How to Use Google Voice on Mobile and Desktop

This web phone service stays free for nearly all calls positioned inside the USA and Canada, with various worldwide charges. 

Whilst you do must have not less than one current cellphone line with a view to use Google Voice — and a Google account, after all — there are nonetheless many good causes to make use of the service. 

And that is very true in case you have multiple cellphone quantity, equivalent to a cell quantity, a piece quantity, and a house landline. Google Voice can streamline your calls and texts, serving to make sure you by no means miss an vital communication.

Google Voice has an interesting historical past — it was on the coronary heart of a serious spat between former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and the late Apple founder Steve Jobs.

Google sought to carry Google Voice to the iPhone as an app, however Apple rejected the transfer amid Google’s rising forays into the telecommunications market. The tensions culminated with Schmidt’s resignation from Apple’s board of administrators in 2009. Apple in the end relented, including Google Voice to the App Retailer in 2010.

However controversy round Google Voice continues at present: in 2024, a federal jury ordered Google to pay $12 million in damages for infringing on web voice-calling patents with Google Voice. It is considered one of a number of main federal lawsuits Google has confronted all through 2023 and 2024.

Why would somebody use a Google Voice quantity?

Google Voice lets you mix all of your cellphone providers and ahead calls to a number of units at a time. So, in case you have a landline at house, a enterprise cellphone, and your private smartphone, somewhat than bouncing individuals between three totally different numbers and units, you can provide out one easy Google Voice quantity. When somebody calls, you may be notified in any respect three numbers concurrently.

You can even use Google Voice on a pc to put and obtain calls. However earlier than you should use any of Google Voice’s options, you may must have a Google account first. As famous, you may additionally must have an current US-based cell or landline cellphone quantity, so in that sense, Google Voice isn’t a free cellphone service however somewhat an add-on to your extant providers.

For customers who merely have too many telephones and numbers to handle, Google Voice is a good useful resource for merging a number of communication channels. It is also good for normal vacationers who’re compelled to bounce between carriers as a result of you should use your Google Voice quantity internationally. Nonetheless, it doesn’t work in all international locations, and charges differ by location.

If you end up altering cellphone numbers and paying a fortune for worldwide calls, or for these customers who want to file incoming calls free of charge, it is also an ideal possibility.

What are the disadvantages of Google Voice?

Google Voice works nicely all through a lot of Europe and Latin America, but it surely’s not usable in lots of different components of the world, not with out upgrading to a Google Voice plan providing entry to a Google SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) that allows VoIP (Voice Over Web Protocol).

And if you’re establishing Google Voice for a small enterprise, it is not free even for home calls and calls positioned to Canada, although the month-to-month plans are hardly prohibitively costly.

Individuals won’t know that you’re utilizing Google Voice once you name or textual content them until they’re already conscious of your Google Voice quantity; it will likely be displayed as a quantity separate from any cellphone strains you connect to the account, as Google Voice points you a brand new quantity. This generally is a profit if you wish to protect some anonymity, but it surely’s a disadvantage if individuals display screen your requires not recognizing you.

Additionally, Google Voice can’t be used with a basic landline — not fully, anyway. Whereas it may be set as much as ahead calls to your landline, you possibly can’t name out from a landline cellphone by way of your Google Voice quantity.

All that famous, there are extra execs to cons to utilizing Google Voice for many individuals. So, this is a step-by-step information to getting you began utilizing Google Voice. 

arrange Google Voice on a pc

1. Go the Google Voice web site.

2. Signal into your Google account in case you aren’t already.

3. Enter your space code or metropolis within the Google Voice textual content field. 

4. Within the drop-down that seems, choose a cellphone quantity. 

5. You may then be prompted to confirm your current cellphone quantity. Click on Confirm on the web page that masses. 

6. Kind within the quantity you need Google to ahead your calls to, which ought to be your major mobile phone. 

7. Click on Ship code.

8. When you obtain the code by way of textual content or cellphone name, enter it into the field. 

9. Click on Confirm. 

10.  To verify that that is the quantity you need your calls forwarded to, click on Declare.

11. It’ll immediate you to click on “End” twice earlier than you are finished. 

hyperlink multiple quantity to your Google Voice account in your laptop

1. Whereas logged in, go to the Google Voice Settings menu. 

2. Click on New linked quantity on the backside. 

3. Enter the quantity you want to hyperlink and click on Ship code. 

4. End verifying your new quantity the identical method as your first. 

5. To see all of your linked numbers, return to Google Voice’s Settings menu and scroll to the underside of the web page. You could find all of your linked numbers beneath the cellphone icon. 

arrange Google Voice on a cell system

1. Obtain the Google Voice app in your iPhone or Android cellphone. 

2. As soon as the app is open, choose which Google account you need to connect a Voice quantity to and faucet Proceed.

3. On the subsequent web page, faucet Search within the lower-right nook to pick a Google Voice quantity. 

4. Enter your ZIP code, metropolis, or space code to load an inventory of regionally related numbers so that you can select from.

5. Faucet the blue Choose button subsequent to the quantity you need. 

6. Google Voice will verify the quantity you chose. Faucet Subsequent on the subsequent two screens to start the verification course of. 

7. Enter the cellphone quantity you need to hook up with your Google Voice quantity. 

8. On the subsequent display screen, enter the code texted to your cellphone earlier than deciding on Confirm.

9. Faucet Declare to substantiate you need to hyperlink the Google Voice quantity to your cellphone earlier than selecting End.

use Google Voice 

You may deal with Google Voice similar to your regular cellphone app however with much more flexibility. 

To make a name by Google Voice, merely go to Calls, hit the dialpad icon, and kind within the quantity. Within the Settings menu, you possibly can arrange and hearken to voicemail, block numbers, and customise different preferences. 

You can even ship and obtain textual content messages by Google Voice utilizing WiFi or mobile information, however there are sure restrictions. Texts are free in case you’re sending messages to anybody within the US or Canada, however once you’re outdoors the US and never utilizing WiFi, you would possibly get hit with additional roaming charges.

And in your laptop, merely go to the Google Voice web page when you are signed into your Google account and use the keypad on the backside proper nook of the display screen or use the quantity keys in your laptop to kind within the quantity you need to name, then hit the cellphone icon close to the highest proper nook of the display screen. Google Voice will place a name, and you should use your laptop’s speaker and microphone to pay attention and discuss.