GV for Personal Num on Work Phone

[Eluros]

Greetings,

I'm receiving a promotion (whoohoo!) and my work will provide an Android phone for me. I'm allowed to use the phone for personal calls/etc, but if I port my number over, they will own the number and I may not get it back if I leave.

I don't have a smartphone yet (I actually use an Android Galaxy Player for mobile utility, since most places have wifi, and have an out-of-contract dumbphone for calls), so don't have much knowledge about how things work. However, in a perfect world, here's how I'd like it to work:

1. I accept the free Android phone from work and allow them to give me the number. I use this number for all work-related functions.
2. I port my current (dumbphone) number to Google Voice and use it for all personal calls on the work Android. It'd use a negligible amount of data, and the calls themselves would all use normal cellphone minutes.

Should that be possible? Any potential issues I'm not aware of or am missing? Can you use two different numbers (one via the phone's software and one via Google Voice) for outgoing calls? As someone who's been holding out on smartphones due to the costs, I'm excited to learn more, but want to be sure to approach things correctly.

Thanks!

 

[abaez]

I'm not sure I understand your goal. Why do you want a separate GV number for personal calls? If it's so work doesn't see those calls then they will still see them. If you just want a separate number just because then it should be fine.

 

[Eluros]

I'm not sure I understand your goal. Why do you want a separate GV number for personal calls? If it's so work doesn't see those calls then they will still see them. If you just want a separate number just because then it should be fine.

I don't want to use a new number for personal calls (I don't want people to have to update their phones with my new number)-- I'd like to keep the number I have on my dumbphone as the number for personal calls. I'd like personal contacts who already have my number to not need to change my number in their phones.

Thanks!

 

[Dulanic]

I'd port it to GV so you don't risk losing your number. Then just forward all calls to your work #. If it is important to you.

 

[jpeyton]

I ported my personal number to GV last year. Really, anyone who cares about number portability should do it. I can switch phones/carriers to my hearts content and always have my personal number without having to deal with carriers porting it over.

In an emergency, if my phone breaks for example, it takes just a few clicks to forward my GV number to a different line.

 

[ponyo]

Yes, you're correct in your thinking and have the right idea. Port your dumbphone number to Google Voice and that can be your permanent number. Once you get your smartphone with a new number, link that to your Google Voice number and all calls to your old dumbphone number will now ring at your new smartphone.

One added plus no one really talks about is that since you get free texting with Google Voice, you can send and receive texts on any devices like smartphone, tablet, PC, etc. And all texts and voicemails are backed up on Google cloud servers so you'll never lose it. I can leave my phone in the other room and pick up any one of my tablets and use it. And if someone texts or calls me on my phone, I can see and reply to the texts while on my tablet. I can also see the visual voicemail and listen to it. All away from from phone. It's totally awesome.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

I ported my personal number to GV last year. Really, anyone who cares about number portability should do it. I can switch phones/carriers to my hearts content and always have my personal number without having to deal with carriers porting it over.

In an emergency, if my phone breaks for example, it takes just a few clicks to forward my GV number to a different line.

been thinking about this for some time now. Im on the fence, because for me gvoice lacks the polish it should have after being around for a LONG time.

Still no mms
sometimes the gvoice app needs a kick in the ass to work (send of receive texts)
the app badly needs an update.
If your connected to wifi, and that wifi blocks https connections, forget about getting texts.

but MMS is the killer. People would send me them, and then yell at me for not responding. At least i had the chance to tell those people why. Then theres the people who didnt say anything to me and still think that i just ignored them. Google is infamous for half-assing things, and google voice has become one of them.

Right now i have my google voice number as another line - some people still call it. I have voicemail activated on it too - which works ok.

 

[Eluros]

Thanks, everyone. Really appreciate the responses and excited to finally be moving out of the dumbphone sphere. :-D