This may end up being a bit convoluted, so I will do my best to keep it as short as possible and to the point.
I have a US number with Google Fi, have had it for about 8 years.
This is the only reason why I still maintain that one Google account. The benefit is that I only use it when I am in the United States, and when I’m not, I just pause the service and don’t get charged.
However, I feel the string need to completely eliminate Google from my life permanently.
Does anyone know of a service similar to this one? It can be an MVNO or VOIP for my phone, and I would like to port my number as well. I found “phoner”, but I can’t pause the service, so I would be stuck paying a bill I don’t use as much or loosing my number.
If the service is private (not to be confused with anonymous, of course) even better.
Jmp or twilio can import numbers I believe.
RingCentral had some really nice features; we used it for our business several years ago and I had considered using it as a virtual clearing house for my family to help keep our personal numbers private when signing up for things.
I had even ported a Google Voice number to RingCentral well before that process was streamlined.
I guess my suggestion wouldn’t be useful then… I was a GrandCentral customer in 2006. When Google bought them I became a Google Voice customer and still am. It’s been convenient to have the same US numbers for 18 years. I wouldn’t run anything private through the service though.
FYI, you can port your number to another provider. No need to stay with Google just for that.
The main issue here seems to be that no other provider, voip or otherwise, allows to pause the invoicing. Fi allows it for 90 days, and if those 90 days go by, all we have to do is pause it again and get charged for the 1 day that the pause expired on.
It’s a pretty hard to beat feature, but I really want off of Google, so I’m going over every single one of the suggestions here.
The main issue here seems to be that no other provider, voip or otherwise, allows to pause the invoicing.
The comment you just replied to was a response to someone else, presumably in a situation different to yours.
Regarding number parking / invoice pausing, please see my other comment. I have updated it with more info.
Lots of VoIP services offer plans (usually pay-per-minute) so cheap that you might not need a “park” feature. A few reputable ones that serve North America: Callcentric, VoIP.ms, Anveo.
Yeah, voipms is great and there’s a sms app for Android available on fdroid. It really is so cheap you won’t need to pause it, and works fine with linphone or whatever sip app you want to use.
JMP.chat is your best choice for the most privacy-oriented VOIP service. Paired with the Cheogram app on FDroid, it’s a great user experience. they can port numbers in and out as well. you can pay with monero/btc/eth.
I am not sure about pausing though, I would ask them what your options are.
Do they have encryption?
encryption for what exactly?
So that the messages aren’t sitting unencrypted on the XMPP servers.
i think you’ll have to ask them, if they even store the messages, i think maybe they just relay them, but it honestly doesnt matter bro, text messages are the most insecure communication on the planet, i think more insecure than JMP’s xmpp servers.
We can’t prove what they do on their devices. We encrypt.
For the $5 first payment, they have a partnership with Snikket who will setup and administer a private XMPP server for you. It’s included in the price if service and is retained for as long as you maintain a server. You can use it for any XMPP thing you want, and have as many users on it as you want.
When i tried they didn’t do MMS properly. So YMMV.
worked for me, send and receive
If I can find my message to them, I’ll post what it was. I can’t remember if the messages arrived oddly or if it was sending pictures, etc. etc. It was just some hangup where I couldn’t justify going to it. I would’ve liked to otherwise because like OP I basically only use Google at all for GV.
did you use Cheogram? also reach out to their group chat or support, they are very helpful
JMP is my recommendation too. I don’t think you can pause it, but the cost is so low it might not matter.
