Private company

Google Voice

Logo: Google, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons³

Telecommunications service by Google

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

Apr 1, 2006Founded¹

HeadquartersFremont¹
Websitewww.google.com/voice

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Google Voice is a telephone service that provides a U.S. telephone number to Google Account customers in the U.S. and Google Workspace (G Suite by October 2020) customers in Canada, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the contiguous United States. The service is configured and maintained by users in a web-based application, similar in style to Google's email service Gmail, or Android and iOS applications on smartphones or tablets. It is used for call forwarding and voicemail services, voice and text messaging, as well as U.S. and Canadian domestic and international calls. Incoming calls are forwarded to one or more telephone numbers that users must configure and verify in the account.²

Corporate structure

Google Voice is part of a group headed by Alphabet Inc.. 152 entities, 27 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Alphabet Inc. Mountain View, California, United States
- Firebase Wilmington, Delaware, United States
- Google Wilmington, Delaware, United States
  - Google Voice Fremont
  - Neverware Subsidiary · 100% · Manhattan
  - Pyra Labs Subsidiary · 100% · San Francisco
  - AdMob Subsidiary · Mountain View
  - Alooma Subsidiary · Israel
  - Anvato Subsidiary · Mountain View
  - Apigee Subsidiary · Palo Alto
  - Dodgeball Subsidiary
  - DoubleClick Subsidiary · New York City
  - Endoxon Subsidiary
  - Fitbit Subsidiary · San Francisco, California, United States
  - Gmail Subsidiary · Pittsburgh
  - Google (Ireland) Subsidiary · Dublin, Ireland
  - Google Arts & Culture Subsidiary
  - Google Blog Search Subsidiary
  - Google Canada Subsidiary · Waterloo, Canada
  - Google China Subsidiary
  - Google Fi Subsidiary
  - Google for Startups Subsidiary
  - Google Japan G.K. Subsidiary · Shibuya, Japan
  - Google Play Subsidiary
  - Google Poland Subsidiary · Warsaw, Poland
  - Google Reader Subsidiary · United States
  - Google Registry Subsidiary
  - Google Store Subsidiary
  - and 127 more
- Google (Switzerland) Zürich, Switzerland
- Google Italy Subsidiary · 100% · Milan, Italy
- Bitium Subsidiary · Santa Monica
- BufferBox Subsidiary · Toronto
- Calico Subsidiary · San Francisco
- CapitalG Subsidiary · Mountain View
- Chronicle Subsidiary
- Dropcam Subsidiary · San Francisco
- Flutter Subsidiary · San Francisco
- Google DeepMind Subsidiary · London
- Google Fiber Subsidiary
- Google Nest Subsidiary · Palo Alto
- GoogleLLC Subsidiary
- GV Subsidiary · Mountain View
- Isomorphic Labs Subsidiary · London
- Kaggle Subsidiary · San Francisco
- Makani Technologies Subsidiary · Alameda
- Meka Robotics Subsidiary · San Francisco
- Owlchemy Labs Subsidiary · Austin
- Oyster Subsidiary
- Sidewalk Labs Subsidiary
- Softcard Subsidiary · New York City
- Songza Subsidiary · Long Island City
- and 48 more

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries listed in Exhibit 21 of annual reports filed with the SEC; subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Origin

GrandCentral, founded in 2005 by Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet with funding by Minor Ventures, was acquired by Google on July 2, 2007, for US$95 million in a transaction led by Wesley Chan. Although GrandCentral users were able to continue to use the service after the purchase, new users were not accepted, and Google made no public statements about their plans for the service. On March 11, 2009, the management of the service revealed that the team had been working on it throughout that period, apparently in secret, and that it was being rebranded "Google Voice". It was to keep most of the functionality originally offered in GrandCentral and add new features. Google hired a telecom design consultant, Peter Bouchard; he was brought on to make modifications and help relaunch the service. The service was launched by Google on March 11, 2009. A Wired blog post quoted a figure of 3.5 million users in 2013.

Google transition

Google Voice was launched on March 11, 2009, based on GrandCentral, with new features, including voicemail transcriptions and SMS managing. However, GrandCentral's Ringback Tone feature was not transitioned over to Google Voice. Google transitioned former GrandCentral accounts to Google Voice and announced that the service would start accepting new members "within weeks" of the announcement. On June 25, 2009, NBC's Today Show stated that Google Voice would be available nationwide on that day. Google confirmed this in a Twitter message stating: "Google Voice on NBC Today Show. Invites to people on reservations list starting to go out today." The expansion was at first limited to users queued on the invitation list. Users with paid-in balances also received a limited number of invitation opportunities.

On July 1, 2009, Google Voice provided the option for users to change their service telephone number for a U.S. $10 fee.

On September 15, 2009, GrandCentral calling services were discontinued. Subscribers who used the website could still log into the site to retrieve old messages and data. After termination of GrandCentral services, users who haven't moved over to Google Voice were still advised to upgrade their account to Google Voice.

Gizmo5 acquisition

On November 12, 2009, Google announced that it had acquired Gizmo5 for a reported U.S. $30 million in cash. A major effect of this announcement was that Gizmo5 suspended new signups pending re-launch by Google. Google was reported to be working on a desktop application, though rumors also circulated that the project had been scrapped in favor of a browser-based solution. On August 26, 2010 Gmail accounts with Google Voice were given a function to make and receive calls. Google Voice product manager, Vincent Paquet, confirmed that this function was added through the help of the technology received after the Gizmo5 acquisition. In 2011, the Gizmo5 site closed service to its registered members. As of January 2012, the website is no longer available.

