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second phone line

How to have 2 phone numbers with 1 phone

It’s always good practice to separate your business from your personal life as much as possible. Getting a second phone line is an easy and effective way to accomplish this. In this post, I’ll show you the benefits of using a Google Voice phone number for your business and how to set it up. It’s easy, free, and well worth the effort.

Google Voice is a service that allows you to have two phone numbers that call the same phone. Anytime somebody calls your business number, it goes directly to your personal phone or whatever phone you have it forward calls to.

The obvious benefit of using Google Voice is you only need to carry one phone. With the price of smartphones, who wants to deal with two? As a handyman, you already have enough tools and equipment to worry about. By using this free service, you get most of the benefits of having two completely separate phones without your pockets bulging with electronics.

Filtering incoming calls

For me, the ability to filter incoming calls is an absolute must. Depending on who is calling me, I answer the phone differently, or maybe not at all. With Google Voice, you can set it up so that your caller ID displays your Google Voice number anytime somebody is calling your business line. This will allow you to immediately recognize that it’s a business call before you even answer the phone. You can then prepare your professional voice for a phone call.

Without this ability, I’d tend to answer every phone call as if it were a business call. If my friends called from a number I didn’t recognize, they’d get my handyman phone greeting. Not ideal.

Separate voicemail greetings

Google Voice also allows you to set up a separate voicemail greeting for your Google Voice number. This is an awesome feature for obvious reasons. This will allow you to make your business greeting as cheesy as you want without having your friends make fun of you every time they leave a voicemail on your personal line.

Separate voicemail greetings also keep customers from hearing a personal voicemail greeting. Allowing your customers to hear your personal voicemail greeting is about as unprofessional as it gets. This will turn a lot of customers off or diminish your value as a service provider. Essentially it will make it more difficult for you to charge a premium for your services.

You choose your phone number

One of the coolest features of Google Voice is the ability to choose your own number so you can get a memorable one. However, many good numbers have already been taken, so it may take some time to choose the one you want.

It’s free!

As a new business owner, it’s hard to find anything business-related that doesn’t come at a premium.  At the moment, Google Voice is completely free. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Disadvantages

Nothing’s perfect, and Google Voice is no exception.  Here are a couple of the service’s limitations:

  • Outgoing calls to your customers will show your primary cell phone number on the customer’s caller ID. If you call a customer to follow up, they will tend to call you back on your personal number. However, this isn’t all that bad because they will usually only call you on that number once. The next time they call, they’ll reference your card or website for your phone number.
  • It’s harder to leave your business behind you when you go on vacation. I personally don’t like to think about business while on vacation, but when a customer calls, I can’t help but answer. After all, who wants to lose business? The only problem is that business calls can spoil a good time.

How to get it

It’s pretty simple to set up. If you already have a Gmail account, simply click here and follow the instructions. If you don’t use Gmail, you’ll need to create an account first. I recommend getting a Gmail account anyway for all of the amazing features and capabilities it offers for free.

Once you have signed up for a number, you’re going to want to mess with the settings a bit. Tweak the settings and ask your friends to call until you get the desired result.

I currently have mine set up so that when somebody calls my google voice number, it displays their phone number on the caller ID, but I have a voice prompt telling me that somebody is calling my google number. I can then either press “1” to answer or “2” to send to voicemail once I’ve answered. I always press “1”, but this just gives me a heads up that it is a business call.

Calls to my primary or personal phone number are handled as usual.

Questions?

When I first set up Google Voice, I had a couple of issues that I had to work through, and it was a little frustrating. I’d like to save you the agony. If you have any questions regarding how to set up a Google Voice number for your handyman business, please ask in the comment section below.

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  • Belinda July 5, 2012

    Actually if you have an android or iPhone you can specify which number you’d like to call from rather it be your google number or personal cell number. I’ve been utilizing their services for over 2 years. Also, you can set it up on line for your google voice site to specify groups for your contacts and have various voice mail settings for your callers. I’m in business also to help other small businesses and I teach this information to my clients as well as create marketing kits that include but not limited to: creating a website, business cards, marketing via social media.

    Perhaps there’s an opportunity for us to do business in the future.

    • Big D July 6, 2012

      Thanks for the tip Belinda. So how do you set up google voice to choose which phone to call through? I attempted to, but it said “this feature coming soon.” Maybe I missed something?

      • Tom November 15, 2012

        Big D, you probably already figured this out but you can download the Google Voice app for your iphone and use it to make calls from your business.

