Port number to Google voice or straight talk?

[Nvidiaguy07]

I have always dreamed of being able to completely switch my main number to google voice, but its shortcomings have never been fixed (mms, group messaging, problems with network/wifi).

After trying out straight talk for a few weeks im ready to finally ditch ATT and cancel my plan. My only question is if i should port it to straight talk, or if i should just suck it up and use google voice.

My only real reason not to port to straight talk is ive read online that if you somehow forget to renew for a month, then you could possible lose your number. I also currently have a google voice number, and if i port my main number to that, it would make it more difficult to use my old google voice number (almost impossible).

I'd rather just port to straight talk, but the chance of losing my main number would be worse than having to give up my current google voice number - if there is actually the chance of losing your number with straight talk.

The only only thing i have to consider is what to do with my mom and sister as well. My sister has had an android for a while now, and will have no problem either way (learning any new things she has to do with google voice vs how it was). My mother will be getting my old sgs2 and she is coming from a blackberry - so im worried that having google voice might be just one more thing to confuse her. Not sure if either of these are a big deal, but at least im farmiliar with google voice, and can deal with problems when they come up, i dont want to have either one of them running into extra problems and then not knowing what to do.

thanks for any advice.

 

[jpeyton]

GV is not a carrier, and offers true number portability at no cost (besides the porting fee). You get free call forwarding of your number to any line you choose, you get free SMS, plus you get to keep your second number (the one provided by your carrier) to use as you wish. Having two phone numbers is better than having one. I use my GV number for family/friends and my Straight Talk number for work.

 

[ImDonly1]

Set up auto refill, problem solved.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

GV is not a carrier, and offers true number portability at no cost (besides the porting fee). You get free call forwarding of your number to any line you choose, you get free SMS, plus you get to keep your second number (the one provided by your carrier) to use as you wish. Having two phone numbers is better than having one. I use my GV number for family/friends and my Straight Talk number for work.

I have Google voice already, so i know what it is.

Right now for me the extra features GV provides doesnt outweigh the negatives ive had with it, so id rather keep my main number attached to my main line (mms being the biggest problem)

Also i mentioned i already have a 2nd number with google voice that some people use, so i would basically have to give that up in favor of porting my main number over to google voice.

Im pretty set on porting to straight talk, unless its confirmed that i really should be concerned about losing my number somehow. (Yes i will be using auto pay once im all set up and ported over)

Set up auto refill, problem solved.

Well the issue was brought to my attention when i was reading a few bad reviews about straight talks customer service. Im just worried that theres a chance i could lose my number with straight talk, opposed to no chance of losing it with ATT or google.

 

[lothar]

Set up auto refill, problem solved.

No.
Buy refill on your own terms and add to reserve. That's what I do.
Straight Talk sends plenty of reminders to renew service. One cannot possibly miss it.

The only time I setup auto refill was the first month I had it and bought the next month's plan.
Since then I've been having my brother buy me the cards at WalMart.com and forward the pin# codes to me.
They are cheaper at Walmart.com than on Straight Talk's website. No stupid taxes or fees.

Once you make a purchase, Wal-Mart emails you the pin# within about 2-3 hours or less, and you can log on to Straight Talk's website and add to reserve.
By "adding to reserve", when your time expires it will automatically be renewed.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

No.
Buy refill on your own terms and add to reserve. That's what I do.
Straight Talk sends plenty of reminders to renew service. One cannot possibly miss it.

The only time I setup auto refill was the first month I had it and bought the next month's plan.
Since then I've been having my brother buy me the cards at WalMart.com and forward the pin# codes to me.
They are cheaper at Walmart.com than on Straight Talk's website. No stupid taxes or fees.

Once you make a purchase, Wal-Mart emails you the pin# within about 2-3 hours or less, and you can log on to Straight Talk's website and add to reserve.
By "adding to reserve", when your time expires it will automatically be renewed.

how much cheaper? If its only a few bucks then i could care less.

