There are many reasons to use an alternate telephone number. You may have personal reasons for wanting a new number or you may desire a different number for business reasons. Google provides a free option for using an alternative number and all you need is a secure internet option. This discussion will be for users in the United States, but G Suite customers have an option, as well. Countries with the G Suite option include: Denmark, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Canada, Portugal and others.
You will have to download the Google Voice app. Android users can find it at the app store. iPhone users have the same app at the Apple store. As you are configuring the new app on your device, you will have to select the kind of device that you are going to use Google Voice on. It should be no surprise that you will have to use your Google credentials to sign in to the app. If you do not have a Google account, you should do this now. Google has email, a remote drive and many options that come with any online service like Microsoft’s OneDrive or Yahoo. It is necessary to have a Google account to use Google Voice.
As you walk through setting up your Google Voice account, you will have the option to create your own number or you can allow Google to create one for you. In any case it will be an available number. You may find it difficult to find an area code that matches your current location. This is not much of a problem, because people are not that fussy about area codes nowadays, especially for business and our gig economy. Remember, this will probably be a business number, not to be used for family and friends. If you are going to allow Google to create the number, Google will give you some options. Do not overthink this step in the process. When given the option to verify the number, go ahead and click the verify button. You will be taken to a screen that asks you to link the new number to the phone you will use to answer the calls. This should be the phone you use the most. You will see a dialog box that will tell you that you successfully linked the Google Voice phone number to your mobile or business phone.
This app is extremely powerful and helpful. Making international calls are quite simple. If you are new to international calling, you will be introduced to country codes. The United States country code is 1. Other countries have various other codes. This country code is important. It is just like an area code for countries. Therefore, if you were to call someone in Argentina, you would preface the number with the country code 54. You would place 54 before the Argentine number to complete your call.
The neat thing is that you will type your number right into the app, just as you would a regular phone. For this, you would click of tap ‘Make a Call’ and type the number. This, also, can be done through Google Hangouts.
Now, there are some important things to understand about international calling. International calls do cost money. However, calls through Google Voice are heavily discounted. These calls, through Google Voice, are a fraction of what it would cost to use your normal electronic device. Before you consider using the international calling option, you will need to have some money deposited in your Google Voice account. Calling Germany can be as low as $0.01, Japan may average $0.05 and Mexico and the United Kingdom can be as low as $0.01. Check voice.google.com/rates for rates. You can deposit a mere $20.00 and utilize that credit for a long time. There are options in the app that will allow you to automatically top-up your account. Many features can be configured in Settings area of the Google Voice app. Google Voice will alert you to a low balance, if you do not have the auto-pay feature selected. This all depends on how frequently you use the international calling option.
As you can imagine, this feature includes other options. With Google Voice, you can utilize text messaging, screen and block unwanted calls and more. You will have a fully functioning phone system through Google Voice.
