Hacker News Reader

Comment by monksy | Hacker News Reader

> Google to shut down Google Voice

Don't give me such of a freaking heartattack.

I mean... I wouldn't put my eggs in that basket. It's a product that I doubt makes them much money at all and it has a small (relative) user base. I know here on HN there are probably plenty of users of GV but I don't think a single one of my non-tech friends could even tell you what Google Voice is. From my perspective it's been on a slow march to getting shut down for years now.

Don't they listen to your voicemails and calls to target ads at you? Their early tech adopter audience is probably a valuable demographic, but most people don't make lots of calls anymore.

My conspiracy part of my brain pings and says, it gives the NSA convenient access to parsed voice calls which probably pays Google well.

That being said the opposite could be just as true and they will just shut it down, this could very well be a consolidation to see if moving everything to voice is worth maintaining.

It's what Skype did when MS bought them. P2P -> P2S2P

I have been using Google Voice since around 2014. I can make and receive calls and SMS for no cost to me. Bringing into consideration the recent changes to Google products regarding monetizing them, I expect some changes to Google Voice to come in the near future.

I also have a grandfathered GSuite Basic, which I am wary that Google might cripple it or force me to pay for it.

It may happen as it's only limited to US users now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com