Google voice for keeping US phone number

Has anyone used google voice to keep US phone number while living abroad?

That's exactly what I did. It works great for me. I can call back to the US through Hangouts and they receive the phone call with my US number identified. If anyone wants to call me from the US, Hangouts receives the call and I can pick up wherever. It's much better to use wifi, however, if you have plenty of mobile internet allowance then you can pick up using 3g/4g through your mobile. Also, works amazing for text messages.

That's exactly what I did. It works great for me. I can call back to the US through Hangouts and they receive the phone call with my US number identified. If anyone wants to call me from the US, Hangouts receives the call and I can pick up wherever. It's much better to use wifi, however, if you have plenty of mobile internet allowance then you can pick up using 3g/4g through your mobile. Also, works amazing for text messages.

Wow! Cool. Ok so you sign up with google voice, and cancel your US contract, and can use the number still via hangouts. Does it keep the number for if/when you move back to the states? And is it all free of charge?

Same here. I have been able to transfer it to 3 different phones since I have been here without a hitch.

That's exactly what I did. It works great for me. I can call back to the US through Hangouts and they receive the phone call with my US number identified. If anyone wants to call me from the US, Hangouts receives the call and I can pick up wherever. It's much better to use wifi, however, if you have plenty of mobile internet allowance then you can pick up using 3g/4g through your mobile. Also, works amazing for text messages.

Yep! You need to make sure to transfer the number before cancelling. Transfer, cancel, starts using Hangouts! You can definitely still use it in the US. I have a separate T-Mobile sim, which I charge up with data when I'm visiting the US. Transferring and using Hangouts is all free. I have never ever paid 1 cent, only internet use (wifi or mobile data).

I've used the Google Voice to get incoming texts and voice messages and it's been handy to be able to give out a US number to companies I still deal with (like U.S. Credit Cards).

But I have given up my US phone since signing up for it, and you can't link it to a phone number from the UK.  I still get notifications of voicemails and texts on my Googlephone app, but the phone doesn't ring on my phone anymore, and I was wondering if I could link it up again.

Any suggestions? And sorry for treating you all like tech support!

Any suggestions? And sorry for treating you all like tech support!

From my experience, there's no Google Voice app anymore. It has been replaced with Hangouts. I get texts and phone calls as if I'm in the US. There is a setting to only receive texts/calls through wifi so if you're using mobile internet, those get sent to your voicemail. Try searching through your app store (I have Android).

I can't seem to get this? I had a Google Voice number a long time ago, and it lapsed so I can't seem to get it back. It looks like I'd have to pay to use Hangouts to call anyone, too.

Instead, I pay for localphone (a few pence really) for a US local number and list that for a contact for those companies in the US that still need a local number (banks/credit cards/etc). It will forward calls made to that phone number to my UK mobile phone and charge me a really low rate (no one has called me yet, but I only put it in place in case banks need to call me/etc). I also paid for Skype world or something so I could call my friends and family back home as much as I want.

If I could get hangouts to work and it's cheaper than Skype, I'd consider that!