> I am slowly working people back to my handset number on project Fi phone for texting because it works in my primary Gmail account and I can continue to match my text messages on the desktop with the Chrome extension.
Does this mean that GV will be using your old phone number that you posted over from a carrier? And that us Android folk can have iMessage-like functionality finally?
You've been able to port cell numbers to Google Voice for quite some time now, independent of Project Fi. It's a $20 one-time fee. You get all your SMS, MMS, and voicemail messages in Hangouts, both on phone and desktop. Replying to SMS and reading transcribed voicemail on a desktop is quite nice. You can also make and receive voice calls from your number on desktop as well.
Since GV is a cloud service and independent of your phone, you can do all of these things from a desktop even if your phone has no service or a dead battery. For example, if you are overseas and you don't have cell service you can use WiFi to send and receive calls and SMS, from your phone or your laptop, using your normal number. Of course you get all other Google Voice features like call recording, ringing multiple phones, sending specific numbers to voicemail, low international rates, etc.
You can also use Hangouts Dialer to make Google Voice calls over data from your phone, without using plan minutes. This is optional, but it has the advantage that you can use T-Mobile's $30 unlimited data plan as an unlimited everything plan and potentially save a ton of money. Data service is not as reliable as native voice, but cutting your bill in half is pretty compelling.
Downsides are few. The big one used to be that MMS didn't work, but it's finally fixed. There may still be some oddities with group MMS in Hangouts. The Hangouts Android app kinda sucks, but there's supposedly a redesign on the way. SMS happens over your data connection, which is less reliable in places with bad service like crowded stadiums. Porting your number will end your current carrier contract and you'll have to start a new one if you want to continue using your cell phone; depending on your contract this may cause early termination fees and/or your cell phone may be unusable for a few hours during the transfer.
I do this with T-Mobile. The downsides are once per year my phone number is literally banned and I cannot text or call for a few hours for absolutely no reason. It's supposedly due to anti-spam issues and obviously there is zero support on this, so you just have to suck it up while you are banned for an arbitrary amount of time for an unknown reason.
I ported my number to GV while traveling interationaly. I have had consistent problems and numerous bugs with a variety of different Hangout apps/plugins, mostly related to placing outbound calls. I don't find the service very reliable, but it is still useful
Does this mean that GV will be using your old phone number that you posted over from a carrier? And that us Android folk can have iMessage-like functionality finally?