        • Big D November 15, 2012

          I actually didn’t know that. Now I do! Thanks!

        • Rolly June 14, 2013

          This is too cool! I downloaded GV to my Android and set it up so that I can make calls from my personal number or my GV number.

      • Francesca May 3, 2016

        I’ve been considering using Google Voice now that my contract has finally run out. Here’s my question: sometimes I can’t answer the phone and don’t want it to go to Voice Mail so I have an answering service that will take my business calls. Is there a way to use one phone (iPhone 6) and then easily forward calls to the answering service if they’re coming into one phone? How easy is it to change the call forwarding onto the Answering Service? For example if I’m at Costco and shopping and can’t get into my reservation system while shopping to make a reservation over the phone, my Answering Service can take the call, but I don’t always use the Answering Service to take calls because they’re expensive. Thanks!

      • Cindy Hardin November 15, 2021

        It says it is free. But then it wants $10 per month. Please advise.

    • Brandy March 13, 2019

      Does anyone know how to use more then one google voice number to the same cell phone line. I have 2 businesses and wanted to set up 2 google voice lines, but it says I have already used my cell number to forward to. Anyway around this or am I doing something wrong?

      • Sha February 1, 2020

        Following because this is my problem as well. Seems like the solution is still to get another phone and have 2 business lines on the second one.

      • Jerry La Croix May 16, 2020

        I recently purchased a business and phone # from a retired competitor. AT&T added it to my cell phone however if that # is called it goes to msg saying that a voice mail has not been set up and I cannot setup a voice mail, I want to use GOOGLE voice to do this I do not want to get a random # from a pull down list. Can this be done?

    • Keith B March 18, 2019

      Once you have two lines set up can you forward just the business line so that someone can handle the bisinesss call on the weekend But I have full use of my personal line when forwarded?

    • Sharon Stone September 28, 2019

      I’m interested
      Marketing kit may help my business.

    • Cathy August 31, 2020

      After setting up Google voice how do I link my cell number?

    • Teresa Robinson September 3, 2020

      When I went on the recommended site, it wanted to charge $10 per month

      • Travis April 5, 2021

        Yes it wanted to charge me 10 dollars also. THIS IS NOT FREE!!

  • Sheila May 27, 2013

    Sounds like some good advice-
    Any chance of getting a
    hold of Belinda for some small business advice.

    • Big D May 27, 2013

      Hi Sheila,

      If you click on her name it will take you to her website.

      Big D

  • Troy Smith October 23, 2013

    How did you do this?

    I currently have mine set up so that when somebody calls my google voice number, it displays their phone number on the caller ID, but I have a voice prompt telling me that somebody is calling my google number. I can then either press “1″ to answer or “2″ to send to voicemail once I’ve answered.

    • Dan Perry October 23, 2013

      What are you trying to do, Troy?

      • Kendra Mcqueen January 21, 2017

        Im signed in to google voice and it doesnt give me a option for a 2nd line it shows my phone number thru my carrie twice then shows a vm number that is totally diff but i cant change or edit? How do i pick my phone number PLEASE HELPP

  • Brandon November 10, 2013

    please just save us the time and explain how you did this in detail. I own a business and when a client calls me I want it to show as my business line through google voice like you stated. Then when my friend or brother calls me it shows as my regular verizon number.

    I currently have mine set up so that when somebody calls my google voice number, it displays their phone number on the caller ID, but I have a voice prompt telling me that somebody is calling my google number. I can then either press “1″ to answer or “2″ to send to voicemail once I’ve answered. I always press “1″, but this just gives me a heads up that it is a business call.

    Calls to my primary or personal phone number are handled as usual.

    I want it setup like that.

    • Dan Perry November 11, 2013

      Brandon,

      If you want it to show your google voice phone number when somebody calls, here is how you do it.

      Got to google.com/voice and then go to the settings (right side of page and looks like a gear) Then go to the calls tab. From there you will see an option to change your caller ID.

      Dan

  • Margaret August 26, 2014

    I would like to set up a message that people who want to leave a personal message can press 1 or for my business press 2. Can I do that and if so, how?

    • Dan Perry August 27, 2014

      I’m not sure if that’s possible with google voice.

  • Kiwi June 22, 2015

    How do you set up Separate Voicemail Greetings?
    I have 2 businesses and 1 cell phone. I would like to keep it that way. My phone is really a business phone so I have always had a professional greeting. Now that I have started a new business I need a separate message for the people calling that number. Let’s make this simple and call my first business X and second business Y. If a person calls my original number (X) I would like them to hear greeting X, If a person calls gv number (Y) I would like them to hear greeting Y. I don’t want to use groups because most the people calling will not be contacts.

