This may end up being confusing. The only true "integration" with Google Voice is from Sprint. That's what I used to have (before I switched to Verizon) and it worked awesome. You just ported your Sprint Number to Google Voice and it all worked great (you didn't need a separate phone number for each).
So if it's not Sprint, this is how Google Voice will work if you want to use it for calls.
- You will have one number for your phone (your "Real" number), and one number for Google Voice (your "GV" number).
- When you set it up on your phone, you can choose to always, never, or prompt on each call to use Google Voice to make calls.
- If you choose to use Google Voice to make a call, it makes a short data connection to Google, and basically Google Voice initiates the call, then connects your phone to it. It requires a data connection for that initial "handshake" on a call, but then uses the regular cellular airwaves (so it's not VOIP).
- if you choose to use Google Voice to make a call, your GV number will show on the recipients side.
- If you don't use Voice to make the call your "Real" number shows on the recipients side.
- No matter what you do, if you don't use the Voice app to text, your "Real" number shows on the recipients side since it's coming from the phone and not through GV. The only way to have your GV number show up for the recipient is to use the GV app to text.
So with that being said, if you can live with the above, GV has a ton of benefits, such as call blocking, groups, customized voicemails for different recipients, forwarding phone calls to other phones (like how if one of my kid's friends call, I could forward it to my wife's phone and mine never rings), etc.
But I couldn't live with the above, due to texting and having to have the data connection to initiate a call and the concern that my unknown number (my "real" number) would show up on the recipient's phone and not my GV number (that everyone knows). I really wanted my GV number to be the number I've used for years and my "real" number to be hidden, but I couldn't really get it to work reliably due to the above (and I wanted to use Go SMS for texting and not the GV app).
So what I did was I kept the "Real" number on my phone (that I've had for years), but I use GV for voicemail, which gives me all the benefits of the voicemail functionality (different messages for different callers and the voice-to-text transcription of voicemail). That's easy to set up, as you just need a separate GV number (which is free) and then when you install the app on the phone, it just prompts you if you want to use GV for your voicemail. I just don't get the additional benefits with call blocking and forwarding and stuff, which is disappointing.
it's not ideal, but that's what I have done with Verizon. If you are going to Sprint though, that integration is AWESOME, and alleviates all the concerns above. There is no reason to not use GV for Sprint, since your "real" number and the GV number are the same, so there's no issues with any of it. Don't even need the data connection to initiate the call. There were rumblings Verizon was going to get this, but that was well over a year ago now and I haven't heard anything about it.