Google Voice for a volunteer gig
September 4, 2024 2:27 PM Subscribe
I am being asked to set up a Google Voice account so that we have a phone number to give out to prospective volunteers. GV is free for personal use and has a cost for business usage, right? Well, this is a non-profit organization and I have not been given a budget.
I also don't want to connect this to any of my existing personal accounts, but the google accounts the org gives us change every year. The person who used to have my position says her gv account is expiring. She also never used it except to retrieve voicemails. I would like to use this for clients during tax season to call no shows and people on the waiting list for appointments by calling or texting them from my own phone with this number. Is that all possible on a personal account?
Am I over thinking the sign-up piece here? Is it easy to transfer the same phone number to a different google account on a yearly basis? Why would her account be expiring unless it was unused for a long period of time?
I also don't want to connect this to any of my existing personal accounts, but the google accounts the org gives us change every year. The person who used to have my position says her gv account is expiring. She also never used it except to retrieve voicemails. I would like to use this for clients during tax season to call no shows and people on the waiting list for appointments by calling or texting them from my own phone with this number. Is that all possible on a personal account?
Am I over thinking the sign-up piece here? Is it easy to transfer the same phone number to a different google account on a yearly basis? Why would her account be expiring unless it was unused for a long period of time?
Hmm. So I use google voice at an organization I'm involved with. We don't pay for it. Maybe we are supposed to, but it has never been an issue.
You don't get a google voice number for each google account you have. You get one for each *existing phone number* you have to associate it with. So in our org's case, someone associated their personal number with our organization's google voice account. They could transfer it to a different google account if they wanted.
I would like to use this for clients during tax season to call no shows and people on the waiting list for appointments by calling or texting them from my own phone with this number.
Yes, it's possible to add multiple numbers/devices to a google voice number. So for instance, even though our Google Voice account is linked with my co-organizer's personal cell, I can set it to ring my personal cell if I want to. It's easy to switch this regularly.
The person who used to have my position says her gv account is expiring.
It should be easy to keep the current Google Voice active-- I think by just making a call from it.
posted by ambulanceambiance at 3:00 PM on September 4
You don't get a google voice number for each google account you have. You get one for each *existing phone number* you have to associate it with. So in our org's case, someone associated their personal number with our organization's google voice account. They could transfer it to a different google account if they wanted.
I would like to use this for clients during tax season to call no shows and people on the waiting list for appointments by calling or texting them from my own phone with this number.
Yes, it's possible to add multiple numbers/devices to a google voice number. So for instance, even though our Google Voice account is linked with my co-organizer's personal cell, I can set it to ring my personal cell if I want to. It's easy to switch this regularly.
The person who used to have my position says her gv account is expiring.
It should be easy to keep the current Google Voice active-- I think by just making a call from it.
posted by ambulanceambiance at 3:00 PM on September 4
All you have to do to keep a Google Voice number from expiring is send a text or make a call every few months (and they give you a warning about this by email with plenty of notice and explain in that email how to keep the account active). Incoming calls and texts exclusively will not keep the account from expiring. It seems a lot easier just to keep the account active rather than creating new ones all the time, if you are using the same Google account.
posted by ssg at 3:31 PM on September 4
posted by ssg at 3:31 PM on September 4
Response by poster: This is good, I am fine tying the account to my personal phone number. If the old number isn’t totally expired, is it easy for her to transfer it to me? She’s not very tech savvy.
posted by soelo at 4:28 PM on September 4
posted by soelo at 4:28 PM on September 4
Shouldn't be a problem to transfer the number, just make sure you don't already have a Voice number attached to your account and follow the instructions.
posted by ssg at 7:02 PM on September 4
posted by ssg at 7:02 PM on September 4
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posted by metahawk at 2:56 PM on September 4 [3 favorites]