My number one concern is losing my number, and then having to deal with basically non-existent customer service. If google voice just had a solution to the mms problem, id feel better about porting to google voice. Hell id take just an automated message that gets sent back saying "this number cannot accept mms messages", at least then the person wont think that i was somehow ignoring them.

If i had ported in the past, i would have missed out on some very important messages, and would have resulted in a very awkward encounter the next time i saw that person. - Yes its not hard to tell people you often talk to to not send you mms, but some people send mass texts that never go through, and you cant tell a girl when you meet her "hey dont send me pics on this number because i wont get them".

Goddammit google, FIX THIS!!!!

 

[Uppsala9496]

I have my number ported to GV. I am using ST.
I've never had an issue with text messaging. Ok, you can't send pictures via text. Send them via gmail instead. And how often do you really need to send a pic via text?

Use google voice for your texting instead of the native text app and you are fine.
I've been on ST for 2 months now and haven't had an issue with texts.


If you are concerned about losing your number, then you need to port to google. Yours forever then. Can't you just get another gmail account, port the number to the new one, and then on your phone have both gmails sync'd? You get your original google number you use along with your new ported number. Set up the ported as a forwarded number.

 

[Nvidiaguy07]

I have my number ported to GV. I am using ST.
I've never had an issue with text messaging. Ok, you can't send pictures via text. Send them via gmail instead. And how often do you really need to send a pic via text?

Use google voice for your texting instead of the native text app and you are fine.
I've been on ST for 2 months now and haven't had an issue with texts.

If you are concerned about losing your number, then you need to port to google. Yours forever then.

The problem isnt me sending pictures - i could care less about that. Most of the time if its a good pic that i want to send, ill upload it to dropbox, and then send them the link via text so they dont get a blurry mms picture.

The problem is receiving mms messages from other people. Someone might send me a picture out of the blue, and if i had been using google voice, i would have no knowledge of them sending this message. They also would just think that i ignored them (particularly a problem with girls), so all im asking google to do (at the very least) is just have some automated message back saying that i cannot receive mms messages. This is probably what i hate about google the most - the fact that they have this potentially awesome service, but half ass it, and then never make any improvements to it.

MMS on gvoice has been a problem for years now, and afaik they have no plans to fix it. I once had hope, but now i doubt they will ever improve google voice. This is why im hesitant to port there.

Ultimately though, i might be more scared of just losing my number with straight talk. Not as much for me not renewing my plan, but more concerned about something else happening - like maybe one day they decide that i use too much data and just cancel my service. This would be the worst case scenario.

Can't you just get another gmail account, port the number to the new one, and then on your phone have both gmails sync'd? You get your original google number you use along with your new ported number. Set up the ported as a forwarded number.

Not sure how the google voice app handles more than one gvoice account - but i know you can only forward one google voice number to a mobile phone at a time (last time i tried to it wouldnt let me).

Besides that - i would want my main number tied to my main google account, so i would first have to port my current google voice number to a new google account before porting my current number (ATT) to my main google account - and i dont know if thats possible.

Argh! all this would be so much easier if google would just fix this mms BS...

 

[Uppsala9496]

Yea, GV does suck in that it won't let you get MMS. Sprint has had the function for over a year now. You'd think that google would get it to work with att/tmobile by now.

 

[vshah]

i believe you can set up google voice to forward mms images to your email address now.

edit: apparently only if it is sent from a sprint number.

 

[tcurtin]

Nvidiaguy07 - I'm having the same conundrum - moving away from Sprint, with its seamless GV integration, to an MVNO (probably Straight Talk) and facing the same issues. Don't want to lose MMS (really, its the group chats that would suck to miss the most, but I do get the occasional pic from family, friends, etc and no one knowing it had been lost is sucky.)

What did you do? How has it worked out for you?

