Regardless of what that page says, it's been common knowledge that people have lost their number when trying to port it out of Google Voice. It's interesting to see it's still an issue and applies to Project Fi as well.
My Google Voice account is older than 7 years. I specifically remember choosing to get a new number instead of porting my number to Google Voice because of the stories about people unable to port it out.
I haven't heard of any court action, but if your number is already reassigned to someone what's your recourse?
Exactly. This is no different from any other telephone service provider. HN should not be a support forum for people who don't know how to use their ISP or phone carrier.
"Google Voice’s number availability changes often, so even if your number was on Google Voice before, it can’t always be transferred back. If you’d still like to keep your number, we recommend transferring it to another carrier that supports it." -- https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6079398?hl=en
> So don't use them for 2-factor authentication anywhere.
I use multiple forms of 2-factor auth, so if I lose my phone, I can still access my accounts. I use:
* Five (5) physical U2F keys – which can authenticate you into Google on Chrome. The keys are spread out between home, office, trusted family members, and elsewhere; so if I lose one key, I still have other(s) to fall back upon.
Other than another failed attempt on google's part to unify disparate things (like google and youtube accounts), I don't know why fi hijacks your gv number. Fi's page is also so uninviting. I have been casually interested in giving fi a try, for example to buy a phone like moto x4. If you go anywhere on fi's page (https://fi.google.com/about/phones/ for example), it won't let you do anything without a google account, which I know will hijack gv. Just why ? Let me buy a phone, and make calls, and I'll give you money. But no. And because of this unnecessary mess with gv, I would never try fi.
While it may be too late for the author, it's possible to port you Fi number out to a different carrier, like ATT / Verizon / Twilio as long as your account is still active. I also believe there is a 6 month hold period on the number until it can be put back in the pool for use.
When I moved away from Fi the first time (I'm back on and love it) I used it to port my number to Twilio.
I have been living overseas for some years for major client work. Google Voice is a blessing, and yet constantly feels like I'm walking on thin ice. I'd happy pay 20$ or even 30$ monthly to have a commercially supported product because it provides so much value.
But there are so many bugs. There seems to be no way to even submit bug reports (not even major ones like now-deleted forwarding numbers still ringing.) It would be awesome if they could just spin the division off into a startup, or start charging via a business tier. What is the thinking around these gray-area products?
Maybe, but Google definitely isn't better. They transcribe your voicemails for you to make their voice recognition better, and unless it's changed I don't remember ever seeing a setting to turn it off. Does Microsoft do this?
Wow! Even today I have a transcriptionist and assumed "transcribe" meant they have have a mechanical turk-like service doing that. And I have Fi. I do think I have at times seen the speech-to-text conversion improved.
For years there was feedback on the web version. There was also an option to "don't save this for speech training purposes". The interface is spartan now.
You could always port your number to Twilio and use their simple Twilio bins to set up text and call forwarding - you’d likely end up paying that $20-30 per month that you’re expecting.
I ported my Fi number back to Google Voice when I cancelled service. There were a number of prompts on the way too, so I'm not sure what the author did wrong here...
Having helped a few people sign up for the Project Fi service (and deciding not to myself) I can tell you that Google is very clear about the implications of setting up Fi when you currently have a Google Voice number.
Google has decided you can only have one number.
So you can either port (yes it is an actual port) your number from GV to Fi when you sign up, or you can get a new Fi number and give up your GV number.
The author has nobody to blame but himself if he's confused about what happened here.
It sounds like his signup went as expected but he wasn't given a chance to move his number back to GV when he cancelled Fi. The warnings are clear about porting from GV, but I don't remember anything about what would happen at cancellation (e.g. being subject to GV number availability).
You never cancel a phone line with a number you wish to keep. When you port the number away, the losing carrier will cancel the line of service since the number is gone from their network. You can’t port a number after you’ve canceled the line of service.
That's just the way phone companies work. If I go to AT&T this morning and cancel my account, that number is gone. I get that Google owning two things that look like phone companies could confuse people, but under no circumstances would I ever cancel the service on a number I still needed. And like OP said, I know from my experience that Google almost crossed over into belligerence in trying to tell me the implications of porting my voice number. Even if I didn't understand the technical terms, the sheer urgency of the messaging should give you pause about taking any action lightly.
Yeah, the post is a bit ambiguous but seems like you may be right. If OP had GV, then ported to Fi, and then cancelled Fi service without porting his number that would fit with the complaint in the post.
I'm actually somewhat less sympathetic in that case. When you cancel phone service without porting, you lose your number. That's how the phone system has operated for decades.
Why someone would assume that cancelling phone service would somehow automatically sign you up for a different service is beyond me.
But I suppose the confusion is related to people thinking GV and Fi are "the same" or "built on each other" (e.g. see comment from a Googler elsewhere in this thread) since both services give you a phone number and both services are run by Google.
In fact they are essentially entirely separate services from the perspective of the phone network. GV is based on Bandwidth.com's landline VoIP numbers, while Fi numbers are actually registered by T-Mobile.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 86.9 ms ] threadSo don't use them for 2-factor authentication anywhere. I've got bitcoin that I haven't had access to because Project Fi won't give me my number back.
My Google Voice account is older than 7 years. I specifically remember choosing to get a new number instead of porting my number to Google Voice because of the stories about people unable to port it out.
I haven't heard of any court action, but if your number is already reassigned to someone what's your recourse?
FCC guarantees you can keep your number if you migrate, it says nothing about cancelling service.
"Google Voice’s number availability changes often, so even if your number was on Google Voice before, it can’t always be transferred back. If you’d still like to keep your number, we recommend transferring it to another carrier that supports it." -- https://support.google.com/fi/answer/6079398?hl=en
I use multiple forms of 2-factor auth, so if I lose my phone, I can still access my accounts. I use:
* Five (5) physical U2F keys – which can authenticate you into Google on Chrome. The keys are spread out between home, office, trusted family members, and elsewhere; so if I lose one key, I still have other(s) to fall back upon.
* Backup codes (stored in a safe place)
* Phone (Google Authenticator app + voice + SMS)
Don't use phone based 2FA if you can avoid it. TOTP is always better.
If you're worried about the ability to port your number back to Google Voice, just use a different Google account?
Also just signing into the page to look at the devices is not going to hijack your GV.
When I moved away from Fi the first time (I'm back on and love it) I used it to port my number to Twilio.
But there are so many bugs. There seems to be no way to even submit bug reports (not even major ones like now-deleted forwarding numbers still ringing.) It would be awesome if they could just spin the division off into a startup, or start charging via a business tier. What is the thinking around these gray-area products?
https://support.twilio.com/hc/en-us/articles/223134287-Forwa...
Google has decided you can only have one number.
So you can either port (yes it is an actual port) your number from GV to Fi when you sign up, or you can get a new Fi number and give up your GV number.
The author has nobody to blame but himself if he's confused about what happened here.
I'm actually somewhat less sympathetic in that case. When you cancel phone service without porting, you lose your number. That's how the phone system has operated for decades.
Why someone would assume that cancelling phone service would somehow automatically sign you up for a different service is beyond me.
But I suppose the confusion is related to people thinking GV and Fi are "the same" or "built on each other" (e.g. see comment from a Googler elsewhere in this thread) since both services give you a phone number and both services are run by Google.
In fact they are essentially entirely separate services from the perspective of the phone network. GV is based on Bandwidth.com's landline VoIP numbers, while Fi numbers are actually registered by T-Mobile.
This way I can always retrieve it regardless of losing a piece of hardware or a cloud service.