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There's no mention of Google Voice. I've been hooked on it for 12 years, with my primary phone number being a Google Voice number for the last 10 years. I've s

There's no mention of Google Voice. I've been hooked on it for 12 years, with my primary phone number being a Google Voice number for the last 10 years. I've started using a lot of the suggested applications and services - Firefox, DuckDuckGo, Flickr - instead of Google's in recent years. I'm still using Gmail because changing my primary email seems like it would be a pain, but at least I can see that there are some strong competitors for email. Voice, on the other hand, seems like a pretty unique offering.

berdon 4y ago
Fwiw, I switched from gmail two years ago and it was relatively painless. It took a couple hours and there were a handful of websites that didn’t allow changing emails (as usernames) but otherwise it was fine. And worth it to no longer get spam.
- kibwen 4y ago
  What did you switch to?
  - berdon 4y ago
    Fastmail
- SkyMarshal 4y ago
  What did you change to and which options did you consider? Considering the same, curious what others' experience is.
  - SyzygistSix 4y ago
    Fastmail. It was easy and pretty quick.
- client4 4y ago
  I switched to Migadu and have been happy.
esnowrackley 4y ago
Voice was a mainstay for me for a long time. The closest replacement I could find was a service called OpenPhone[1]. It's designed as a VoIP service for small business teams, but I'm finding it works great as a solo voice/text option. I was able to port the Voice number over. [1] https://www.openphone.com/ https://www.openphone.com/
- warner25 4y ago
  Nice, thanks for the tip. I actually don't even use a lot of the features of Voice. I mostly just like having my phone number decoupled from any carrier or handset, so changing them is seamless, or they aren't even necessary. I do a lot of my phone calls and SMS/MMS messaging from the web application on my laptop.
- Andrex 4y ago
  As someone using their Voice number as their main number since 2010, thank you!
- thelittleone 4y ago
  +1 for openphone. No affiliation but I've been using it for about a year now and it just works. Never had an issue and it gets out of my way.
- woleium 4y ago
  I quite like viop.ms
donutshop 4y ago
I've been on jmp.chat and it has been flawless.
- snapplebobapple 4y ago
  Me too. The only thing it is missing is an auto attendant that can keep track of a whitelist based on my contacts and numbers that have navigated the auto attendant before to get through to me.
yangcheng 4y ago
me too! it's unfortunate that more services are starting ban google voice numbers.
snapplebobapple 4y ago
Jmp.chat
PascLeRasc 4y ago
Why do you need to stop using something you like? Certainly use Firefox instead of Chrome so you can keep using an adblocker, and lie about not using any Google stuff on HN so you aren't burned at the stake. But there's no bonus points in real life for making yours more difficult.
- warner25 4y ago
  Personally, I became slightly uncomfortable with having 100% of my online identity and data under one account with one company that can use my data however it wants, and offers little or no customer support (because I'm not really the customer). Like I said, I'm still using Gmail and Voice. Also Drive, Contacts, Calendar, Maps, an Android phone... but just listing it all makes me a little squeamish again.
FFLinux 4y ago
Some of the people from the Google voice team started Dialpad. https://www.dialpad.com/ https://www.dialpad.com/

berdon 4y ago

Fwiw, I switched from gmail two years ago and it was relatively painless. It took a couple hours and there were a handful of websites that didn’t allow changing emails (as usernames) but otherwise it was fine. And worth it to no longer get spam.

kibwen 4y ago
What did you switch to?
- berdon 4y ago
  Fastmail
SkyMarshal 4y ago
What did you change to and which options did you consider? Considering the same, curious what others' experience is.
- SyzygistSix 4y ago
  Fastmail. It was easy and pretty quick.
client4 4y ago
I switched to Migadu and have been happy.

esnowrackley 4y ago

Voice was a mainstay for me for a long time. The closest replacement I could find was a service called OpenPhone[1]. It's designed as a VoIP service for small business teams, but I'm finding it works great as a solo voice/text option. I was able to port the Voice number over. [1] https://www.openphone.com/ https://www.openphone.com/

warner25 4y ago
Nice, thanks for the tip. I actually don't even use a lot of the features of Voice. I mostly just like having my phone number decoupled from any carrier or handset, so changing them is seamless, or they aren't even necessary. I do a lot of my phone calls and SMS/MMS messaging from the web application on my laptop.
Andrex 4y ago
As someone using their Voice number as their main number since 2010, thank you!
thelittleone 4y ago
+1 for openphone. No affiliation but I've been using it for about a year now and it just works. Never had an issue and it gets out of my way.
woleium 4y ago
I quite like viop.ms

donutshop 4y ago

I've been on jmp.chat and it has been flawless.

snapplebobapple 4y ago
Me too. The only thing it is missing is an auto attendant that can keep track of a whitelist based on my contacts and numbers that have navigated the auto attendant before to get through to me.

yangcheng 4y ago

me too! it's unfortunate that more services are starting ban google voice numbers.

snapplebobapple 4y ago

Jmp.chat

PascLeRasc 4y ago

Why do you need to stop using something you like? Certainly use Firefox instead of Chrome so you can keep using an adblocker, and lie about not using any Google stuff on HN so you aren't burned at the stake. But there's no bonus points in real life for making yours more difficult.

warner25 4y ago
Personally, I became slightly uncomfortable with having 100% of my online identity and data under one account with one company that can use my data however it wants, and offers little or no customer support (because I'm not really the customer). Like I said, I'm still using Gmail and Voice. Also Drive, Contacts, Calendar, Maps, an Android phone... but just listing it all makes me a little squeamish again.

FFLinux 4y ago

Some of the people from the Google voice team started Dialpad. https://www.dialpad.com/ https://www.dialpad.com/