All 100 ideasPhone
#98 of 100 · Phone
A phone number for every device
A paid or self-hosted Google Voice replacement: one number that rings every device, with calls and texts, including MMS, from a browser.
Asks per year
What the askers want
- Would pay38%
- Want it local or private15%
- Object to subscriptions8%
- Want it open source or self-hosted15%
- Want AI to do it0%
Share of the 13 asks that say so, as judged by Jev.
What exists on Show HN
Tried, never finished6 Show HN launches do part of this. None does the whole job.
Instead of: Google Voice, Twilio, Skype
The idea, as matched
A paid or self-hosted service giving you a phone number that rings all your devices and lets you call and text, including MMS and group texts, from a web browser, replacing Google Voice.
Jev first matched 17 requests to this idea; a second reader kept 13 of 17.
Every ask, newest first
Each line is an AI paraphrase of what the writer wanted. The link goes to their own words on Hacker News.
Reader’s note. Mostly Google Voice users wanting an exit.
- Nov 2024Wants a paid, browser-based Google Voice alternative after fearing a ban. Read it: a comment in “Google banned me from Google Voice”
- Oct 2022Wants a service giving a British number that forwards calls and texts to a US number. Read it: a comment in “Protect your privacy and your phone number with Firefox Relay”
- Aug 2021Wants a paid, feature-compatible Google Voice replacement since message forwarding stopped. Read it: a comment in “Deleting no longer prompts on Android”
- Apr 2020Wants a Google Voice alternative with phone alias, forwarding, web voicemail and texting, without per-message metered billing. Read it: a comment in “Moving Away from Gmail”
- Apr 2020Wants a self-hosted or cheap replacement for Google Voice with SMS, calls, multi-device access and a web interface. Read it: a comment in “Free software tools for staying in touch”
- Dec 2018Wants a non-subscription VoIP dialer that rings all their devices, replacing Hangouts. Read it: a comment in “Source: Google Hangouts for consumers will be shutting down sometime in 2020”
- Oct 2018Wants a single phone number that rings cell, office and home, replacing Google Voice. Read it: a comment in “Does anyone know of an alternative to Google Voice?”
- Aug 2018Wants a Google Voice replacement with multi-device texting, MMS, call forwarding and voicemail transcripts at fair price. Read it: a comment in “The simplicity of dropping Google in 2018”
- Sep 2017Wants one VoIP number with calls and SMS on desktop and phone, shared history, consistent caller ID, ring-all. Read it: a comment in “How to Live Without Google”
- Jan 2017Wants a self-hosted alternative to Google Voice for an expat's ported number. Read it: a comment in “Updates to our Google Voice apps”
- Sep 2013Wants a Google Voice replacement that receives group texts. Read it: a comment in “Twilio Announces MMS Support”
- May 2011Wants a European cloud PBX that rings multiple phones, even overseas, from one number and transfers calls. Read it: a post: “Cloud (or Virtual) PBX for the UK”
- Jun 2010Would pay for Google Voice-style voicemail and call routing in Switzerland. Read it: a comment in “Google Voice open for everyone (In the US)”
Building this?
Read ten of the asks above first, because they say what the existing launches miss. If you ship it, post it as a Show HN so the next run of this list finds it.
Ship it like Vercel, on a server you own
This site runs on ShipTiffin. A push to GitHub deploys it, the way it would on Vercel, but the server is a Hetzner box in your own account. Postgres, sign-in, email, jobs and analytics are already on it, every project gets a hard limit, and nothing is billed by usage.
$19 a month per box, plus about $10 for the server at Hetzner. Open source, so you can also run it yourself for free.