https://jmp.chat/ has been great for me, uses bandwidth behind the scenes and wraps the experience in a nice XMPP UX.

Calls and texts work, only issues I've run into are the usual some services don't accept VOIP numbers, and group texts > 10 people I can receive but not send messages (bandwidth provider limitation AFAIK).

Bonus is that their stack is all open source and since it's XMPP you can use whatever clients or server you want, or stick to their Cheogram app + a hosted server included through https://snikket.org/hosting/

I like anveo.com, it's $2/month if you use the "free" plan and a $2/month US number. The UI is kind of dated, but the US phone number accepts incoming SMS, and they offer a drag/drop IVR type interface where you can route calls in most any way you want. Also includes in/out faxes, not that it comes up much, but when it does, it's nice to be able to do.

Note the other responses regarding some places requiring a "real" mobile number for SMS verification. Anveo's numbers won't work for this kind of thing. Similar to how Google Voice numbers don't work for it either.

I used to use Skype for this when I was traveling outside the US. I also imagine you can set up something simple with Twilio as well, IIRC they have a no-code configuration tool for this kind of thing (simple forwarding, text to email, etc.)

Main downside of Skype is that you afaik can't port a number into it. Otherwise it would be a great alternative to Google Voice.

A couple of years after Google Voice split out from Hangouts and, while there were plenty of VOIP options, they all sucked for use as a personal number (even Google Voice kind of did to be honest). The latencies for ringing, not being accepted at ever more places, the weird connection quality and delay issues, one way audio issues, and so on were just so rampant compared to a "traditional" (now also really just data, but more integrated into the transport system) number. Also so many places started to block the use of VOIP numbers it was becoming hard to use the number anyways. If they hadn't already there was no guarantee it'd still be a valid option 3 months later. Maybe there is some whizz bang new VOIP service that actually kicks ass in all of these marks and someone will recommend it but even if they did I'd have more expectation it's a false positive report than a real positive.

If privacy/secrecy via obfuscation is your #1 criteria and not a nice to have then I'd just go with an enterprise cloud VOIP solution like RingCentral because they'll have real support and it's their core (and very successful) business, not another something that'll disappear in 2 years anyways.

If privacy/secrecy via obfuscation was just a nice to have and you really liked it for having the web interface then RingCentral (and I'm sure others) have a PWA and you can still go that route or you can try a sync tool like Beeper. I went the latter route as it gave a significantly better call/texting delay and quality experience to give up the obfuscation but the other cost is your phone has to be connected to the internet for the messages to relay through Beeper.

google didn't split from hangouts. It got merged into hangouts (and both apps existed) because some PM bonus was tied to hangout active users or something. Same reason you automatically logged into a gmail-plugin-hangouts client when you opened gmail by default.

They just undid that shenanigans after the PM got his bonus. Maybe by then their bonus was tied to simplifying the tech stack :)

edit:

> If privacy/secrecy via obfuscation is your #1 criteria

lol, no. the only usecase for gvoice and the likes is to have a fixed phone number without a montly bill that you can use to make international phone calls for business. or to receive calls when abroad.

Nobody who cares about privacy etc (or any quality of network protocol for that matter) would care about gsm and sms. at all. it's mostly for cheap convenience.

(Bracing for the downvotes) As an end user, looks like the bonuses resulted in a pretty good UX.

I love having Mail, Meet, Voice, and Chat in a single web app. (The Gmail app now also has Meet and Chat all-in-one, but Voice has its own app)

I can definitely see how merging the services would boost MAU/DAU, but in this case it seems like increasing DAU means you’re making it easier for users to access + use the service, which is a win win.

Argue it split or merged til the cows come home, that PM bonus should have been 10x as much recurring if that's what caused it to be. Hangouts was years ahead of its time in functionality to the user - I could SMS/MMS, call, IM and video/voice chat all from the same interface on web or app on any of my devices without a dependency on any of them. If the offering were still available today I'd go back in a heartbeat - it was glorious.

> lol, no. the only usecase for gvoice and the likes is to have a fixed phone number without a montly bill that you can use to make international phone calls for business. or to receive calls when abroad.

Please ignore assuming meaning of a term so you can laugh at me in response. It was actually quite handy to pass out VOIP numbers for interviews, sign up forms, and the like because they could never tie back to reaching me once I stopped the forwarding. I realize that is different than worrying about government actors tracking you via standard telephony but you should realize there is more than that specific interpretation of the term, especially when GP named the same use case I just mentioned.

I've been a user since grand central and held on to my same number since. At a time when carriers were still competitive, it was great for switching to whatever company were offering the best incentives and not having to worry about telling everyone your new number. Porting numbers sort of resolved this, but I still don't have to worry about it since I only use my GV number.

GV provided online text messages and voice mail before everyone else. GV also allows you to add multiple lines to the same number. At one point I lost my phone and was still able to receive and make calls from the web and my SO's phone.

Its used for a lot more

Several options: jmp.chat, voip.ms, mysudo, etc

OpenPhone is really nice. Definitely built for more business use case but it’s a very complete and well-built solution.

NumberBarn

If you want a real US phone number (as increasingly banks are blocking VOIP numbers like Google Voice), you can get the lowest tier plan from providers like Tello or Ultra Pay Go. For $3-5/month, you get a US phone number, and ~100 texts (international) and ~100 voice minutes (international if you use Wifi calling).

You can pay for more data or voice minutes, but it's expensive and not a great deal.

eSIM is available.

But if you need a cheap US number, it can't be beat. Works great for people working overseas who need a 2FA US phone number or need to make occasional calls to US numbers (hi IRS!).

Google probably wants you to migrate to Fi.

it's not even the same concept and doesn't even came close to the use case for google voice. But knowing google PMs, I think you are right!

I use Hushed app. It gives me a phone number that I can use for WhatsApp and to receive SMS confirmation codes from various archaic services that still validate you thorough the insecure SMS. https://hushed.com/

Could not find any country list or minute rate list anywhere on their site. Their FAQ is just a bunch of questions by users without answers.

edit: but they have a dedicated UI to sell you number from a specific neighborhoods all over the US. I'm guessing their main market is online catfishers. (not saying the service cannot be a gvoice replacement, but catfishing is clearly their market)

My voip provider does this

What provider?