Shared phone numbers are a must-have feature for business phone systems. They’re like Bluetooth in cars or GPS in mobile phones — most companies offer them, but not all do.
Take Google Voice, for example: they don’t technically offer shared phone numbers, but they do offer workarounds for ringing multiple devices (albeit with a few drawbacks).
Are Google Voice’s ‘shared numbers’ enough for your business? You be the judge. We’re covering everything you should know about how they work and where they fall short, as well as other Google Voice limitations you should keep in mind.
And if you’re looking for a better way to share a business number, we provide an alternative that makes it easy to track all customer conversations (like calls, texts, and voicemails) from anywhere with a WiFi connection.
Google Voice lets you share phone numbers through ring groups, which let multiple reps make and receive calls from the same phone number. You can also set up specific ring orders to ensure customers reach the most qualified member of your team. This includes round robin call orders, simultaneous ring, and fixed order call routing.
You should know that ring groups are only available on Google Voice for business: the free version doesn’t offer them at all. Not only will you need to migrate to a paid plan, but you’ll need to upgrade immediately — ring groups are only available on the Standard plan ($20 per user per month).
Keep in mind that Google Voice’s ring groups aren’t the same as modern shared phone numbers. Many of its features are limited at best, and compared to true shared numbers, they’re relatively bare-bones.
For example:
- While you can answer customer calls from the same number using ring groups, you can’t send texts using that number.
- Team members can’t message each other in the Google Voice app, so they’ll have to rely on a separate app like Slack to communicate. They also can’t tag one another in conversations to quickly delegate tasks or leave key context in comments.
- There’s no way to access customer conversations in one place since all calls, texts, and voicemails are stored in separate folders — making it more time-consuming to catch up on conversations.
10 more Google Voice limitations to keep in mind
Unimpressed by Google Voice’s ‘shared numbers?’ This, unfortunately, is just the tip of the iceberg.
Here are 10 more Google Voice cons to keep in mind:
1. Automatic call recording requires an upgrade
If you want to automatically record calls with Google Voice, be prepared to upgrade to the Premier plan ($30 per user per month). This is far more expensive than other VoIP platforms like OpenPhone, which offer automatic call recording for nearly 25% less.
2. Google Voice doesn’t have a desktop app
Google Voice only provides a web browser and mobile apps — there’s no desktop app available. This might be a problem if you don’t want to log in through your browser (like working on public WiFi).
3. Three-way calls on Google Voice means your personal number is on display
You can make three-way calls with Google Voice, although you might also run the risk of leaking your personal information. If you’re calling from the mobile app, the first person on the call sees your Google Voice phone number, but the second person will see your personal cell phone number.
4. A Google Workspace subscription is a must-have to use Google Voice
Ring groups with Google Voice require a paid business plan. But to purchase a paid business plan, you need a Google Workspace account — which costs an extra $7 per user per month minimum for the base tier.
That brings the true cost of Google Voice’s ring groups to $27 per user per month (and reps still can’t text from the same number).
5. Texting is only available in the US
There are many texting limits with Google Voice. For starters, SMS is limited to US users only. Plus, you can only send messages to customers in the US and Canada, which means international texting is out of the question.
If you have a global customer base, using Google Voice in Canada or other countries outside the US might not make sense for your business.
6. No texting automations to help you save time
Speaking of SMS features, Google Voice doesn’t offer ways to automate your messaging or save time on repetitive tasks.
This means you won’t have access to:
- Auto-replies, so you can’t instantly reply to missed calls, texts, and voicemails to set expectations with callers
- Pre-written text message templates (aka snippets), so you can’t quickly answer common questions or help everyone on your team use consistent language when responding to customers
- Scheduled texts, so you can’t queue up messages to automatically send later
7. Can’t integrate with third-party apps to automate your workflow
The best business phone services let you integrate your tech stack so you can push key information from one app to another. But there aren’t many Google Voice integrations to speak of: this system only connects with Google Meet, Google Calendar, and other Google apps. If you want to integrate more software with your phone system, you’ll have to switch to a Google Voice alternative.
8. No toll-free numbers
Google Voice doesn’t offer toll-free numbers at all. This applies to the free plan and the paid plans for business. There’s also no way to port existing toll-free numbers to Google Voice — you’ll have to store them with a separate carrier or get rid of them completely.
9. No free trial to test its features
Want to try Google Voice before you buy? No dice: Google Voice for Google Workspace doesn’t offer a free trial.
This means you can’t test any features — including ring groups — before purchasing a plan and onboarding your team.
10. It isn’t easy to make international calls
With the free version of Google Voice, there’s no way to make or receive international calls. Google Voice for business isn’t much better: you can make international calls but can’t send international texts.
There are also some countries you can’t call at all, including China. And if you live in South America (including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, or Mexico), the only way to make international calls with Google Voice will be to pay for a SIP link.
