Google Voice is a US-only service lets users replace their traditional phone numbers. It does this by giving a free phone number which users can use for phone calls and text messages on multiple devices. The Google Voice apps for mobile languished for five years, but Google finally overhauled them last year. Recently, Google stated that the service would receive the ability to place Wi-Fi calls soon.
Sprint had a longstanding integration with Google Voice that allowed users to use their Sprint phone number as their Google Voice number. Now, due to upcoming upgrades in Sprint’s network, Google has announced that Sprint will no longer be supporting the Google Voice-Sprint integration. The integration will end on June 1st. The change affects any Sprint customers who use their Sprint number as their Google Voice number, or any Google Voice users who use their Google Voice number on their Sprint phone through Sprint’s built-in Google Voice integration features. However, it does not affect customers who use Google Voice with a Sprint forwarding phone who have not enabled the “Google Voice with Sprint” integration, as only the integration is being disabled.
The changes are: from June 1, 2018, customers using Google Voice with Sprint integration will be charged for all outgoing calls (including international calls) and texts through Sprint at Sprint’s calling and texting rates. (It means they won’t be free anymore.) All new messages, calls, and voicemails sent from their Sprint phone will not be stored in Voice, but they will still be able to see their messages, voicemail, and call history from before June 1, 2018 in Voice on your Sprint device. They can export this data from their Google Voice account.
As the integration will no longer be supported, customers won’t be able to use Google Voice-enabled capabilities such as call forwarding, voicemail transcription, spam detection, and other Google Voice features. Customers can enable these capabilities for their Sprint device.
By June 1st, Google advises customers to disable the Google Voice with Sprint integration by navigating to the “Phones” tab in the legacy Google Voice settings, identifying the phone number using the Sprint integration in the list, and selecting the “Disable Sprint integration” link. Customers that have blocked any phone numbers in Googel Voice will need to pre-block these phone numbers in MySprint or on their Sprint device.
If customers have used their Sprint number as their Google Voice number, they will need to get a new Google Voice number from Google Voice to continue using it. They can port their Sprint number to Google Voice if they want to keep using the service with their phone number. If they port the Sprint number to Google Voice, they will be able to use their existing number to make calls and send messages with the Google voice apps. Additionally, customers can also setup their regular phone app on Android phones to use their Google Voice number.
Finally, if customers are using their Google Voice number on their Sprint phone, the calls they make from the device will no longer show their Google Voice number as their phone’s calling ID from June 1st. The company notes that they will need to use the Google Voice app to continue using their Google Voice number for phone calls and messages.
Source: Google