    • Dan Perry June 22, 2015

      You will have a voicemail for your original phone number (whatever number you got with the phone) and then record a seperate voicemail for your google voice phone number. Your original voicemail will be recorded where you normally do. Your Google voice voicemail is recorded online.

      • Jessi July 22, 2018

        I am also trying to do this. I created a google voice account/number to be my personal number. I set up my voicemail. Works great, until when I link the number and have it ring to my cell… then it always plays my cell voicemail instead of my GV voicemail, even though the caller dialed the GV number.

  • JEB July 16, 2015

    I have Google Voice on my iphone for business calls and when someone calls my GV# they get the voice mail I set up for my business. I then set up GV in my daughters phone so she can take my business calss while I am away and when someone calls the GV# they get her personal greeting. She does not have an iphone, is there something I am missing?

  • Harold September 3, 2015

    I have more than one question. I have two cell phones one for personal and one for business. 1) I’d like to keep my two numbers but transfer one as a GV#. Can I do that? Then 2) I will be purchasing another new phone in the near future. How would I transfer both numbers to my new phone when I get it?

    • Dan Perry September 4, 2015

      HI Harold,

      Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to those questions. It’s going to take some reading on Google Voice and potentially talking to your phone company.

    • Bruce December 12, 2015

      You can port an existing number to Google Voice for a cost of $20, which you’ll need Google Wallet to pay. All phone service providers charge for porting. Search “port number to Google Voice” and you should find out how it works. I’ll be doing this for my wife soon.

  • Cindy October 30, 2015

    If I have GV can also send and receive separate text messages and/or emails in this feature?

  • SN November 7, 2015

    Is this a feature only available in the US? I’m in the UK and no matter what link I click on, it just gives more blurb rather than an option set set up a google voice number. I already have gmail accounts. ?????

  • Rich November 11, 2015

    Hi Dan,

    Great info. Thanks! Question.. I have a personal number and a business number. I currently have two phones but want to get rid of one and have both numbers ring to pne phone with separate voicemail greetings. Seems simple enough but I’m confused about the potential third number, the Google Voice number. Do I have to have/use a Google Voice number? In other words, I don’t want to have to change one of my current phone numbers.

    • Jamie May 6, 2016

      Rich, read a few comments above; it looks like to keep your existing number for you business, you would need to port it over to GV. That way you would still have your personal number like always and GV would be your same business number, no third line. It’s the same thing I’m thinking about doing.

  • Joel December 22, 2015

    Can you also receive text messages on this new Google service?

    • Dan Perry December 22, 2015

      Yes

    • Rick March 2, 2018

      Can you receive photos sent with a text?

  • Mitch December 29, 2015

    Hi,

    I recently moved from Ohio to California for a new job. My new job provided us with cell phones that we can use for personal use as well. I’m actually getting rid of my Verizon account which means my Ohio number would be gone. I would like to still keep my Ohio number since I’ve had it for so long but I don’t know what to do. I called AT&T and they said it’s possible to change my work number completely to my Ohio number but it would be some work/i don’t know if my company would allow that. I tried Google Voice but they can’t port my number at this time from my area in Ohio. I have Google Lite now but I didn’t know that once my Ohio Verizon account is cancelled, my Ohio number won’t work on there anymore. If you can help, that would be great! I know there’s probably not many more options hah. Thanks

  • Jaclynn January 5, 2016

    Is there a way to have Call Screening ask for a persons name every time even from a familiar number? Where I work, no matter what building you call from, it is always the same number calling so unfortunately every time someone calls me from my job it now only says the recording name of the first person who has ever called me from that number it is horribly annoying. I would like Call Screening to ask for a persons name every single call, familiar number or not. Please help me!!

    • Dan Perry January 7, 2016

      Yes, I’m 90% sure you can do that.

  • dirk February 2, 2016

    I just moved to Canada. Can I get a Google second number that’s Canadian, while keeping my old American phone number on the same phone?

  • Janine Hoffman Reyes February 24, 2016

    Can I have a Google call go to a separate greeting for business and if my primary number calls go directly to my personal greeting? I need a special long greeting for all business calls and automatic personal greeting for personal calls depending on which number is dialed the

    • Dan Perry February 24, 2016

      Yes.

