Newsletter
When Project Fi was announced, Google made it clear that signing up for the service would be limited to those who were invited to try it out, much like they have done with Gmail and Inbox in the past. As of today it seems that the first round of Project Fi invites is making its way out to interested persons who requested to sign up, which means Google’s Project Fi is under way and ready to begin servicing customers. How many people they’ll be inviting to sign up for the service or when they’ll do a second round of invites is unknown at this point.
As one might expect, signing up for a Project Fi account is quite simple and doesn’t have too many steps involved. You pick your plan of how many GB of data you want, which starts at the base cost of $10 per GB, (the base plan cost for unlimited minutes and text is $20 on top of the data) and then you move to selecting your phone number. At this juncture Google will give you the opportunity to bring over your Google Voice number should you choose to use it, but you can also port over the number from another service provider like T-Mobile or Verizon if this is who you use. Keep in mind that if you don’t use your Google Voice number, you lose it, the same as you would if you cancel your other service provider and leave your number with them. You’ll also have the opportunity to pick up a Nexus 6 if you don’t already own one, and then finish off by completing your address information.
So what happens if you choose to move over your Google Voice number? Or what if you’re keeping your carrier number but are curious about how setting up Project Fi will affect your Google Voice account going forward? Last week we reported about Google clearing up some of the details regarding Project Fi and Google Voice compatibility, and you can find the entire breakdown of what happens to Google Voice here should you choose to sign up. The basics though are that choosing to set up Project Fi will discontinue your Google Voice number from your account. If you aren’t wanting to let go of your Google Voice number, you will want to reconsider whether or not setting up Project Fi is the right choice for you. With that in mind, Google makes sure to highlight that some of the features of Google Voice are available with Project Fi while others are not, so you’ll also want to be sure whether you’d truly be missing out on anything from Google Voice if you let it go. Things like Voicemails, Voicemail Greetings, texts, and your history will be features that Project Fi keeps. Others such as making or receiving calls using Google Talk or Google Voice Apps are disappearing, and you’ll no longer be able to do things like send texts or receive voicemails using Google Voice anymore. It’s a lot to process, but with a little bit of deliberation over what you’ll lose and gain ( you can also view the screenshots of the setup process below for research) you should be able to make an informed decision.
