Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more?

Re:Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more? by imgabe on Monday December 28, 2020 @08:57PM (#25565811)

Thanks for elaborating. I know there are a ton of details I don't know about for why the phone system is the way it is. It's over 100 years old and I'm sure there's a lot of cruft.

I'd be happy to pay a local carrier for a data connection using their infrastructure. What I'm imagining is an app that lets me get a local phone number anywhere. Calls and texts to that number ring and show up in the app. If I move to a new place, I just get a new SIM card for data and create a new local phone number in the app.

WhatsApp is almost this, except it doesn't manage any of the phone numbers, and I'd really prefer to use something that I can pay for that isn't owned by Facebook. I've taken to giving people in Hong Kong my US number as well since that's what is tied to my WhatsApp account and there is a 90% chance that if anyone here is going to try to contact you, they'll do it through WhatsApp.

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Re:Ask HN: What are you surprised isn’t being worked on more? by _-___________-_ on Monday December 28, 2020 @10:18PM (#25566371)

> What I'm imagining is an app that lets me get a local phone number anywhere. Calls and texts to that number ring and show up in the app. If I move to a new place, I just get a new SIM card for data and create a new local phone number in the app.

There are several such apps in the iOS and Android app stores. They work reasonably well.

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