I've used Google Voice from before it was even Google Voice, it was called Grand Central or something and they gave me free business cards with my number on it.

I've used Google Voice from before it was even Google Voice, it was called Grand Central or something and they gave me free business cards with my number on it. GV has always been a red headed step child product. It doesn't work natively with any android smart watch, its integrations into other products is sketchy and flaky (like there used to be a google voice widget for gmail). Features have been slowly deteriorating for years. The only reason I still use it as my main number is that it's easy to text in my browser. I don't know if that's easy to do with carrier websites but I've certainly never seen them advertise it. It's 2021 and I still can't get video texts on GV. Well, I can, but they're literally less than 240p resolution. To the point it's difficult to even tell what's happening. And before potato quality, it was flat out not an option for like a decade when every single phone supported it. Group texting also seems to not really work, and the "reactions" people on iphones use aren't supported.