available for GSuite! Anyone know if you can migrate previously-free GV numbers over to it?
- dougmwne 7y ago
  And Gsuite Google Voice now supports international dial-in numbers for several countries.
- vowelless 7y ago
  Oh nice, this is great! Thanks
- aaomidi 7y ago
  So expensive for what used to be free. I wish they included at least one account with my existing gsuite subscription.
tyingq 7y ago
Anveo.com can do all this, and it's cheap. But lots more fiddling, configuration, etc, to do so. Not for non-techies.
dougmwne 7y ago
Google Voice spent many years being neglected, but it is now getting heavy investment as part of Gsuite. This change to kill extension and SMS transcripts is actually part of moving to the next generation platform which has improved call quality and reliability. The features are quite niche and were likely deemed not worth keeping in the new version of the product. There is no serious competitor to Google Voice, so please add it to your Gsuite contracts so that Google keeps it around.
- Marsymars 7y ago
  > There is no serious competitor to Google Voice Other than all the other voip options that are actually available outside of the USA.
  - dougmwne 7y ago
    The paid version of Google voice in Gsuite is now available in several countries.
    - Marsymars 7y ago
      No Canada though. Regardless of it being available in a handful of countries, "no serious competitor" is silly, non-Americans have had various options for comparable products for years.
anonygler 7y ago
Voice is a core offering for Enterprise... and all of Google relies on it. It’s not going anywhere.
- throwaway542134 7y ago
  So was hangouts.
  - anonygler 7y ago
    Hangouts is still around, and still available for consumer. It’s being replaced with Chat, which will have feature parity and consumer support. Most people won’t even notice, as it will continue to appear in Gmail with an identical UI. Google’s communication skills are deeply lacking, and leaks made it worse. But no, Chat is still around for consumers.
29083011397778 7y ago
I've been using voip.ms for the past year or so, and it's been great for numbers one and two. Can't speak for number 4 though, as I don't have to travel outside the country too often.
- jaden 7y ago
  I've been using voip.ms too. It's $0.85/month for the number plus usage costs ($0.009/minute for calls, free SMS but eventually will be $0.01/text).
neom 7y ago
I use AWS chime and it's pretty good
sedachv 7y ago
https://jmp.chat/ https://jmp.chat/ is what I am considering for a replacement. The service is AGPL and is run by someone that cares about Free Software: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/meet-the-libreplanet-2017-speakers-denver-gingerich https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/meet-the-libreplanet-201...
qes 7y ago
Google shutting down Voice has long worried me as well. The main reason I use it is simply to text from a normal keyboard so I can chat with my spouses throughout the day without interrupting my work flow much.
- JustResign 7y ago
  Spouses?
6cd6beb 7y ago
Why would a marketing and analytics company shut down a service that gives them full text transcripts of all of your phone calls? They may as well stop parsing your email for information about the purchases you make.

paulkon 7y ago

https://www.bandwidth.com/ https://www.bandwidth.com/ Google voice, Skype, Zoom and others use their network.

7h3kk1d 7y ago
Do they have consumer app versions?
rsync 7y ago
I'm curious - if I get a number from bandwidth, is it an actual mobile number that can receive SMS from shortcodes ? That is one downside of twilio - they cannot provide a true mobile number and so therefore you cannot get 2FA and other texts that come from shortcode numbers ...
- notyourday 7y ago
  Nope. Tried it. It failed SMS verification.

stevenicr 7y ago

I have been using grooveip ( https://snrblabs.com/Grooveip/FAQ https://snrblabs.com/Grooveip/FAQ ) for 2 out of 4 of those things and been mostly happy with it. I have not been using all the functions that snrb makes available. Just peeked at the commercial api thing and such. Think I had an android app at one time that would auto forward sms to email, but that's been a while / a few phones ago.

scrollaway 7y ago

Google Voice is an officially-supported GSuite feature now, so it's unlikely to shut down (although so is Google+, and that … had to change, sorta). But it's weird how they have this overlap between Google Fi and Google Voice. And it's impossible to forward a Fi/Voice number to/from another Voice/Fi number.

kogir 7y ago

You can pay for it now, and I do: https://cloud.google.com/voice/ https://cloud.google.com/voice/ It's great if you need multiple numbers.

dhd415 7y ago
Wow, I didn't know it was available for GSuite! Anyone know if you can migrate previously-free GV numbers over to it?
dougmwne 7y ago
And Gsuite Google Voice now supports international dial-in numbers for several countries.
vowelless 7y ago
Oh nice, this is great! Thanks
aaomidi 7y ago
So expensive for what used to be free. I wish they included at least one account with my existing gsuite subscription.

tyingq 7y ago

Anveo.com can do all this, and it's cheap. But lots more fiddling, configuration, etc, to do so. Not for non-techies.

dougmwne 7y ago

Google Voice spent many years being neglected, but it is now getting heavy investment as part of Gsuite. This change to kill extension and SMS transcripts is actually part of moving to the next generation platform which has improved call quality and reliability. The features are quite niche and were likely deemed not worth keeping in the new version of the product. There is no serious competitor to Google Voice, so please add it to your Gsuite contracts so that Google keeps it around.

Marsymars 7y ago
> There is no serious competitor to Google Voice Other than all the other voip options that are actually available outside of the USA.
- dougmwne 7y ago
  The paid version of Google voice in Gsuite is now available in several countries.
  - Marsymars 7y ago
    No Canada though. Regardless of it being available in a handful of countries, "no serious competitor" is silly, non-Americans have had various options for comparable products for years.

anonygler 7y ago

Voice is a core offering for Enterprise... and all of Google relies on it. It’s not going anywhere.

throwaway542134 7y ago
So was hangouts.
- anonygler 7y ago
  Hangouts is still around, and still available for consumer. It’s being replaced with Chat, which will have feature parity and consumer support. Most people won’t even notice, as it will continue to appear in Gmail with an identical UI. Google’s communication skills are deeply lacking, and leaks made it worse. But no, Chat is still around for consumers.

29083011397778 7y ago

I've been using voip.ms for the past year or so, and it's been great for numbers one and two. Can't speak for number 4 though, as I don't have to travel outside the country too often.

jaden 7y ago
I've been using voip.ms too. It's $0.85/month for the number plus usage costs ($0.009/minute for calls, free SMS but eventually will be $0.01/text).

neom 7y ago

I use AWS chime and it's pretty good

sedachv 7y ago

https://jmp.chat/ https://jmp.chat/ is what I am considering for a replacement. The service is AGPL and is run by someone that cares about Free Software: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/meet-the-libreplanet-2017-speakers-denver-gingerich https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/meet-the-libreplanet-201...

qes 7y ago

Google shutting down Voice has long worried me as well. The main reason I use it is simply to text from a normal keyboard so I can chat with my spouses throughout the day without interrupting my work flow much.

JustResign 7y ago
Spouses?

6cd6beb 7y ago

Why would a marketing and analytics company shut down a service that gives them full text transcripts of all of your phone calls? They may as well stop parsing your email for information about the purchases you make.