Can I forward calls to a new number and have SMS and MMS to Whatsapp?

[AC Question]

I've got a work and personal cell. I want to keep my personal number as I've had it for 15+ years. I don't want to carry two phones or pay for duplicate service. I also don't want my texts forwarded directly to my work number. Essentially I want to port my personal number to Google Voice and forward only the calls to my work number but have the SMS and MMS go to another app (Hangouts, Whatsapp, etc). Is that possible? Thanks.

 

[Rukbat]

No, WhatsApp and Hangouts (and other apps like that) don't do SMS, they do a proprietary messaging protocol (each one uses a different one). SMS (and MMS, since SMS is the protocol that carries the MMS message) goes to a phone number, whichever number is being called.

The sneaky thing about Google Voice is that you can designate one number for SMS and another number for no SMS, so you can forward texts to another device (one with a different phone number), but you can't have work SMS go to one app and personal SMS to another app - both on the same phone. The default SMS app will be receiving all SMS messages.