Google Voice is the hardest service for me to replace. I don't see any alternatives on this list. I appreciate that they let me seamlessly send and receive calls and texts from my Android phone or my desktop. I have a hard requirement that my phone should be optional for all parts of my communication workflow.
You got me curious (I don't use Google Voice, but my dad has for a very long time) and I started to search around. It looks like all the alternatives are either expensive or shitty. :/
Edit: The universally accepted "best" seems to be Grasshopper[1] which is $29/mo or $26/mo billed annually ($312/yr).
Google Voice also works if you have internet access, but not mobile network connectivity, and it works while overseas to provide a fully-functional US phone number (you do have to use a standard paid US mobile number to set it up, but do not need to retain it afterward).
> you do have to use a standard paid US mobile number to set it up, but do not need to retain it afterward
If someone else registers Google voice with that number, you're going to have a hard time. It'll be removed from your account, and you can't use Google voice without a US phone number.
Don't know if it is still the case, but for $25 one time fee (much less than one month of average phone bill) you could port your number into Google Voice, and keep it forever, at least until Google shutters Google Voice (which they likely won't, because it's such an incredible spying device).
Same. I could probably de-Google pretty quickly—my primary email is on my own domain now—were it not for Google Voice, which I rely on daily. And since I have to rely on it, might as well use the rest of Google's services, since they're so damn convenient.
