As long as your bank etc isn’t weird about using international numbers (many are, sadly), then yes, you should be able to change it to your new number and back again.

Thanks Jack! Yes, it’s likely the remedy for calls and text confirmations from your US bank, doctor etc. Occasionally you find an app or company that doesn’t want to work with virtual numbers, but it’s rare — I’ve only come across it once, maybe twice, in the last several years.

Look out for that Voice article in early 2018. 🙂 Here’s the article!

Dave:

You explained Voice better than I’ve ever seen… and in only 3 paragraphs. Thank you.
I would love to see such a dedicated article as Voice seems to be the best alternative for having a single continuous phone number that follows you around the world. Appears the remedy for receiving text confirmations from financial institutions or calls from your US doctor, lawyer or other professional.

Am I correct in assuming this? No one ever addresses this issue and I would greatly appreciate anything you may ever provide as TMA is my flagship travel tech site.

Thank you for the excellent content!

Since even the best VPNs will slow down most Internet connections, I only use one on networks I don’t fully trust. Basically, I’ll use it almost all the time while traveling, but rarely when I’m on a home or other more-trustable network.

It’s something I should write a dedicated article about at some point (edit: I did!). In short, it’s a free virtual phone number service offered by Google. It’s North American only — you get a US number, but need to be in the US to do the initial sign up (or use a VPN that makes it seem that way), plus have access to an existing US phone number to get the setup code.

Once it’s set up, though, it works anywhere in the world that you’ve got a data connection, via a browser on your computer or an app on your phone or tablet. Calls and texts to and from North American numbers are free, and prices to/from elsewhere in the world are typically pretty cheap.

It’s the one number I have that works anywhere in the world, even when I change SIM cards. I use it primarily to get verification codes from (eg) chat and other apps as mentioned, to call US numbers for free when I’m elsewhere in the world, and to provide a US number for someone to call me on as needed.

It’s at https://voice.google.com/ if you want to check it out.

Also, anyone have updates and ad ice about Krack hack.

I use Telegram, which is often used by activists and journalists, and like WhatsApp and others, it only uses the phone number for activation, not ongoing use. My phone number changes all the time as I move countries, but Telegram keeps working.

It’s only a problem if I change phones or need to reinstall the app for some reason. I actually associate a virtual Google Voice number with my chat apps anyway, to get around that activation issue.