As a business owner, the last thing you want is to lose potential customers or, worse, drive them to your competitors. The best way to stop this is to keep your answer rates high by making sure there’s always someone around to pick up the phone.
That’s why many small businesses look into ring groups — also called hunt groups or ring orders — to notify teams of incoming calls. But while some VoIP solutions offer advanced ring groups, others (like Google Voice) offer more basic call routing tools.
This guide covers the ins and outs of Google Voice’s ring groups, including its prices, features, and limitations. Spoiler alert: most businesses don’t get past its bugs and restrictions. These ring groups also lack essential features (like auto-replies and toll-free numbers) most businesses need to grow.
Need a Google Voice alternative? We provide you with an option at the bottom of the guide.
Does Google Voice offer ring groups?
The free version of Google Voice doesn’t offer ring groups at all. And trying to use a third-party workaround may violate its terms of service.
Google Voice for business, however, offers ring groups on the Standard plan. This costs $20 per user per month (not counting your Google Workspace subscription), which is double the price of Google Voice’s base plan.
Once you upgrade, be prepared for strict limitations. Enabling ring groups comes with drawbacks, such as:
- Losing the ability to send or receive text messages to and from that number. And if your team needs to text, managers will have no clear oversight of customer conversations since reps have to use specific phone numbers. You also won’t be able to text from a phone number that has an auto-attendant in Google Voice enabled.
- Limited analytics. While you can edit ring groups from your admin console and access some analytics, there’s no way to generate advanced reports unless you upgrade to the next plan ($30 per user per month).
- Google Voice doesn’t support vanity or toll-free numbers. This means you can only put ring groups on local phone numbers, which you have to add one at a time (up to a max of 50 ring group members).
But these limitations are only the tip of the iceberg — you also have to worry about bugs and glitches. Previous Voice users cite issues like:
- Ring groups only forwarding to web browsers, but not on Android devices
- Ring groups hanging up after one ring
- Intermittent issues with calls not ringing users
11 Google Voice limitations that can slow your business growth
Using Google Voice to set up ring groups could be disappointing at best.
But that’s not the only place this business phone system falls short.
Here are 11 other downsides of Google Voice to keep in mind:
1. More difficult for your team to collaborate
There’s no such thing as a shared Google Voice phone number, making it difficult to work together to solve issues or answer questions. You also can’t work with colleagues by tagging them in-platform since there are no internal threads or mentions to help you delegate tasks.
Need to chat with teammates? You’ll have to use a secondary tool. But since Google Voice isn’t compatible with third-party platforms, you’ll need something in the G-Suite to keep in touch.
2. Customer conversation history is siloed
Google Voice separates all calls, texts, and voicemails into separate folders. This could be helpful if you’re organizing types of communication, but it won’t do much good if you’re hunting for context.
For example, there’s no way to see the entire conversation history in Google Voice with a single customer. You also can’t sort messages into filtered call views, which makes it more difficult to identify higher-priority messages.
3. Can’t automatically track calls in third-party apps like HubSpot or Salesforce
Google Voice integrations are only other Google apps, you can’t track call activity in your CRM like Salesforce or HubSpot. Even if you have a developer available, there’s no Google Voice API to set up custom integrations.
The best you can do is integrate with the G-Suite, which means you’re stuck with apps like:
- Gmail
- Google Calendar
- Google Chat
- Google Drive
- Google Meet
Not already using the G-Suite? You’ll have to add to your tech stack or look for a Google Voice alternative.
4. Limited three-way calling
Three-way calls in Google Voice could unintentionally expose your personal info.
If you’re initiating a conference call in the mobile app, the first participant will see your Google Voice number, and the second participant will see your personal mobile number. This could put you in an awkward position and make it harder to keep your personal and professional lives separate.
Your other (safer) option is to use Google Meet since you can’t make three-way calls on Google Voice’s browser app. But again, this is frustrating if you don’t want to hop on camera — or upgrade for better features.
5. You can’t purchase or use toll-free numbers
You can’t buy or use toll-free numbers on Google Voice. If you already have an existing toll-free number, you’ll have to leave it with your current carrier or replace it with a new local Google Voice number.
Considering how much work goes into toll-free numbers — not to mention posting them on your website, business cards, and Google My Business page — this could be a major dealbreaker for growing brands.
6. Difficult to deliver messages at the right time
While Google Voice does provide SMS and MMS, it doesn’t offer modern features like auto-replies or scheduled messages.
You might find workarounds advertising support for Google Voice auto-replies, but these aren’t internally supported — remember, GV only integrates with the G-Suite.
You also won’t find any automations to make conversations easier. For example, there aren’t any AI-suggested message responses to help you answer customers faster.
7. Porting a number to Google Voice is expensive
Want to port your number to Google Voice? Be prepared to pay up.
First, you’ll have to pay $20 for the ‘luxury’ of porting in a number to the free version of Google Voice. If you want to port out, you’ll need to pay a $3 unlocking fee, even if the number wasn’t originally from Google Voice.
