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How does google voice work when I text someone with my google voice sms and they respond..I get their google voice number and not their actual cell number?

When they send a sms from their phone to my google number...how in the world does google know they have a google number?

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Hmmm...not sure how or if it is possible to register a phone to two google voice accounts...thanks – C0deM0nkey Jul 21 '09 at 18:05
Why do you want two GV numbers? The whole point is to have one number people can reach you at no matter what cell phone plan, work number change etc. You can even set a temporary number so if your at say a hotel and your cell phone is roaming your GV number rings your room phone and no one else knows the difference – Larry Jul 21 '09 at 21:56

migrated from stackoverflow.com Jul 21 '09 at 18:07

closed as off topic by studiohack♦ Dec 2 '11 at 18:10

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4 Answers

up vote 7 down vote

Read this How to SMS with Google Voice from Any Mobile Phone via lifehacker

It's not their Google voice number it's a number (starting with 406) Google assigns to that person.

If they sent that person's phone number, when you replied, it would be from your cell phone number not your Google number. When you reply to the 406 number Google assigned to that contact the message is sent from your phone to Google Voice who forwards it to them from your GV number.

When someone sends a text message to your Google Voice number, you'll receive the text on your phone–but not from the recipient's phone number. Instead, it will be a 406 number you've never seen before, with the person's name preceding the message (as pictured here). Add that number to your recipient's address book entry as "Other" or a custom label (like "GV SMS"). Each one of your text recipients will have a different 406 number.

From there on in, if you SMS that 406 number, your recipient will receive text messages from you—and it will look like they're coming from your Google Voice number. Their replies to any messages you send to that number will go back to your Google Voice number and come to you via the 406–meaning, your recipient never sees the 406 number. Like I said, it's a kluge, but it works.

The setting mrlanrat is refering to, is when someone calls your GV number, not when they send SMS. There is no way to show their actual number instead of the 406 number when they send an SMS.

The whole point of the GV number is to have one number you can be reached at, they (Google) are trying to help you keep it that way. If I sent you an SMS to your GV number and your replied to it from your cell phone number, I would just keep SMSing and calling you on your cell not your GV number. You can even make calls from any phone using GV and your GV number will show up as the caller ID to whoever you are calling.

Another article I would suggest How to Ease Your Transition to Google Voice via lifehacker

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up vote 0 down vote

A. Its a setting in your Google voice account, you can change which number to display.

B. I assume they know because that user registered their number with Google voice, therefor Google knows their number.

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up vote 0 down vote

because they register their phone with the google voice service, and are sending the SMS via google voice.

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up vote 0 down vote

Your cell number is associated with the Google account - and so is theirs. When Google gets the text, they match it to an account on their end and route it through.

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