Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#21

Post by urda » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:12 AM UTC

dheera wrote: post #14

vladgur wrote: post #9

Whats a good GV alternative? I dont mind paying for a service as well

Twilio. I send all idiot 2FA websites to a Twilio number and forward to Slack. You can also forward to e-mail or pretty much do whatever you want. Twilio's also great because I can set it up to answer known 2FA voice calls and hit the # button automatically to confirm. I also use it to play endless loops of hold music for unscheduled calls to teach businesses to stop calling me without making an appointment and e-mai…

> I also use it to play endless loops of hold music for unscheduled calls to teach businesses to stop calling me without making an appointment and e-mail me instead.

I feel ya. I have a public line that does the same thing, but instead if you call or text it just lets you know that I'll contact them, not the other way around.

Question: why do you not terminate the call? Do you not get charged for the usage if you make them hold?

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#22

Post by devoutsalsa » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:12 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #4

Years ago, I used Google Voice to receive text messages. Then Twilio came along and I switched to them. Much better.

Have you had any issues w/ not being able to use your Twillio number for 2FA?

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#23

Post by dheera » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:13 AM UTC

urda wrote: post #21

dheera wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twilio. I send all idiot 2FA websites to a Twilio number and forward to Slack. You can also forward to e-mail or pretty much do whatever you want. Twilio's also great because I can set it up to answer known 2FA voice calls and hit the # button automatically to confirm. I also use it to play endless loops of hold music for unscheduled calls to teach businesses to stop calling me without making an appointment and e-mai…

> I also use it to play endless loops of hold music for unscheduled calls to teach businesses to stop calling me without making an appointment and e-mail me instead. I feel ya. I have a public line that does the same thing, but instead if you call or text it just lets you know that I'll contact them, not the other way around. Question: why do you not terminate the call? Do you not get charged for the usage if you mak…

> Question: why do you not terminate the call? Do you not get charged for the usage if you make them hold?

It's only something like $0.0085/min. On their end though if someone stays on hold for 15 minutes it wastes the company's 15 minutes worth of that person's salary time and they learn to not do it again.

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#24

Post by sthomas1618 » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:14 AM UTC

jerrya wrote: post #15

Animats wrote: post #4

Years ago, I used Google Voice to receive text messages. Then Twilio came along and I switched to them. Much better.

I am vaguely aware of twilio's api offerings, but they don't have a consumer product do they? What in particular are you doing, and how much does that cost?

Ya I’m curious too. How would you switch to Twilio without doing the coding yourself?

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#25

Post by curiousgal » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:14 AM UTC

pseingatl wrote: post #19

Many expatriates with US bank accounts use Voice for 2FA. Not anymore.

Nope, I still get my code via email. They only stopped forwarding to linked numbers.

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#26

Post by zootboy » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:14 AM UTC

vladgur wrote: post #9

Whats a good GV alternative? I dont mind paying for a service as well

I've been pretty happy with voip.ms. They have a bidirectional SMS/MMS to email system that works well enough for my purposes.

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#27

Post by vsnf » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:14 AM UTC

pseingatl wrote: post #19

Many expatriates with US bank accounts use Voice for 2FA. Not anymore.

It is precisely because Google Voice is a Google property that I, as an expat, have taken great effort to keep my US phone number with my US carrier.

Trusting Google with such an absolutely critical aspect of one's life is lunacy.

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#28

Post by tyingq » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:14 AM UTC

ttam wrote: post #2

I'm actually surprised Google hasn't killed Voice, given their current track record of killing niche products

Guessing that's not far behind. I would guess a lot of the userbase is using it at least partially for the text forwarding to their devices that have a different number.

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#29

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:15 AM UTC

pseingatl wrote: post #19

Many expatriates with US bank accounts use Voice for 2FA. Not anymore.

[deleted]

Re: Google Voice has stopped forwarding SMS

#30

Post by jasonjayr » Thu, Aug 19, 2021, 6:18 AM UTC

zootboy wrote: post #26

vladgur wrote: post #9

Whats a good GV alternative? I dont mind paying for a service as well

I've been pretty happy with voip.ms. They have a bidirectional SMS/MMS to email system that works well enough for my purposes.

I'll second voip.ms. I use it as my primary "land line" in my home. I wish they had VM transcription too. My biggest gripe is that some online account verification systems refuse to use VOIP numbers as 'valid' phone numbers.