      • patricia bresky August 5, 2020

        I just signed up for GV but want to have a different greeting for my business line than the one for my personal line. How do I set that up?

        Patricia

  • Mallory March 14, 2016

    Hello, I have been logging too much time trying to figure out how to set up a voicemail greeting for people calling my google number, and a separate greeting for when people call my cell phone number… I don’t understand!
    I understand how to create a greeting for certain contacts or groups or circles, but obviously I don’t know the phone numbers of the customers calling my google number, so I can’t add them to a certain group.
    Also, I have another side hustle of customers/strangers who would be calling my personal cell phone number, so they need to hear a different greeting than my google number greeting. Help!?
    I also tried activated and deactivated voicemail for my personal number, that doesn’t work because then when people call my google number they get my personal greeting, not my professional greeting. and when it is activated all calls get my google voice greeting instead of my personal number getting a personal greeting.

    • Mallory March 14, 2016

      I also tried to create my second side hustle business voicemail greeting as the greeting on my cell phone, not through google voice, but it didnt work after i activated the google voicemail, then even personal calls got my google voice mail greeting instead of my cell phones greeting. and without activating google voicemail then my google number went to my personal cell phones greeting.

  • Julie April 7, 2016

    Can I set up Google Voice to press 1 to go to one phone number and press 2 for another number?

  • Ephy April 19, 2016

    Most of my business is done via text, as opposed to voice calls. Would this work the same way?
    My business phone is such a brick, it would be great not to have to carry it around!

  • Randy May 6, 2016

    Is it possible to set up a GV number that goes to voicemail and multiple people can pick up the voicemail?

  • Brian - onoff May 19, 2016

    Hi Dan,

    I just came across your blog post and figured I could address some of the disadvantages of this setup and in the process tell you about a new service we just launched in the UK that could solve many of them. Google voice is a great free setup especially as a means of replacing a fixed line but as you point out it’s still very hard to become completely independent of your original number when people can see your personal number.

    Basically at onoff app we have created an app that lets you have multiple real mobile phone numbers on one device and with calls routed through your sim card over GSM you don’t suffer any of the usual constraints that come with VOIP services like google voice, Each new number is a separate independent entity, with independent voicemail, caller ID, phonebook and you can even turn off calls or sms when you don’t wish to be contacted (for example after hours you can route all calls to voicemail by the flick of a switch)

    Just this week we have launched our product in the UK so I’d very much welcome if you wish to try the product out for yourself, you can fund us at http://www.onoffapp.com/

  • Rhonda smith July 10, 2016

    Have question on GV I am an assistant to a manger -loan officer. She has been in business 30 years. We are trying to grow business. Most of our business is Referal. Problem is agents give her personal cell number because she has used for years. And she is usually with someone. So I was wanting to know if we get GV can it be used on multiple phone lines. Such as they call and if she don’t answer after 2 rings will go to my phone and if I am on the phone it will forward to main front office desk. If no answer there will forward to vm and message can be left. And it will text us both the message plus email? Also can GV be used for text. And if so can it be used by multiple people. Meaning me and her use so we know where one left off on last conversation.

  • Greg July 25, 2016

    Hey Dan,

    Came across your website and i read in your small bio that you escaped the 9-5! which is great. and which is something that im trying to do as well. and hopefully do. I would love some great tips if possible! thanks/

    • Dan Perry July 25, 2016

      Ya, working a 9-5 is something I will never go back to. It’s just not for some people.

      If you want to escape, my best advice is this: If you have enough money saved to support yourself for a year, just quit. You’ll be able to figure something out by then and you’ll make a lot more progress learning business.

      If you don’t, then you could build a business part-time doing something like handyman services until you feel a little more confident and have some income coming in.

  • john September 9, 2016

    Hi, found this chat thread online trying to figure out google voice. Thanks everyone for their input… Couple of questions:

    Is there a way that I can see the number that is calling in, but know that it’s calling my google voice #? Seems like the only option is to set it up to either display my google # when a call comes in, which helps to identify what # is being called, (so I can answer the phone appropriately), but then I miss having access to that persons phone # if I need it. It seems pretty old school to have to ask someone for their phone #.

    The other option is to set it to display the callers number, but then I have no idea which number they are calling, so then I have no idea how I’m supposed to answer the phone. This seems like a pretty big oversight. Am I missing something?

    Or can I set a separate ring tone for google voice calls?

    Thanks!

    • Danielle Dryden February 9, 2017

      John, did you ever get an answer to your question? I have the same one and I’ve been searching for hours.

