I ported my mobile number to Google Voice back in January and have never looked back. The final straw keeping me from making the move was my grandfathered unlimited data plan from AT&T. When they just randomly changed my plan to a capped 2 GB plan I was free to make the move. That 2GB cap is about to prompt another experiment as well, but that will be discussed in a later post.
I had a Google Voice number on my Gmail account that I used as a secondary number. My experience had been positive so I was ready to go all-in. I added Google Voice to my Google Apps account and paid $20 to have my AT&T number ported. I hadn’t had a mobile contract in years so that was not a problem. Within 24 hours my number had been moved to Google Voice and my AT&T account was closed. The only painful part of porting was the fact that I could receive texts from other Google Voice accounts immediately, but it took about 40 hours for incoming texts from mobile phones to start working. After that all was golden. I got a new line from AT&T with the 2GB data plan, the lowest possible voice plan and a phone number that no one ever needs to know. I no longer needed a text plan :) With Google Voice all “texting” is done through data. So if I send 1 text or 1000 it doesn’t matter. On my end its the equivalent of sending an email, but it shows up as a text message from my number on the receiving end.
With Google Voice I have this sense of freedom. I can take my number anywhere with me. Naturally since its Google it integrates well with Android. I use it both on my phone (currently a Galaxy S II) and my tablet (currently the Galaxy Tab 10.1). But one of the big advantages is when I’m near a PC I can text and call from within the browser. With the ability to reply with a real keyboard my texting has gone through the roof. And I can text from anywhere I have an internet connection, including planes with WiFi and other countries (more on that later). I don’t talk on the phone much anymore, but I can also make a receive calls from within Gmail on a PC for free. On phones Google Voice forwards to/from the mobile number you have with a carrier so it still uses minutes. There are apps and hacks to allow VOIP calls with Google Voice on phones, but they are not completely reliable just yet. Although when it works it has come in handy during my travels. And its free to call and text Canada and quite a few other countries. They offer cheap rates for calling many others.
Speaking of travels, another advantage of Google Voice is the ability to use your number in other countries. Whenever I leave the country I get a cheap prepaid data plan from a local carrier. I use unlocked GSM phones so I can just switch the SIM card and I’m back online. I can still send an receive texts like I’m at home. And the calling methods I previously mentioned still work.
There are a few limitations to Google Voice though. You can no longer receive MMS (picture messages) and most short codes don’t work. MMS is not a huge deal since email works better for pictures but short codes may be a problem for some people who use the text features of Twitter/Facebook or want to vote on some reality show.
Google Voice has many other features I haven’t even mentioned so I will list a few here:
* Scheduling call forwarding to multiple phones (home, office, work, etc )
* Spam filtering for calls and texts
* Call/text blocking (blocked callers hear the old invalid number message)
* Custom voicemail greetings for individual callers or groups
* Conferencing features
* Call recording
* Complete call/text history
http://wyldtek.samsession.com/2011/09/my-google-voice-experience.html