The problem isnt me sending pictures - i could care less about that. Most of the time if its a good pic that i want to send, ill upload it to dropbox, and then send them the link via text so they dont get a blurry mms picture.

The problem is receiving mms messages from other people. Someone might send me a picture out of the blue, and if i had been using google voice, i would have no knowledge of them sending this message. They also would just think that i ignored them (particularly a problem with girls), so all im asking google to do (at the very least) is just have some automated message back saying that i cannot receive mms messages. This is probably what i hate about google the most - the fact that they have this potentially awesome service, but half ass it, and then never make any improvements to it.

MMS on gvoice has been a problem for years now, and afaik they have no plans to fix it. I once had hope, but now i doubt they will ever improve google voice. This is why im hesitant to port there.

Ultimately though, i might be more scared of just losing my number with straight talk. Not as much for me not renewing my plan, but more concerned about something else happening - like maybe one day they decide that i use too much data and just cancel my service. This would be the worst case scenario.



Not sure how the google voice app handles more than one gvoice account - but i know you can only forward one google voice number to a mobile phone at a time (last time i tried to it wouldnt let me).

Besides that - i would want my main number tied to my main google account, so i would first have to port my current google voice number to a new google account before porting my current number (ATT) to my main google account - and i dont know if thats possible.

Argh! all this would be so much easier if google would just fix this mms BS...

 

[gorcorps]

I predict Google voice will be canceled by Google in 2014. The way Google has been axing services and consolidating into Google+, I fear that voice will be the next to go.

This is an old thread, but at this point I wouldn't put my eggs in Google's basket.

 

[tcurtin]

I don't know - I'm pretty sure google gets an insane amount of voice to text practice via google voice, and industry seems to value that (the voice recognition was the biggest part of the work done by the xbox kinect). Also, the hue & cry if voice goes away will be intense - have any of the things google has cancelled had anywhere near the number of active users Voice has?

They did just finally start passing MMS to/from Sprint and TMobile a month ago, so they've made recent forward progress as well.

In any case, I hope you're wrong!

 

[paperwastage]

have any of the things google has cancelled had anywhere near the number of active users Voice has?

google reader

for the past few years, they've been "extending" the free service in December for the next calendar year. google could start charging for the service.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally, AT&T had my primary number. When I made the switch to ST, I transferred my existing GV number to ST and transferred my AT&T number to GV.

 

[alangrift]

I have always dreamed of being able to completely switch my main number to google voice, but its shortcomings have never been fixed (mms, group messaging, problems with network/wifi).

After trying out straight talk for a few weeks im ready to finally ditch ATT and cancel my plan. My only question is if i should port it to straight talk, or if i should just suck it up and use google voice.

My only real reason not to port to straight talk is ive read online that if you somehow forget to renew for a month, then you could possible lose your number. I also currently have a google voice number, and if i port my main number to that, it would make it more difficult to use my old google voice number (almost impossible).

I'd rather just port to straight talk, but the chance of losing my main number would be worse than having to give up my current google voice number - if there is actually the chance of losing your number with straight talk.

The only only thing i have to consider is what to do with my mom and sister as well. My sister has had an android for a while now, and will have no problem either way (learning any new things she has to do with google voice vs how it was). My mother will be getting my old sgs2 and she is coming from a blackberry - so im worried that having google voice might be just one more thing to confuse her. Not sure if either of these are a big deal, but at least im farmiliar with google voice, and can deal with problems when they come up, i dont want to have either one of them running into extra problems and then not knowing what to do.

thanks for any advice.

MMS works for T-Mobile and AT&T with GV now. I don't know if you can send but you can receive. They are working on making it better. GV is part of the Hangouts app on iOS and has it's own separate app on Android which will eventually integrate into the Hangouts app.

Also you can receive calls on Google+ and Gmail using GV while logged into a computer and also make outgoing calls from Gmail and Hangouts on your computer.

The biggest advantage is when your abroad as you can put in a foreign SIM into your phone and still keep in touch with the USA. You need an unlocked phone though.