  • Heather McGuirk September 20, 2016

    I am attempting to set up this service prior to printing business cards, etc. My phone number is assigned but when I called it to check how it answers it says Google Voice will attempt to contact, then my name. This is not what I want. I prefer the line to answer directly to my voice message greeting or to see which line to call is coming in on. Help?? TY

    • Sharlett March 13, 2020

      This is exactly my same issue. Have you received an answer for it yet? I cannot seem to get that stupid recording off when someone calls. If I was a customer I would immediately hang up if I heard that recording, i just want the phone call to ring through to my personal phone without having a recording speak to my customers first. Please help!

  • Steve September 25, 2016

    I spent quite a bit of time experimenting with GV but then discovered that you can buy mobile phones with two sim card slots. Only on android but for me at least it turned out to be a superb solution.

  • Amanda November 11, 2016

    GV does not have the zip code/area for the phone number I need 🙁

  • Mary Cooper December 4, 2016

    Can we down load a record of all calls?
    Thank you

  • Nicole January 27, 2017

    Thank you for this easy read with great basic information. I set-up my own Google Voice from the link you provided and it took less than 5 minutes. I look forward to utilizing my new business line.

    • Karen February 22, 2017

      Great information, but I was disappointed to learn there are no more numbers in my area code of choice. Do you know of other similar services? Thank you.

  • Geddy February 25, 2017

    I see this article is a few yrs old but it’s my first time here and I have questions. I hope you’re still answering them.

    1. How do I get to choose which number people see on their caller ID as I call them? I set up Google Voice today at work and now my personal contacts see my Google Voice number when I call.

    2. This one is really important. Will Google Voice eat up my data? I only get 2 GB for the entire month and it needs to last.

    3. How do I set up a separate voicemail for people that call my Google Voice number?

  • Bob February 26, 2017

    I have numbers for business and personal that I don’t want to change. Can I use GV and keep the present numbers? I want to carry the business iPhone and have the personal calls (from my existing number) come to the same phone. Will GV allow me to do this?
    Thanks!

  • Meghan March 25, 2017

    Unfortunately Google Voice isn’t (yet) available in Canada. Do you have any other suggestions for us Canadians? Thanks in advance!

  • Shamaila March 31, 2017

    Hello! I’m trying to find a solution to my current google voice issue and I stumbled upon your article.

    I’ve been using google voice for my business number for 2.5 years. It used to work perfectly! I could receive business calls and personal calls on the same phone but with 2 different numbers and I also had a specific voicemail for each number.

    Something changed very recently and now the google voice is simply being forwarded to my personal number or the other way around, so all of my calls either get my personal voicemail OR my business voicemail (depending on which I pick) regardless of which number you call. How do I get it to go back to 2 separate voicemails specific to the number you called?

    Help!

    • Paula Brooks February 3, 2018

      I have successfully used Google Voice for the past 3 years where my business number rang on both my husband’s and my iPhone. I recently upgraded to iPhone 8 Plus. Now, when personal contacts call either my personal number or my husband’s personal number and we do not answer they hear the business voicemail greeting. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  • mack April 6, 2017

    Hey I moved from Sc to Ga, so I added a GA 404 number as my google voice.
    Now 3 years later I don’t use SC nearly as much as GA
    Do you have any idea how to make my google voice number my primary phone number and port my SC number my google voice?

  • Dinah May 7, 2017

    I looked at the reviews for the GV app on iPhone, and they are all awful. Seems there was just an update to the GV app and all sorts of things are going wrong. Has anyone had good/bad experiences with the recent update? Thanks!

  • Charles May 28, 2017

    Wow, what a waste of time, this whole Q&A forum led to nothing, the writer of this post never answered any of the questions and there are still problems with Google Voice.

    For starters, 1.) YOU CAN’T setup a separate voicemail in Google Voice for your business so it doesn’t go to your personal voicemail. Google needs to fix that, otherwise, why have a 2nd line, doesn’t make sense. Your googleVoice goes right to personal voicemail.

    2. Also the writer never answered the question about how his/her personal Google Voice number appeared in caller ID when receiving calls, on my iPhone 7 plus, I do not know if it’s personal friends that are calling me or business. I do have caller ID, but I still don’t know whether Google Voice or my personal cell phone that is being contacted. Google Voice needs to fix this…

    3. Google voice is not great. If they ever fix this, then I will give 5 stars hands up, but right now, it’s dumb.

    • Dan Perry June 2, 2017

      Charles,

      You can setup a different voicemail. You’ll have to mess with the settings, but it’s relatively straight forward.

