I'm considering leaving behind my google account, to be surveilled no more (or, more realistically, to be surveilled significantly less).
GMail is pretty easy to replace with another email service.
But I wonder if anyone can recommend a suitable replacement for Google Voice. Importantly, I am willing to pay a monthly bill in US Dollars, but I'm not a business, just a household with two adults, so it shouldn't cost much.
Some requirements:
- I want to make and receive calls over the internet on both my smartphone and from my desktop.
- I want voicemails, when I miss a call, to be delivered to my email. Ideally both as an audio file and with a transcription, but I could live with just the audio.
- It's ok if I can only make calls within the US.
- I want to port in my existing number which is now my google voice number
- I want to be able to port my number out again.
Grasshopper is the one I've heard plenty of commercials for, MightyCall cropped up multiple times during a quick search, others are listed too.
Personally I just left my Google Voice account behind and ported it's number to my cell carrier. But email/desktop integration isn't a key need for me.