Maybe you’re trying to follow up with a lead or smooth things over with a disgruntled customer. Either way, you’ll need to search your Google Voice history for context.
This guide breaks down all its quirks and limitations so you’ll know if it’s the right fit for your business.
And if you’re looking for a better solution, we provide a modern alternative to Google Voice that tracks all customer conversations — including texts, calls, and voicemails — in one place.
How does Google Voice store conversation history?
On its paid and free plans, Google Voice’s conversation history separates calls, texts, and voicemails into different folders. This makes it difficult to find and catch up on conversations since you have to search through each folder and piece together a ‘trail’ of customer interactions.
You should also know that while Google Voice maintains a log of incoming and outgoing calls, it doesn’t include transcriptions, call recordings, and more.
There are a few other quirks to keep in mind:
- You can’t hide conversations or set them as in progress unless you mark them as archived in your account. Even then, the thread will pop back up if someone sends a reply, which could clutter your inbox and push conversations out of order.
- If you delete a message in Google Voice, you delete it for good. You can’t restore or export it later, so think twice before trying to organize your inbox.
- On the free plan, you can’t export or link your call history to third-party tools. This means you have to upgrade to a paid plan to send your contact history to another platform, and even then, you’re limited to just the Google Suite (more on that later).
If you’re at the helm of a growing business, Google Voice’s search history might be a dealbreaker.
But you should know this isn’t the end of its drawbacks.
Keep reading for a list of other Google Voice limitations.
9 more limitations to Google Voice you should know
Apart from its confusing call history feature, there are nine other Google Voice cons to consider:
1. You need a Google Workspace subscription
Google Voice for business requires a Google Workspace subscription on top of your Google Voice plan. This means the least you can pay is $16 per user per month, though you’ll have to upgrade from the basic plan once you have 11 or more team members.
Curious how much Google Voice actually costs? You can read our guide on Google Voice pricing.
2. Texting is only available in the US
Unlike many other VoIPs, texting with Google Voice isn’t available to customers outside the US. You can send texts to customers in Canada if you live in the US, but if you’re located overseas, you’re out of luck.
This could be a major issue if you have a global customer base or want to text clients who live in other countries.
3. Lack of collaboration features makes it difficult for reps to work together
Google Voice doesn’t offer shared inboxes, which means everyone on your team needs to use their own numbers to reach customers. Plus, there’s no team messaging or internal threads to tag reps.
You also can’t collaborate with team members elsewhere by syncing your contact data with third-party tools.
In other words, you should be prepared for:
4. No third-party integrations
Google Voice only integrates with other Google apps. There’s no way to connect with the tools you’re already using (including through a Google Voice API), like Salesforce, Slack, or HubSpot.
While Google Meet and Google Calendar have their place in a tech stack, if you’re running a growing business, they won’t be enough to keep it running smoothly.
5. No free trial to test out its features
You can use Google Voice for personal use without paying an up-front cost. However, Google Voice for business doesn’t offer a free trial, which means you can’t test its features before making an investment.
Even if you start with the free version of Google Voice, you can’t try its more ‘advanced’ features — like call recording, Google Voice ring groups, reporting, and auto-attendants with Google Voice — without upgrading to a paid plan. And keep in mind that upgrading from the free version could be a pain. If you decide to keep your free Google Voice number, you’ll need to pay to unlock it, port it to another carrier, and then port the number into a paid Google Voice plan (and hope it doesn’t get lost in transit).
6. No desktop app
Both versions of Google Voice include a browser-based web app and mobile apps for iOS and Android phones.
Unfortunately, neither version offers a desktop app. This could be a frustrating limitation if you’re looking for more ways to customize your phone system or if you’re not using one of Google’s compatible browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Microsoft Edge).
7. No toll-free numbers
Although you can purchase additional Google phone numbers for business, toll-free numbers aren’t supported. If you already have a toll-free number, you’ll have to leave it with another carrier or purchase a separate VoIP system.
This is a major dealbreaker for businesses that want to expand overseas. Not only will your customers incur long-distance fees to contact your business, but you’ll have to pay extra to leave your toll-free number with another carrier.
There’s also a chance it could make you look less professional. This leads us to the next limitation. . .
8. Auto-replies aren’t supported
In case you’re unfamiliar, auto-replies are automated text messages that instantly respond to missed texts or calls. These are handy for giving your customers context when you’re out of the office or your team is clocked out for the day.
The good news is auto-replies are supported by most modern VoIP platforms. The bad news is Google Voice doesn’t offer auto-replies.
9. Limited availability
One of the biggest drawbacks of Google Voice? Its strict location limitations.
Google Voice for personal use is only available in the US. Google Voice for business use is only available in certain countries.
These include:
- Belgium
- Canada
- Denmark
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- The Netherlands
- Portugal
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- The UK
- The US (not including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands)
Your only other option would be Google’s SIP link subscription, which comes with two plans (SIP Link Standard and SIP Link Premier). However, the SIP link is only available in five other countries:
- Mexico
- Colombia
- Chile
- Brazil
- Argentina
For growing brands with international or distributed teams, this could be the nail in the coffin for finding a Google Voice alternative.