      To your second point, you get one or the other – caller ID or knowing if the call is business or not. You can setup your account so it displays your Google Voice number when somebody calls your business, that way you know it’s a business call and you can answer it differently. But, when you do this, you lose caller ID for business calls (but not personal calls). It’s a tradeoff.

  • Tiffany June 16, 2017

    Quick question;

    Is there an option to avoid the Virtual Assistant that asks for the person’s name prior to transferring the call directly to you? I don’t want each caller to have to go through the Virtual Assistant with each call especially if the Caller ID will distinguish that the Incoming Call is a Google Voice call. Has anyone else encountered this issue?

    Has texting and calling within the Google Voice App improved without displaying my Personal Number rather than my displaying my Google Voice number?

    Thank you for all of the posts.

  • Crystal June 29, 2017

    I have the GV app on my phone and i also have 2 gmail accounts can i use different cell phone for each of the accounts with jst 1 app or do u need to have it with each phone?

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  • Matt February 14, 2018

    Can the number be a 1 800 number?

  • Barbara Gable February 15, 2018

    My car has Bluetooth calling…my problem is that I can’t use the voice commands to call a contact…the phone wants to know which number I want to use..
    Is there a setting that makes my device number the default calling number, rather than having the phone ask which number I would prefer to use…
    This situation negates any advantage to using the Bluetooth setu..😢

  • Dan March 15, 2018

    I am not clear on how Google Voice works. You have to generate a new phone number in order to use it? I need to be able to use both my business and personal phone numbers. I don’t want to generate a new business phone number since all of our stationary, business cards, etc have that number and we have had the same number for 20+ years. Is that wishful thinking or what? I appreciate the clarification.

  • gary May 25, 2018

    I have Google Voice set up and working.
    My question … Is there a way I can know if the person calling me has called my ‘Google Voice Number’ or my ‘Personal Number’ before I answer the call?

  • Valerie Cortez May 26, 2018

    I have a question, will this new number be Linked to your AT&T primary line where it will show up on your call log

  • Demetria Brabant June 7, 2018

    Kind of a joke…they only have available numbers in 3 east jabip areas. I couldn’t even find one in my state.

  • Kurt Olson July 17, 2018

    Is there a way to start with that second phone number and then have a work associate take it over after a few months?
    Thanks
    Kurt

  • Steve L. August 6, 2018

    Some people are asking questions already answered above.

    1) Yes, you can port over your existing phone number (personal and/or business to your Google Voice for a one-time $20 charge) from a mobile phone instead of using Google Voice’s list of available phone numbers to choose from. You cannot port over a landline phone number directly to Google Voice however. You must first port it to a mobile phone as a stepping stone and then to Google Voice.

    2) There is no easy way to have Google Voice show the caller’s info in Caller ID AND ALSO to be able to determine the call is coming from your forwarded Google Voice number. However, Dan states above: “I currently have mine set up so that when somebody calls my google voice number, it displays their phone number on the caller ID, but I have a voice prompt telling me that somebody is calling my google number. I can then either press “1″ to answer or “2″ to send to voicemail once I’ve answered.” Perhaps he is using the call filter where Google Voice asks for the customer’s name. That way, you can see their number on Caller ID but know it is from your Google Voice number because there is a filter that tells you the customer’s name. This may be more of an obstacle for customer’s though.

    3) Check out these other third-party services (at the link below) that can also use a separate number (or one you ported over) to ring your smartphone with Caller ID and denoting it is coming from the forwarded number. However if you want to keep the number and have unlimited minutes you will have to pay about $4.99/month for these services:
    https://www.cnet.com/how-to/apps-that-give-your-phone-a-second-number/

    4) You should be able to specify whether you want the call to use your Google Voice voicemail or your phone’s (carrier’s) voicemail.

    If you’re creative enough, you can make most of what you want work with Google Voice, or pay the $4.99 if you need specific versatility the other apps at the link above offer.

  • Ayesha August 8, 2018

    What about texting? If you text a client will your personal number show up?

    • Steve L. September 19, 2018

      Ayehsa, if you use the Google Voice app on your mobile phone for texting then it will show your Google Voice number.

