Google Voice is a great application: It’s another phone number, it transcribes voicemails and can text them to you, forward to other numbers and keeps your contacts. My Google Voice number is an easy way for me to keep my old cell phone number, since I tend to move a lot, and let’s me filter other calls easily without using my cell.
Google recently announced that you can port your current number to Google Voice for $20. It was released to a select group of users and as of today, January 25th, 2011, to everyone.
I won’t be one of the people porting to Google Voice. I like having my old cellphone number BE my number. My close friends and family have it and it’s my primary texting device. I have an iPhone, and yes, there’s a Google Voice app that I could use, but I like just using my Messaging button and not opening Google Voice on my phone.
Secondly, I don’t want to have to get a new number on my cell. I can change my Google Voice number in the future, for $10. If I move, I can just change my number. It’s cheaper than the $20 porting cost.
Yes, I could port my number and get the same features, but I like the flexibility. Everyone knows it is my cell. I give my GV number to everyone else. That gives me the ability to decide who I really want to talk to on my cell and forward calls to my Skype number or drop them to voicemail.
Google Voice is a great tool. I really recommend using it for anyone who uses Gmail and has multiple phones they want to use. It’s a great “central contact” number for managing your communications.