As you’ve seen, Google Voice’s history function stores conversations in separate folders. This means you’ll have to sort through your SMS, call, and voicemail inboxes separately and then piece together the puzzle from there.
Even with help from the Google Voice search bar, be prepared to spend hours looking for context on your own. These siloed inboxes can lead to fragmented conversations, resulting in longer response times, dropped balls, and angry customers.
But there’s a smarter alternative to siloed inboxes: shared inboxes — and they’re specifically designed for team collaboration.
As a quick definition, shared inboxes are unified folders that store all your calls, call recordings, missed calls, texts, and voicemails in a single place. This means you don’t need to search through different folders to get context. And depending on your VoIP provider, they’re also accessible to any number of people, which means you can quickly create teams, departments, and other small groups on a single shared number.
Of course, keep in mind that shared inboxes vary depending on your provider. For example, OpenPhone’s shared inboxes also come with call views, which let you see and filter a log of customer calls made in your inbox (like missed calls, incoming calls, outgoing calls, and calls by a specific user).
You can also:
- Dig into specific conversations quickly using AI-call transcripts to coach your team as needed.
- Add custom properties and notes to contacts that all team members can see. If you integrate with external programs (e.g., your CRM), you can automatically sync information between platforms to keep everyone on the same page.
- To keep your inbox clean and organized, mark conversation threads as Done, Read, or Unread. This will help you keep convos from falling through the cracks and prevent you from accidentally doubling up on the same tasks.
- Use shared inboxes to collaborate via internal threads. Team members can tag one another with mentions to delegate tasks or ask for clarification. Then they can leave comments, link to resource docs, or brainstorm responses together as a department.
- Name each of your shared inboxes so you always know what your contacts need. For example, if someone texts your customer support inbox, you can safely assume they’re looking for support. If they left a voicemail on your sales number, you can probably guess they’re looking for a quote.
Learn more by comparing OpenPhone vs Google Voice.
The best Google Voice alternative: OpenPhone
Google Voice might work as a personal second number. But its confusing call history and additional limitations aren’t a good choice for growing collaborative teams.
The good news is that Google Voice is the exception rather than the rule — and as you can see, OpenPhone makes conversation histories much easier. You can store every point of contact in the same shared inbox and tap into call views so you can see who on your team picked up the phone.
But that’s not all you get with an OpenPhone plan.
You also have access to these business features:
- With shared phone numbers, everyone on your team has access to customer contact details. You don’t need to worry about losing track of names and numbers. You can even connect with your CRM to keep customer data updated between platforms.
- OpenPhone was designed to scale alongside your team. That’s why every member on your plan gets one free US, Canadian, or toll-free number. Need more phone numbers than you have people on your team? Additional phone numbers cost $5 per number per month.
- Unlike Google Voice, every plan includes call recording. On-demand call recording lets you pick specific conversations to record, while automatic call recording captures audio on every call.
- Text message automations like snippets, auto-replies, and scheduled texts help you get more work done while focusing on other tasks. For example, it’s easy to send a templated snippet that quickly responds to FAQs. You can use auto-replies to instantly respond to missed texts, calls, and voice messages. Need to text someone overseas? You can use scheduled texts to queue it up in the recipient’s time zone.
As you can see, OpenPhone is more than just a business phone app — we’re an all-in-one VoIP platform that builds better relationships with your customers. That’s why hundreds of previous Google Voice users have ported their numbers to OpenPhone.
And unlike Google Voice, you can try us for free.
Take OpenPhone on a test drive with a seven-day free trial.
FAQs
In the Google Voice app ( browser and mobile), you’ll see three tabs: calls, messages, and voicemails. You’ll have to sift through each to find your most recent customer interactions. You can also use the search bar to hunt for specific conversations, but keep in mind it only searches your SMS folder unless you’re paying for a Google Workspace plan.
You can export your SMS history on the free version of Google Voice with Google Takeout (takeout.google.com), which isn’t fully supported by Google Workspace. If you’re paying for a business plan, you’ll need to visit admin.google.com/ac/customertakeout. Keep in mind you’re limited to one export every 30 days, and you can’t begin the export process until your account is 30 days old.
Once you log into your Google Voice account, tap the Calls tag (the phone symbol) to open your recent call history.
Once you delete a point of conversation from Google Voice — including text messages, phone calls, and voicemails — it’s gone for good. The best option is to archive your conversations so you can still access and search for them whenever needed.
First things first: you can only export account data from an OpenPhone number if you’re the workspace owner. From your workspace menu, select Settings and General, look at the bottom of your Workspace settings section, and select the data you wish to export. Tap Export data to complete the process. For a step-by-step walkthrough, check out our comprehensive guide.
OpenPhone saves and stores all message and call logs indefinitely under the Done tab in your workspace. If you cancel your subscription, we’ll store your conversations for up to 14 days so you can access or export your data before your account closes.