  • Steve L. September 19, 2018

    I am in the process of moving my business landline to one of the new iPhones that were just released. There are three good options I went to outline:

    1) Use the dual SIM capability in the new iPhone XS line. If you have Verizon, ATT&T or T-Mobile you can do this. You will have separate voicemail for each number and can tell which number a call is coming in on. You can specify which is your primary line for iMessages, FaceTime, SMS/MMS, Voice & Data and then the secondary will just be Voice & Data by default, though you can switch this at any time. You can even have one line just for data and everything else on the other, for instance if traveling abroad and you want to utilize a cheaper local data plan. The new iOS 12 has settings that allow you to specify, customize and switch at any time you make a call or send a text, as well options you can change in Settings. Very neat but two downsides: A) if you are actually talking on one line the other number’s incoming calls will go to its voicemail. You will not get a Call Waiting alert since that only works on the same line. B) It is the priciest options. While you won’t have to pay for a second plan or a second device thru your carrier, you WILL have to pay an additional $20 or so for a line charge, depending on your carrier. So consider it $20/month to use the dual sim solution.

    2) Use a dedicated service like Sideline. It exists for this purpose specifically and will allow you separate alerts when calls come to your business or second line as well as separate voice mail. If you don’t answer it will go to the Sideline voicemail. However, you have to be sure you don’t DECLINE the call to send it to immediate voicemail or it may go to your carrier’s voicemail and not be separate. You can also use the Sideline settings to set all Sideline calls to go to Sideline voicemail. Or, you can set Sideline settings to Call Announcement that gives you the option to accept the call or immediately send it to Sideline’s voicemail. This service does what the dual sim approach can’t in that it CAN alert you when a call comes in on your Sideline number when you are talking on another call with your carrier or Sideline number. This a cheaper option than dual SIM at just $9.99/month now (no freebies anymore with them).

    3) Finally, there is the completely FREE option: good ol’ Google Voice. You can import your phone number (for a small one-time charge) to your Google account (either the one you have now or create a second Google account) as long as it is porting from a cell phone. If it is a business landline you are porting you must first temporarily port it to a cell phone as a stepping stone, as I mentioned above. Google Voice won’t directly port over landline phone numbers. Since this option is free why not try it first? A couple things though: There’s no direct customer service via Google (though you can use Google’s database and customer forums for help). Also, so that you know that the incoming calls on your cell phone are business (or your second line) you must disable Google Voice’s Caller ID so that all incoming calls show your own Google Voice number, and then you can set a special ringtone for that number on your cell phone (but again, no Caller ID info will come thru). If that is unacceptable to you and you need your business caller’s Caller ID info, here’s another solution: turn on Call Screening within Google Voice. When Call Screening is enabled, you must press number 1 to accept an incoming call, 2 to ListenIn™ as a voicemail message is being recorded, or 4 to answer and record the call. Your phone can’t do this by itself, so any unanswered Google Voice calls will always be taken by Google Voice voicemail. Just be sure you haven’t set up your cell phone so that ALL calls use Google Voice voicemail using the carriers call forwarding option. If you did, you must disable call forwarding so that calls to your cell number will again go to your cellular voice mail (if you want to keep business and personal voicemail separate that is).

    Hope this helps!

  • Daryna Kulya November 24, 2018

    Another option to try out is OpenPhone. We give small business owners a dedicated phone number (local or 1-800) on top of their current device with professional features to make their business look and sound great.

    Our subscription includes unlimited talk, text, picture messaging, ability to share responsibility for the phone number with a partner or team, dedicated business voicemail, set availability to direct callers to voicemail when you’re off, and much more.

  • KJ February 8, 2019

    Couple of questions…Back in 2013 I was having a lot of issues receiving calls so the provider suggested I try a new number. I used google voice to forward all calls from the dead number to my new number. Worked great…. Now I have taken a new position at work that requires me to have a business phone and I would like to do what this post is all about – 1 phone, 2 numbers. I want my personal number to be ported into my work phone. How do I do this? The original number is still the dead one. If I switch that to my current, it says it will terminate my service with my carrier.

  • Ada February 26, 2019

    Thanks, I do business in two states, so the google voice number I have set up is for one state, but I am starting up a business in another state which I’d like that area code. So can I have 2 google voice numbers with area codes in different states go to my cell phone?

  • Ginger Berryman March 24, 2019

    My husband has a secret second phone number on his iPhone and I do don’t know the number. Can I look it up? I have MS and the stress of not knowing is causing me major problems. He won’t admit anything. He doesn’t know I know he has one.