You can also put ring groups for different people, so some people go straight to voicemail and some people will go to your phone.

 

[cronos]

I predict Google voice will be canceled by Google in 2014. The way Google has been axing services and consolidating into Google+, I fear that voice will be the next to go.

This is an old thread, but at this point I wouldn't put my eggs in Google's basket.

Google won't 'axe' GV (as in removing the functionalities altogether). It probably will eventually roll all the features into Hangouts though. The fact that the name Google Voice probably won't exist anymore sometime in the future does not mean that we won't be able to use what we've currently been using GV for.

 

[lothar]

I predict Google voice will be canceled by Google in 2014. The way Google has been axing services and consolidating into Google+, I fear that voice will be the next to go.

This is an old thread, but at this point I wouldn't put my eggs in Google's basket.

I predict Google Voice will be rolled into Hangouts.
How much do you want to bet?

So you'd rather put your eggs in Straight Talk's basket?

 

[Ravynmagi]

I really like Google Voice and can't imagine not having it.

I use Verizon wireless on my work phone and T-Mobile on my personal phone and I have Google Voice setup on both, so I got the same number on two different phones with two different carriers. And I can have my GV ring to other numbers as well pretty easily.

I have two numbers on any phone, the GV number and the carrier's number, so I could use an alternate number should the need ever come up (and I actually ever remember my carrier's number).

For me MMS is not important at all. That seems like a dying technology that I no longer worry about supporting. If someone texts me a picture, it's their fault for not Tweeting it, Instagraming it, Facebooking it, emailing it, or a half a million other more modern methods of communicating. I guess those people still are using a feature phone.

I don't even know what group texting is. I use Skype instead.

Not sure how well Google Voice is doing for Google. I would imagine there is some value though in having all these phone numbers ported into their service and so it wouldn't be something they'd want to shut down. Though I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes a pay service at some point. I do believe there was wording when I signed up that it may not always be free.

 

[nickbits]

GV and hangouts will fully merge. It is almost there already. I don't see GV shutting down completely. Unlike reader, GV has $$ involved.

 

[tcurtin]

MMS works for T-Mobile and AT&T with GV now. I don't know if you can send but you can receive. They are working on making it better. GV is part of the Hangouts app on iOS and has it's own separate app on Android which will eventually integrate into the Hangouts app.

Also you can receive calls on Google+ and Gmail using GV while logged into a computer and also make outgoing calls from Gmail and Hangouts on your computer.

The biggest advantage is when your abroad as you can put in a foreign SIM into your phone and still keep in touch with the USA. You need an unlocked phone though.

You can also put ring groups for different people, so some people go straight to voicemail and some people will go to your phone.

Wait - MMS works for ATT with GV now? I just read somewhere else that ATT was the sole holdout. What's your source on this? If true, that should mean MMS works for all now. (I don't so much mind missing pics in MMS, what would be annoying is group texts - those go through MMS, and when not working just disappear with no notification to either sender or recipient. That would suck.)

 

[Midwayman]

Yet I still have some people sending me pics via MMS. These are people with smartphones too. Emailing the pic would be just as easy. Just wish GV would pass the text portion of the message, send a rejection, or just notify me someone tried to MMS me. Anything other than completely ignoring it would be great.

 

[gorcorps]

I predict Google Voice will be rolled into Hangouts.
How much do you want to bet?

So you'd rather put your eggs in Straight Talk's basket?

You can butter it up all you want, but there will not be a google voice by 2014 year end. You can call it rolled into hangout if you want, but that still means voice is gone.

 

[lothar]

You can butter it up all you want, but there will not be a google voice by 2014 year end. You can call it rolled into hangout if you want, but that still means voice is gone.

Nice backpedal you did there.

 

[JoeMcJoe]

First check if your number can be ported, mine can not.

https://www.google.com/voice/b/0/porting