Setting Up Second Phone Line for Small Business or Personal Needs Using Google Voice

There are times in life when it would be nice if we had an alternative phone number to provide an extra barrier of anonymity between individuals and clients. Dilemmas that folks run into today is giving out their phone number to a random person who may harass them, or the need for a new phone line to not mix business calls on a personal line. Cell phones and landlines alike can identify call numbers with the aid of Caller ID, Visual Voicemail and other apps which pull information from CNAM (Calling Name) databases. Notice I did not say ‘provide an extra layer of privacy, cell phones today are not private, but that is another topic entirely unto itself.

An inexpensive way to obtain a second phone line is by using a Virtual Phone Number, or VPN (not to be confused with Virtual Private NetworK). This is a telephone number that is not provisioned to a specific single phone line or phone device that would be using a PBX (Private Branch Exchange). In short, these are phone numbers managed through the web by a private company. If you Google ‘virtual phone number company’ you will be met with hundreds of various companies that offer you these services, mostly at a tiered rate of low, medium to high business needs. Some of the lowest I’ve seen are about $8/mo for a single Virtual Phone Number.

Today we will be using Google Voice. Google has gotten into the game of Virtual Phone Numbers and they do a very good job at providing a robust service with many free features. It’s a no brainer to use Google over a paid service simply because of the amount of value you get out of the premium features Google offers right out of the box. 

Steps to setup Google Voice, from https://support.google.com/

1.     On your computer, open Google Voice.

2.     Sign in to your Google Account.

3.     Accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

4.     Search by city or area code for a number. Google Voice doesn’t offer 1-800 numbers.

5.     If there aren’t any numbers available in the area you want, try somewhere nearby.

6.     Next to the number you want, click Select. Follow the instructions.

7.     At the top left, click Menu Menu and then Settings.

8.     Under Account, click “Linked numbers,” click New linked number.  You can link up to six numbers.

9.     Follow the onscreen instructions to add your number.

10.     Download Google Voice to your Android/iOS device, make sure the Google Account you signed into at the beginning of the process is added to your device.

Once your Google Voice account is set up, and once you’ve selected your number, you will need to link that Google Voice phone number with your carrier’s cell phone number. What this does is if anyone calls your Google Voice number, your personal cell phone will ring through the Google Voice app because you’ve linked your device (cell phone) to the Google Voice phone number.

And voila! Now that you’ve linked your cell phone number to a Google Voice phone number, your cell phone will ring to a new phone number. It’s a twofer!

If you are doing a Craigslist sale, you can provide a second number instead of your primary number for anonymity. If you are running a small business and do not want to shell out $35-$60 a month for a landline, or new cell phone, you can use this new Google Voice number for business calls on your cell phone.

There are many features within the Google Voice console or app which gives you greater control over how you want your new number to behave. So be sure to toy around with the options and tweak the Google Voice phone number to behave how you want it to. Keep in mind, if you ever want to change your Google Voice number, it will cost you $10 to do so. Google has to get their pound of flesh at some point.