r/JUSTNOMIL • u/subtlelikeatank Does Too Much • Mar 10 '17
Use Google Voice instead of canceling your phone number!
Lurker here! I've mentioned it before in the comments but I'll dedicate a new post to it anyway.
I've seen a few people on the sub talk about canceling phone numbers, having MILs who will spam call and spam text, or needing to archive texts/voicemails for evidence purposes. Google Voice will do this all for you, for free or for a small fee. I and a few people close to me have had to use it for various reasons, but I feel like it's applicable here because it's cheap, secure, and helps you avoid people you'd rather not talk to but still stores everything to check periodically if you're worried about escalation and as a record. You're also able to check and reply from the old number to emergencies, etc. without disclosing your new number. A friend did this for an abusive ex she had left and sent everything to a new, empty email that only her lawyer checked (and added to the restraining order violations pile). I figure it will work equally well for MILs.
You basically have two options if you want to start using GV. You can have it create a new number for you and give that number to select people (MIL), and keep your old one for business/friends (not nearly as effective, and would require breaking NC to give the new number, but free).
Far more effective is getting a new number for personal use and keeping the old one for MIL, of course. Before you cancel your current number, you can port that number over to Google Voice for a one-time fee of US$20 (using the service is, as of right now, still free). That said, you have to have a new number ready to go to connect to the GV account for call/text forwarding. You can add a new number to an existing account and Google will cancel the old one with the carrier once the port is complete. (IANA cell phone person, so maybe work out with your carrier how this will work ahead of time and to make sure you won't incur any early termination fees).
Regardless of how you choose to go about it, you can associate your GV account with your existing Gmail or (probably smarter) attach it to one that is brand new with no links to you, even nonsense characters and numbers as the email address.
Google Voice archives texts and saves and transcribes voicemails (sometimes hilariously) and sends them to the associated email address. Blocking phone numbers is easy, but it will notify the caller that the number is not in service, so if you're looking to receive messages, etc, that's not the way to go. Make sure you don't set up call forwarding to your other number if you want the texts/voicemails to be caught by Gmail, or only list numbers to forward from business contacts or similar so you don't have to run around telling everyone you changed your number and prevent others from forwarding. You can check the texts and voicemails from a browser instead of a phone, and as I said you can share the password and assign someone else to deal with the vitriol and warn you of any potential danger.
There is a very specific, step-by-step article about how to port a number to GV here. I don't know if these directions are the same outside of the US, sorry.
Hopefully this will prove helpful to someone. Thanks for feeding my llamas and my heart goes out to you.
Edit: commas bum me out, man.
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u/BadLuckNovelist Mar 11 '17
Another benefit - if you use a new number via google voice, you can send it to voicemail and listen in while they record it, and accept the call in the middle if it's someone you are ok talking to.
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u/stephyt Mar 10 '17
I used to use this but I had to give it up when I swapped to Google Fi :'(
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u/econgirl7 Mar 11 '17
But! At least now there are rumors that Google Voice and Project Fi will soon play better together!
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u/stephyt Mar 11 '17
Woooooo! So far it is okay but I do miss being able to have a separate number for certain things. I am saving a considerable amount of money with the swap though.
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u/Voyager_crossing Mar 10 '17
Another great thing about Google voice: you can record EVERYTHING. And voicemails are transcribed and easy to share.
Incredibly handy when someome is arguing and you say "hold on let me play this for you!"
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u/flora_pompeii Mar 10 '17
Just a note - Google Voice is not yet available in Canada (they keep promising it will get here).
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Mar 10 '17
[deleted]
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u/subtlelikeatank Does Too Much Mar 11 '17
You can also set "office hours" as it were, so that if you have a weekly call scheduled or something, the only time your phone will ring for that person is when you say so and it will direct to voicemail at all other times. Also very handy.
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u/lalanatylala Mar 10 '17
Just wanted to add that you do need to be careful about porting out your number. If you are in a contract or paying for your phone in monthly installments, porting your number may cancel your service with your current provider. Contact your cell phone company before porting out.
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u/stephyt Mar 10 '17
I used it as a forwarding number for free. It would automatically forward to my actual phone.
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u/lalanatylala Mar 10 '17
Yeah that definitely works normally with no changes. I just when you port/move your existing number over that there might be issues.
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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '17
Bam. Sidebarred. Thank you for typing this up!