Here are even more drawbacks of porting with Google Voice:
- You can’t port in vanity or toll-free numbers
- Porting will remove special features Google doesn’t support (like auto-replies, for example)
- If Google loses your number while porting, it’ll be gone forever — you can’t get the number back or reclaim your call logs
8. No text message templates to help you save time
Modern VoIP systems offer texting tools and automations so you can save time on repetitive tasks.
But Google Voice doesn’t offer snippets (pre-saved messages) at all.
You won’t find the option to create templated texts to quickly respond to frequently asked questions.
9. No desktop app
Unlike other VoIP solutions, Google Voice doesn’t provide a desktop app. This means you can’t customize your settings on a computer or take calls without staying glued to your phone and you’ll need to switch between browser tabs.
10. Call recording requires an upgrade
Call recording in Google Voice isn’t cheap.
For one thing, you can’t access call recording at all as a Starter user. You’ll have to upgrade to the Standard plan for on-demand call recording, which is double the cost of the Starter plan.
Even then, Google Voice Standard users can’t tap into automatic call recordings without upgrading again. The Premier plan costs $30 per user per month — not including your Google Workspace subscription.
Curious how much Google Voice really costs? We cover the specifics in our guide to Google Voice pricing.
11. No free trial to test its ring groups feature
Want to try before you buy? This isn’t possible with Google Voice. There’s no free trial so you can test its ring groups feature, so the best you can do is watch YouTube tutorials or set up a temporary account.
Neither of these options makes sense for growing businesses, especially when other VoIP systems offer 100% free trials.
How to set up ring groups in OpenPhone
As you can see, Google Voice’s ring groups are dated, clunky, and hard to use. They’re a lot less customizable compared to modern business phone systems — and they’re expensive, confusing, and limited to boot.
If you’re looking for a VoIP platform that offers more efficient call routing, OpenPhone’s ring groups are exactly what you’re looking for. These let you customize your ring order without giving up key phone features (like auto-replies and snippets).
You can set up a ring group in OpenPhone in five steps:
1. First, invite team members to your OpenPhone Business plan. Simply go to Settings in your workspace, select Members, and click Invite your team. Then, enter their email and select Add to list.
2. Set your business hours. To do this, navigate to Settings in your workspace and tap Phone numbers. Next, select the phone number you wish to add hours to. Then, scroll to the Call Flow section and tap the toggle that says Enable business hours. Now, you can set open hours for you and your team in your business’s time zone, so callers always get routed to the right place when they call.
Now it’s time to set up your ring order!
3. Set up your ring order. Scroll to the Ring order section and open the drop menu.
4. Select the ring order you’d like for your business. You have three options:
- All at once: Every member of the shared number is notified of calls and texts unless it’s outside their work schedule or they’ve turned on Do Not Disturb.
- Random: Randomly ring team members in batches until someone picks up the phone.
- Custom: Ring batches in order of priority until someone picks up the phone. If no one responds, the caller is sent to voicemail.
5. Finally, add the ring duration for your ring group by selecting the number of seconds from the drop-down menu.
And that’s it! Your ring order in OpenPhone is ready to rumble.
Of course, you get a lot more than a ring order with an OpenPhone account.
Here’s how we make it easier to build better relationships with your customers:
- Get unlimited calls and texts to the US and Canada. This applies even if you’re located overseas.
- Purchase local, toll-free, and vanity numbers. You can put ring groups and auto-attendants on any number you own — and you won’t have to purchase a separate number or worry about losing the ability to text. You can also port your number to OpenPhone for free, regardless of whether you’re porting in or out.
- Manually or automatically record calls. OpenPhone offers unlimited storage so you don’t have to worry about paying for more space. You can also record calls from any device, whether that’s your computer, tablet, or mobile.
- Save time texting. You can use auto-replies to set expectations, schedule texts in your recipient’s time zone, and create templated snippets that quickly answer FAQs.
- See calls, texts, and voicemails in one unified inbox. You can see an entire conversation history in a single location, and everyone on your team knows who’s taking care of what. They can also answer text messages and take calls together to easily split responsibility for incoming calls.
- Connect with thousands of integrations. You can access more than 7,000 integrations with Zapier alone, plus native integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, Slack, and more.
- Take more repetitive tasks off your plate. Our AI-generated message responses can help you brainstorm ideas and respond to customers faster. When you’re ready for more AI, you can upgrade to our Business plan for call summaries, transcripts, contact summaries, and AI call tags.
Increase your response times and avoid missed calls with OpenPhone’s ring groups
So are Google’s ring groups worth it? That depends on your business.
But if you’re hunting for a flexible tool that can be customized to your business, there’s a good chance you’ll outgrow it fast and need to port elsewhere.
Compared to Google Voice, OpenPhone offers a modernized system that allows you to focus on delighting your customers and growing your company. We make it quick and easy to set up ring orders for your team, then plug into dozens of other features your business needs to grow.
The cherry on top? You can try before you buy.
Test our ring order feature (plus everything else) with a seven-day free trial.
