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I think there's some confusion surrounding the SMS feature here. When someone sends a text to my GV number, it's forwarded to my phone from an arbitrarily assig

by NickM 17y ago

I think there's some confusion surrounding the SMS feature here. When someone sends a text to my GV number, it's forwarded to my phone from an arbitrarily assigned (406) area code number. This number is picked out of a pool of such numbers owned by Google, and it is permanently mapped to that person's number for my GV account only. The reason this is done is so that I can then send texts to this newly assigned 406 number, and it will appear to have originated from my GV number. The GV system checks which phone the text is coming from, and says "okay, the phone sending this text is assigned to GV number X, and for GV number X, this 406 number is assigned to other person's phone number Y, so forward the text to Y and show it as coming from X." It's complicated, but it ends up working out pretty well in my experience.

vaporstun 17y ago
There isn't any confusion. They are discussing a distinctly different issue. It happens regularly to me and goes like this: * My friend Scott has signed up for Google Voice. * He regularly sends SMS messages to me with his cell phone. (Not his Google Voice number) * I get a text message from his Google Voice number. Google did some formulating in the middle and instead of giving me a random 406 number as you describe, it gives his Google Voice number which does multiple things: * Potentially exposes to me a number Scott meant to keep as private * Screws up the conversation because I cannot reply to the text message for he doesn't have forwarding on his Google Voice number (because he doesn't use it)