Google Voice Number Porting: Pros and Cons

If you've e'er wanted to grappling your phone number away from the carriers, now's your take a chance.

Google has just proclaimed the availability of number porting into its Google Representative sound service. In a nutshell, that means you can take your existing mobile phone number and reassign it directly to Google — then use Google Voice to get by all of your incoming calls. It's a big change; up until now, your only alternative for using Google Voice was to fetch a brand new number assigned by the service.

(If the same whimsey of Google Vocalism itself is new to you, by the way, flick over to "Google Articulation: Your Guide to Getting Started." It'll impart you a quick primer on what Google Voice is all about and how it works.)

Then — what's involved in porting a number into Google Voice, and is it worth doing? Here are some pros and cons to avail you resolve.

Google Phonation Number-Porting Pro: You Control Your Number

Once you've ported your phone number into Google Voice, you make full control over where your count goes — and you can buoy deepen IT anytime you want. You could ingest the number ring your work headphone during the day and your cell call up at night; you could even suffer it ring three different phones at once thus you can catch up whichever is most convenient. And if you move or change mobile providers in the future, all you have to serve is log in to your Google Voice account and update the forwarding info in that location; you won't have to mess with the carriers at all, and no one else testament even know anything happened.

Google Voice Identification number-Porting Con: The Process Can Be Messy

Porting an existing enumerate into Google Articulation seems sagittate, but the action can apace turn complex. The reason: Once you port your existing mobile number into Google Voice, your current unsettled service of process plan will live cancelled. You'll sustain to call your flattop and get it to restart your service and put a new number to your phone (yet though you won't be giving that number out, it still has to exist — otherwise, your phone South Korean won't work and Google Representative won't have anywhere to actually forward your calls).

Google has some tips on making the process as polish as possible, but you should be ready for a hassle. As Wired's David Kravets discovered, mobile carriers aren't always equipped (translation: efficient) at handling this type of quest, and — unless you're planning to strike down your current avail plan and tack carriers right now anyway — you may Be in for a bumpy ride.

Google Interpreter Number-Porting Pro: Free Calls and Texting

Erst your primary phone number is related to to Google Voice, you can use the service to put together untrammelled calls that'll issue forth from your phone number — without having to actually use your cell phone. Aside utilizing the Google Voice website or Google Voice Chrome web browser file name extension, you can have the Robert William Service place a call to whatsoever U.S. number and route it to a landline or VOIP cable for you to foot up (you can even itinerary IT directly into Gmail and make/receive calls there). The somebody on the other telephone circuit will unmoving see the shout out as coming from your number, and you North Korean won't rich person to use your cell phone's minutes to speak for.

Putting your primary number on Google Voice can also let you say so long to texting plans: If you have an Android phone, iPhone, or BlackBerry, you can send and receive untrammeled texts directly through the Google Voice airborne diligence. You can also use the Google Phonation website and Chrome web browser file name extension to accomplish the same thing, which comes in quite handy when you'atomic number 75 sitting at a information processing system during the twenty-four hours.

Google Sound Number-Porting Con: The Serve Won't Cost Unfixed

While Google Voice itself is free, the porting process isn't. Google charges a one-clip $20 fee to port in a number — which in and of itself isn't that bad — only the proper monetary value can come at the hands of your current mobile carrier. Remember how we said that porting your number into Google Voice would offset your current mobile religious service? If you're in the middle of a contract with your flattop, that means you'll probably be polar an past termination fee — and those things ain't cheap.

Long account short, plan cautiously and act only when you're in between contracts, or okay with paying the Leontyne Price.

Google Voice Number-Porting Pro: You'll Gain Lots of New Features

Google Voice offers much of compelling features, including a powerful voicemail system — complete with text transcription, intelligent phone-handling, and a Gmail-like searchable file away of yellow messages — as well A the ability to forward calls to multiple phones, throw phones midcall, and perform a slew of other tasks.

You can assume vantage of these things with or without porting in your existing number, of line — but if your Google Voice digits aren't the ones people really dial to hand you, it's non going to do you much good.

Google Articulation Identification number-Porting Con: You'll Be Dependent on Google

I've been using Google Voice for almost two years directly, and mostly, it's quite dependable. Along rare occasions, though, the service has gone down for short bursts of time. If your primary phone number is connected to Google Voice and an outage occurs, anyone hard to call you won't embody able to come through.

Thus far, this hasn't happened much — but it's ever a possibility, and it's a risk you take when committing your primary number to this kind of service.

There's also other funny issue that I experience from time to time: For few reasonableness, certain switchboard-founded office phone systems are never able to call my Google Voice telephone number. Dialing my Google Voice number from these offices gives the caller an error transcription, and my phone never rings. IT's a pretty special problem — I've encountered only two places from which it happens — but IT's definitely annoying, and potentially questionable.

Google Vox Number-Porting Learn: You May Go Number Confusion

Exploitation Google Voice as your primary number is easy if you have an Android ring: With Google's give up Android app, you just select the choice to have all of your outgoing calls seed from your Google Voice number. From there, you're home-free; any call you make will mechanically come out as coming from your newly ported number.

On other smartphone platforms, it International Relations and Security Network't so easy, as Google Voice functionality isn't thus tightly integrated into the operative system. You can still place calls through Google Voice, but alternatively of exploitation your phone's normal dialer function, you'll have to open in the lead the Google Voice app and superior the alternative to site a call from there. Otherwise, the great unwashe you call will see your "real" mobile number, not your Google Vocalization number — and that's bound to campaign confusion.

Google Voice Number-Porting In favor of: You Arse Always Undo IT

Ultimately, the lay on the line of porting your numeral into Google Vocalisation isn't too high, if only for one reason: You give notice always modification your mind. I confirmed with a Google voice this evening that users can choose to port wine their numbers out of Google Voice at any time, if they so opt. So if you ever so decide you'd like to take your number back and put it in the hands of a carrier Oregon a VOIP service, you have that right; complete you have to ut is initiate a larboard from your new provider.

JR Raphael is a PCWorld contributing editor and the author of the Android Power blog. You can find him along both Facebook and Twitter.