Is it possible to use Google Voice as your main number?

Yes, you can, but not in the way that you’re thinking. Making calls with Google Voice is not free, it uses the minutes on your calling plan. Texting with GV is totally free, though.

you can use google voice to make free calls via your cell phone that don’t drain your minutes , as long as you still have a phone number for it to ring back to when you make an outbound call.

inbound calls won’t work (and they’ll charge your minutes even through GV)

I use Google Voice as my main number. Even though my actual cell plan has a different number, nobody knows that. They call my Google Voice (GV) number. When I call them they see my GV number on Caller ID.

- You need a calling plan
– GV uses your minutes for BOTH incoming and outgoing calls
– Incoming calls are forwarded by Google to your cell (non-GV) number
– Outgoing calls are made by calling a special number (but on Android, GV takes care of that, you don’t really know it’s happening. I don’t know about non-Android phones)
– Supposedly you can make calls via WiFi and save your minutes with an add-on program. But in my experience WiFi calling does not work at all.
– GV lets you direct incoming calls to any phone (or phones, it can ring multiple phones simultaneously).
– GV’s web interface lets you make outgoing calls from any phone.
– So you can save minutes by using a landline. That’s what I do during the day while I’m at work.

So the Google number doesn’t make your cell phone cheaper, but it adds a lot of features.

I know what you are trying to do, for I too, wanted to one-up AT&T

Doesn’t work. You must associate it with an already existing phone number.

I just came across a relevant article:

“Can Over-the-Top Voice Services Free You From Mobile Minutes Charges – U.S. wireless carriers fear that Web voice services such as T-Mobile Bobsled will take a bite out of their profits. That could very well happen—and consumers could benefit.”

Link – PCWorld.com