Open availability

On June 22, 2010, Google Voice removed its invitation requirement, making the service accessible to all U.S. users with a Google account.

Rejection from the iPhone app store

On July 27, 2009, Apple Inc. rejected a Google Voice app that had been submitted by Google six weeks earlier. Other apps created for use with Google Voice, such as GVdialer, GV Mobile and VoiceCentral, were removed from the App Store. Apple states that the reason for the rejection and removals is that these apps replaced certain iPhone functions and features.

A Google spokesman released this statement on the matter:

Read the full text

We work hard to bring Google applications to a number of mobile platforms, including the iPhone. Apple Inc. did not approve the Google Voice application we submitted six weeks ago to the App Store (iOS/iPadOS). We will continue to work to bring our services to iPhone users – for example, by taking advantage of advances in mobile browsers.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened an inquiry regarding the rejection of Google Voice for the iPhone. "The FCC asked why Apple rejected the Google Voice application for the iPhone and removed related 'third-party applications' from its store." The FCC has also requested Google to submit a letter describing the application of Google Voice. "The request is part of a broader-ranging inquiry by the commission on exclusive deals between cell phone carriers and handset manufacturers for hot phones."

In their response to the FCC, Google stated that the Google Voice application uses the carrier's voice network to place telephone calls, dispelling misconceptions that it is a Voice over Internet Protocol application. AT&T stated that they had no role in approval or rejection of the Google Voice application. Apple stated that they had not rejected the application but were continuing to examine it. One argument against allowing the Google Voice app on the iPhone is that they are concerned that it replaces the iPhone user interface with its own; however many other dialers and messaging apps are available from the app store.

As a result of rejection from the Apple Store, Google released its Google Voice iPhone application as a web app in January 2010, and certain apps like GV Mobile are available through Cydia on jailbroken iPhones.

In September 2010, Sean Kovacs, creator of the app GV Mobile +, announced on his Twitter that Apple had re-accepted the application, and it has since been available for purchase on the Apple App Store. This is the second Google Voice service app available in the Apple's official application store for a year and a half, released just a day after "GV Connect" had been available.

In November 2010, the official Google Voice iPhone application became available in the App Store in the United States, but was still not available in other countries.

Google Hangouts

In September 2014, certain Google Voice features were integrated into the Google Hangouts application, an instant messaging client, which is a replacement for Google Talk. In early 2021, Google removed Google Voice support from the Hangouts mobile and desktop apps.

2017 update

In January 2017, Google made the first significant updates to Google Voice in approximately five years for Android, iOS, and the Web. The user interface was overhauled with Material Design. Group and photo MMS became natively supported in Voice, not depending on Hangouts integration. Voicemail transcription for Spanish was introduced, and Google promised to provide new updates and features.

Google Workspace

On July 25, 2018, Google announced the launch of a beta version of Google Voice for business customers at their Cloud NEXT event in San Francisco, California. On April 10, 2019, Google announced the general availability release for Google Voice for existing G Suite (now Google Workspace) customers in select countries.

From Wikipedia’s article on Google Voice, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.⁴

Products and brands

Technical Operations

Google Voice operates as a Voice over IP (VoIP) service that integrates internet-based calling with the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Users are assigned a US telephone number and calls are routed through Google's cloud infrastructure. For VoIP calls via the Google Voice app or web client, it employs WebRTC for real-time audio transport over UDP ports 19302–19309, using the Opus codec for high-definition audio when both endpoints are using VoIP. Calls involving the PSTN are bridged via session border controllers (SBCs) using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to connect to telecom partners listed under § Partners and Infrastructure, falling back to the G.711 codec. Outbound carrier-mode calls dial a Google access number, connecting to Google's servers before routing the call to the destination, with the user's Google Voice number as the caller ID. Incoming calls are received by partner carriers, handed to Google's SBCs, and simultaneously ring all configured devices.

Google Voice launched in 2009 as a PSTN relay service and became a full VoIP service in 2018 with WebRTC, replacing XMPP signaling used with Google Talk and OBihai using analog telephone adapters. A 2024 patent lawsuit highlighted a split-channel approach for pre-call data and voice efficiency.

Limited international texting service

Google Voice supports sending text messages to telephone numbers in the U.S. and Canada, but users can receive text messages from anywhere in the world.

VoIP services

Google Voice permits Voice Over IP (VoIP) as a beta from both the web and Android clients. It formerly supported XMPP signaling but no longer does. However, it has been reported that at one time some users could receive calls with their Google Voice accounts via the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

Read the full text

Third-party devices

Hardware manufacturers such as Obihai Technology have created devices that enable the home user to use conventional wired telephone(s) to place and receive calls over their broadband connection through Google Voice, as well as other service providers.

Google Voice terminated support for some XMPP services in May 2014, disrupting service for 3rd party apps. Affected vendors included Talkatone, GrooveIP and Obihai. Obihai initially recommended its users to switch to rival providers but returned with official Google Voice support for its hardware analog telephone adapters on September 11, 2014.

Software manufacturers offer applications, such as PCPhoneSoft.com's "GVJack" App that converts magicJack dongles to use Google Voice. The GVJackApp for magicJack and the GVMate Phone Adapter are signalling independent and continued to work (using Google Hangouts) after support for XMPP was terminated.