Google Voice
The most recommended of 5 phone number services
People recommend it for a free number that works for SMS two-factor codes, forwarding and voicemail transcription. Critics say many services reject its numbers as VOIP.
People recommend it for a free number that works for SMS two-factor codes, forwarding and voicemail transcription. Critics say many services reject its numbers as VOIP.
58 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 29
- criticize it
- 29
- approval share
- 50%
Recommended in 11 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 15 years
Median of the 4 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 29 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1 recommender for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 11 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Works for SMS two-factor codes
“My workaround is I use SMS 2 factor for banking and use my Google Voice number.”
Comment from 22 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?” “I've had almost no problems using my GV number for 2FA.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Cell Service for the Fairly Paranoid” “I currently use Google Voice for almost all SMS 2FA”
Comment from 1 Apr 2026 in “My son pleasured himself on Gemini Live. Entire family's Google accounts banned” - Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Bugs Apple Loves”
Free number for texts and calls
“If you just need to receive an SMS but don't actually need a cellular network, Google Voice is free.”
Comment from 26 Sep 2026 in “Ask HN: Hypothesis: Cellular providers are deprioritizing voice calls?” “If you use a site that actually requires a number, give them a Google Voice number.”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Why some people mow a lawn better than others” “You can do that with Google Voice for free and much lower rates.”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: I built an international calling platform for the past 6 months” - Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: How do small businesses handle phone calls?”
Convenient, worry-free and works everywhere
“Very convenient and worry free.”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Helsinki Hacker News Meetup” “It works well on all platforms.”
Comment from 16 Apr 2026 in “Google Broke Its Promise to Me. Now ICE Has My Data” Easy number porting in and out
“I had imported my phone number I'd had since I was 16 into voice”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address” “in/out porting with google is super quick and works great”
Comment from 25 Dec 2025 in “Google is 'gradually rolling out' option to change your gmail.com address”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Services reject Google Voice numbers
“I've seen Google Voice numbers blocked”
Comment from 23 Mar 2026 in “OpenClaw Is a Security Nightmare Dressed Up as a Daydream” “Google Voice or other VOIP provider numbers are often rejected for 2FA or account validation”
Comment from 5 Oct 2026 in “Pixel 11 doesn't yet meet the GrapheneOS security standards and may be skipped” “I’ve had sites reject my Google Voice number and require my actual cell phone number.”
Comment from 19 Oct 2026 in “Best way to get SMS verification codes without using your own number?” - Comment from 4 Jul 2026 in “Verizon is About to Break our Watches”
- Comment from 18 Aug 2026 in “GPT-5.6 Sol Pricing Cut by 50%”
- Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “East coast. Verizon outage in US”
Requires ID or a real phone number
“Google Voice is requiring ID verification now, and porting your phone number out is difficult as they charge an unlock fee”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Cell Service for the Fairly Paranoid” “Needing to verify your Google Voice with a real phone number (even for existing old accounts) is pretty annoying”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Google is silently linking your phone number across all signed-in accounts” “It's still associated with a credit card and your google account requires another phone number to create.”
Comment from 15 Dec 2025 in ““Super secure” messaging app leaks everyone's phone number” Stagnant, weak UX and bugs
“Google Voice has just obviously stagnated over the years with almost zero new features”
Comment from 20 Oct 2026 in “Anyone migrate off Google Voice?” “Google Voice has been a pretty terrible UX and quality overall for years”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “East coast. Verizon outage in US” “Google voice still can't deal with webp or heic despite such images showing up in the image picker”
Comment from 12 Dec 2025 in “iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]” - Comment from 5 May 2026 in “IBM didn't want Microsoft to use the Tab key to move between dialog fields”
Outages and hard porting out
“Google Voice is requiring ID verification now, and porting your phone number out is difficult as they charge an unlock fee”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Cell Service for the Fairly Paranoid” “Removing Takeout access and preventing port-out during a mistaken suspension seems hard to justify.”
Comment from 23 Jun 2026 in “GVoice suspended in error: no Takeout, portout, incoming text forwarding blocked” “Unfortunately GV has been having a ~week outage of outgoing MMS group messages.”
Comment from 14 Jan 2026 in “East coast. Verizon outage in US”
Other phone number services people recommend
The four most recommended other phone number services, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google VoiceThis page | 29 | 29 | 50% | 11 | 15 yrs4 owners | — |
| jmp.chat | 10 | 1 | 91% | 7 | — | Approved |
| StatPhone | 8 | 0 | 100% | 2 | — | — |
| JMP | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
| Ooma landline | 5 | 0 | 100% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 64 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it's probably both more reliable and cheaper to use a web-controllable phone number”
“Google Voice has just obviously stagnated over the years with almost zero new features”
“I have used Google Voice for years and generally like it”
“I’ve had sites reject my Google Voice number and require my actual cell phone number.”
“Needing to verify your Google Voice with a real phone number (even for existing old accounts) is pretty annoying”
“Google Voice or other VOIP provider numbers are often rejected for 2FA or account validation”
“If you just need to receive an SMS but don't actually need a cellular network, Google Voice is free.”
“I use a google voice number as my primary, and it often gets rejected.”
“Very convenient and worry free.”
“If you use a site that actually requires a number, give them a Google Voice number.”
“The fix is a Google Voice number that you replace every few years.”
“will detect a Google Fi or Google Voice number and not let you use them”
“That's the only way I can get to them in reasonable timeframe, because I often don't have my phone nearby.”
“Removing Takeout access and preventing port-out during a mistaken suspension seems hard to justify.”
“When anyone rings your (free) Google Voice number, it will forward the call to multiple phone numbers.”
“will take shift+enter but fail and just submit half the time anyway”
“numbers are almost guaranteed to be detected as VOIP which sucks but whatever”
“It works well on all platforms.”
“my current phone has only a data connection and I make and receive calls using the Voice app”
“their account security is leagues ahead of anyone else imo”
“I have yet to find an alternative that can match the feature set and ease of use”
“I currently use Google Voice for almost all SMS 2FA”
“have it do the transcription from voicemail to text”
“I've seen Google Voice numbers blocked”
“Just put a Google Voice line behind a FreePBX or Asterisk and you get all the call filtering you want.”
“Google Voice is requiring ID verification now, and porting your phone number out is difficult as they charge an unlock fee”
“I've had almost no problems using my GV number for 2FA.”
“Just use a new Google Voice number for 2FA.”
“My workaround is I use SMS 2 factor for banking and use my Google Voice number.”
“Google Voice has been a pretty terrible UX and quality overall for years”
“Ive had many issues where services can't verify the GV phone number”
“Unfortunately GV has been having a ~week outage of outgoing MMS group messages.”
“You can do that with Google Voice for free and much lower rates.”
“in/out porting with google is super quick and works great”
“I had imported my phone number I'd had since I was 16 into voice”
“i could gave moved my google voice number, but it seems like a convoluted process”
“It's still associated with a credit card and your google account requires another phone number to create.”
“Google voice still can't deal with webp or heic despite such images showing up in the image picker”
“Google Voice for local, VOIP.”
“That shifts the trust boundary to Google, who is going to have all your info anyway, rather than dozens of fly-by-night websites.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.