Ask HN: Degoogling – Google Voice alternative?
I'm considering leaving behind my google account, to be surveilled no more (or, more realistically, to be surveilled significantly less).
GMail is pretty easy to replace with another email service.
But I wonder if anyone can recommend a suitable replacement for Google Voice. Importantly, I am willing to pay a monthly bill in US Dollars, but I'm not a business, just a household with two adults, so it shouldn't cost much.
Some requirements:
- I want to make and receive calls over the internet on both my smartphone and from my desktop.
- I want voicemails, when I miss a call, to be delivered to my email. Ideally both as an audio file and with a transcription, but I could live with just the audio.
- It's ok if I can only make calls within the US.
- I want to port in my existing number which is now my google voice number
- I want to be able to port my number out again.
Have you looked at the options on a list like this: https://getvoip.com/blog/2016/10/10/google-voice-alternative...
Grasshopper is the one I've heard plenty of commercials for, MightyCall cropped up multiple times during a quick search, others are listed too.
Personally I just left my Google Voice account behind and ported it's number to my cell carrier. But email/desktop integration isn't a key need for me.