Tips
How to get Google Voice’s voicemail feature without switching numbers
October 27, 2009 | by Andrew Kameka
Android Tricks
I was exciteded when Google Voice was first announced for U.S. residents, but my excitement went down when I realized the 1,000 business cards with my current number sitting on my desk would be worthless. Google now offers a compromise to people who want some of Google Voice’s features but don’t want to deal with the stress of passing along yet another number for their friends and business associates to remember.
Google Voice has been updated to provide voicemail support for your current cell phone number. While people will still have to sign-up for a Google number to use features like call recording, call screening, or texts via email, the “lighter” version of GV will provide voicemail services without having to switch numbers. This GV Lite option works with Alltell, AT&T, Cricket, MetroPCS, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon.
If you are a current GV user wishing to replace your carrier voicemail system with GV, follow these instructions:
- Click Settings at the top right of the page
- On the Phones tab, click the “Add Google voicemail to this phone link to get started.”
- Select your carrier and press “Continue”
Return to the GV “Settings” and click “Deactivate voicemail” link if you ever want to disable the voicemail switch. If you ever remove that phone from GV, be sure to deactivate BEFORE removing the phone or the link will remain.
This works and this is exactly what I needed, however, it takes to long for the VM to pick up. It is like it calls sprint then calls Google and then vm picks up. It is about 15 rings and I don't think people will wait that long. I will give it a shot and see what happens. Thanks for the tip Andrew!
Unfortunately for Sprint you'll be charged for call forwarding since they don't offer it for free.
Sprint will as of mid-Nov!