Hi – I’m looking for some opinions on Google Voice. I signed up for a number when it first came out because it sounded so cool, but I got lazy and never actually set up my phones in it and haven’t ever actually used it. But now I have a shiny new Android phone and I know that the Google Voice integration on Android is a big selling point.
But for some reason, I’m nervous to make the switch. I read through the Google help files but I kind of what to hear from real live people who are using it. So, my questions:
I’m on a family plan with US Cellular, so I have unlimited minutes between my phone and my wife’s phone. If I have her use my Google number instead of my actual phone number, I’m assuming those minutes will now be counted. Is this correct?
One reason I am interested is that I am starting to send more texts now (something I never really did before because I hated sending a text from a standard cell phone), and I understand I can do this for free with Google. Is that correct?
Is the whole Google voice thing as easy as just telling everyone “Hey, this is now my new phone number” or is there anything I’m missing? I.e, is the whole Google thing reliable, no missed calls, etc. Or is there anything quirky that would be a downside compared to just using my current cell number?
Any advice, tips, or testimonials would be greatly appreciated.
Been using Google Voice on my android phone for about a year now.
Not sure - I don’t have a plan that uses anything like this.
Yep.
Yep. I’ve never had any problems with it.
What you could always do to retain the free minutes (if in case they don’t work with google voice), and still get the free texts, is just only call your wife, and vice versa, with the non google voice number. It’s easy to just choose at call time whether to call from the real cell number, or the voice number. Then just have her only send texts to the voice number.
In general, calls from one US Cellular number to another US Cellular number are free (I say in general because I don’t know the details of your plan). If she were to call your Google voice number then she would be charged for those minutes. Incoming calls on US Cellular are free so no minutes would be charged on your end.
Hmm. So I could just have my wife and I continue to use our regular number with each other, and I could give everyone else my Google number. That would work pretty well I suppose, though I wouldn’t be able to use the cool Google features on her calls. But I think I could live with that.
The pain in the butt part is going to be having everyone use my new number – especially my parents. I changed my email from a charter.com address to gmail years ago, and my parents STILL send emails to my old address.
I can picture phone conversations two years from now. “Hi, Mom. I’m fine. How are you? Why are you still calling me on this number? I gave you a new one back in '11…”