  • JAMES D. COWAN April 27, 2019

    I am not sure if Google Voice will work for me or not my issue is that I just paid off my LG V10 and I went and got the lgv35 I shut off my LG V10 and put that phone number on my lgv35 I still have the LG V10 but no number so I was wanting to know if I could use Google Voice as a second number on my LG V10 it’s where my LG V10 will have phone service

  • Karen May 13, 2019

    I just set up the second line but when calls come in there is no way to tell if my personal line is the one that was dialed or the second line. Is there a way to differentiate between the two so I know how to answer?? thanks so much…

  • Janet May 20, 2019

    I set up GV. How do I change the initial greeting that people hear when calling my number? It really cheapens my business when my callers are asked to state their name and GV will attempt to connect….

  • Geoffrey L Bradley May 21, 2019

    My outgoing calls show the Google Voice number to my contacts they don’t pick up cuz they don’t recognize the number how can I switch between Google Voice and personal phone number?

  • Al June 27, 2019

    Hello. Is it possible to set up a second line on a flip phone??

  • Lynne July 28, 2019

    Can you have text messages to a google voice number?? Many of mt staff text me… as do families. This would be do helpful. Thank you

    • Dan Perry July 30, 2019

      Yes you can.

      • Emily Erickson October 3, 2019

        How do you set up using your google voice number for texting? Would I use default for personal and somehow link google messaging to the google voice number?

  • Melissa August 6, 2019

    Don’t make the same mistake I did when setting up my marketing agency Pyrite Ideas– I set up Google Voice for business and was on Straight Talk for my personal number. When I switched from Straight Talk to Google Fi, my Google Voice stopped working because you can’t forward a Voice # to a Fi #. UGH!!
    I have a work around in place (that is costing me $$) but since both my business and personal numbers are already out in the wild, I didn’t want to risk it. ONLY sign up with voice if you AREN’T planning (or using) Fi.

  • Mary August 29, 2019

    I went through the process of creating an account and picking a phone number. No problem. I have a GV number and when dialed, it calls me. HOWEVER, this number does not show up on my account and when I want to text or make calls from my GV, it tells me to choose a number. I can’t do this because 1.) I obviously HAVE a number and 2.) I can’t verify with my same personal phone number. So basically, I can receive calls but I can’t call out or text our, which is why I need it.

  • David Daugherty October 23, 2019

    I got set up with Google Voice in July and was assigned a second number to ring to my iPhone. I have lost the card on which I recorded that number and am now ready to begin using what I set up in July. How can I retrieve the number I was assigned? I think the last four digits were 4242.
    Thanks.

  • Erik November 11, 2019

    Hi

    I got the number but when someone calls that second number my phone shows the number I am being called from, it does not tell me is coming from the Google Voice so I am not sure if they are calling me personally or calling my business. How can I know when someone is calling my business? Please advise.

    Thank you

  • Johnnytaco November 11, 2019

    How can I combine an existing number (different phone carrier)(business number) with my personal cell phone?

  • Tony January 4, 2020

    I already have a 2nd number as my business line. Can I combine that rather than making up a new one? Reason being all my business cards, clothes, and van all have signage and it’s my business number on them. Dont want to change all them

  • Chris perkins March 25, 2020

    What if I already have a cell phone number through my cable/internet company. Can we port that number to Google Voice?
    This number was originally on my ATT account but they were able to port it Spectrum so I’m assuming we can port it again to GV.

  • Jake March 30, 2020

    I tried texting my Google Voice number and my text never came through. When I texted my main number from my Google Voice, nothing came through either yet when I send an image it does.

  • Dan Tower January 28, 2021

    I live in Mexico as well as the US. I have a cell phone with a Mexican provider and number. Can I add a second number that is a US (preferably California) for outgoing, incoming calls as well as texts and text video and photos?

  • Dan May 7, 2021

    I figured out how to have two separate greetings business, under the Google number and personal. When I choose the option to answer with my linked number (personal) it rings, but only my personal greeting works when receiving a call to either number. However, when I un-click the option to answer using my personal number, the two greetings work perfectly and independently. However, my phone only rings when the incoming call is to my personal number. It doesn’t ring when it’s to my Google number, it just goes directly to greeting and voicemail.

  • Roger July 28, 2021

    If have a Comcast bundle for my business phone . I am moving my office to a new location and would like to move that business phone number to ring on my personal cell phone. can google port that existing phone Number to my cell?

  • Tonya November 5, 2021

    How are text messages managed? How do I text a client or receive a text from a client? Will my text come from the business number or my personal number? Will I receive a text from a client on my business number or my personal phone number.

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