Google Voice is a lot of things — but collaborative isn’t one of them. Its shared phone numbers aren’t more than ring groups, and with so many other drawbacks to consider, it’s rarely a fit for small and growing businesses.
The good news is that other phone systems do it better, including VoIP providers like OpenPhone. And not to toot our own horn, but we have true shared phone numbers — just ask the thousands of reviewers who ranked us the #1 business phone system on G2.
With OpenPhone, you can set up shared phone numbers using local and toll-free numbers. You can also add unlimited users with our Business plan ($23 per user per month) to better split responsibility for incoming calls.
Here’s why OpenPhone’s shared phone numbers stand head and shoulders above Google Voice’s ring groups:
- Easily split responsibility for making and receiving calls. Everyone on your team can use the same business phone number from their personal devices (tablet, laptop, phone, you name it). All they need is an internet connection: they can start making and receiving texts and voice calls from anywhere.
- Make sure customers reach the right person. With OpenPhone, it’s easy to create custom ring orders that notify specific team members of incoming calls. You can use simultaneous ring to send incoming calls to all available colleagues at once or random order to call team members one by one. You could also implement custom ring orders to notify specific groups or individuals until someone picks up the phone.
- Avoid doubling up on work or falling out of the loop. Real-time typing indicators, for example, help reps avoid replying to customers at the same time. You can also use tools like shared contact lists, which get automatically updated with new information so everyone stays on the same page.
- Store all customer conversations in the same centralized inbox. Every interaction — including texts, voicemails, calls, and call recordings — is kept in the same unified inbox so you can see their surrounding context. You don’t need to shift between multiple folders or piece together messages based on multiple points of contact.
- Collaborate with team members without ever leaving the app. With OpenPhone, you can easily tap into internal threads and comments to tag teammates in conversations. This could be helpful when you need to loop them into a conversation or if you want to work together to help solve customer problems.
- Keep clear boundaries between your personal and professional life. You can easily set business hours that apply to your entire company, as well as individual working hours for shift-based work. This means you and your team members only get customer calls during open hours or while clocked in, which is a great way to protect your work-life balance (and feel less guilty when you’re out for the day).
- Give everyone on your team the confidence to perform better. Thanks to OpenPhone’s call views and analytics, you can easily keep track of who’s sending what. This makes it much easier to identify coaching opportunities so your reps get even better at serving your customers.
With OpenPhone, you can create shared phone numbers in 15 minutes or less:
- First, sign up for an OpenPhone account. Don’t worry — you can try us free for seven days.
- Pick (or port) the number you want to share. This could be a local US or Canadian number or a North American toll-free number.
- Choose a plan that’s right for you. Unlike Google Voice’s pricing, we start at $15 per user per month for up to 10 users on your shared phone number(s). When you’re ready for more advanced features (like automatic call recording and custom ring orders), you can upgrade to our Business plan for $23 per user per month.
- In your Admin Dashboard, invite the team members who should share your number. Just enter their email in the contact form, and they’ll get an email with a link to our desktop and mobile apps (iOS and Android).
- Finally, customize your call settings. You might want to label your shared numbers, create an auto-attendant to route calls to specific teammates or departments, set up personal and company business hours, record custom voicemail greetings, and much more.
The best Google Voice alternative: OpenPhone
If you’re already using Google Workspace for business, Google Voice’s shared numbers are at least better than nothing. But as you can see, they don’t replace ‘real’ shared phone numbers. And compared to OpenPhone, there really is no competition.
OpenPhone offers shared phone numbers on every plan so you can pick the perfect fit for your business. With all calls, texts, and voicemails stored in a simple, intuitive interface, you can rest easy knowing you’ll never miss a call.
Ready to see our shared numbers in action?
Sign up today for a seven-day free trial.
FAQs
If you sign up for the paid version of Google Voice, you simply add collaborators as users to your Google Voice account. If you’re using the free version, you’ll have to set them up with a forwarding number or give them your Google Voice app password. Just keep in mind this is your actual Google password, which will give people full access to your Gmail account, search history, calendar, and other sensitive information.
You can only get more than one Google Voice number if you purchase a paid plan (aka Google Workspace). Otherwise, you’ll need to purchase a Google Fiber phone, which is only available in select US cities and doesn’t support features like voicemail transcriptions or auto-attendants.
You can link up to six external forwarding numbers on the free version of Google Voice. If you upgrade to a Google phone number for business, you can link up to 10 users on the base plan. But if you need to link more phones than that or if you want to purchase ring groups, prepare to purchase the Standard plan ($20 per user per month).
First, you need to purchase a Standard Google Voice for business plan, which costs $20 per user per month. Then, you have to sign into your admin console to set up ring groups (aka a ‘shared number’) for your team. This will allow you to configure call handling, assign roles and numbers, and set up call flows for incoming/outgoing calls.
