Telegram chat program - and so much more
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But you can get a Google voice number and use it from essentially any device. And the number won't change or disconnect.
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@johnhooks said:
But you can get a Google voice number and use it from essentially any device. And the number won't change or disconnect.
That's not "bad", but also means we just reverted to a Google central system.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
But you can get a Google voice number and use it from essentially any device. And the number won't change or disconnect.
That's not "bad", but also means we just reverted to a Google central system.
Not if you just use it for a one off phone number for things like this. You could even just create a junk Gmail account with a phone number that you never use.
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Don't get me wrong, I don't think the phone number is the best way to do it but it's not like if you don't have a cell phone you can't use it.
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@johnhooks said:
But you can get a Google voice number and use it from essentially any device. And the number won't change or disconnect.
Does that even still exist? Maybe it is US only. Going to the site I've never been offered a means of getting a number. I gave up years ago, I thought that it was a grandfathered service only. Look at their website, they don't seem to offer any way to get a number and if I look at Wikipedia it appears that it is a US only service. Is there a link to this? It appears to just be the underpinnings of Google Hangouts, now.
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@johnhooks said:
Don't get me wrong, I don't think the phone number is the best way to do it but it's not like if you don't have a cell phone you can't use it.
But if you don't have a phone, you can't use it. But more importantly, if you don't have a consistent phone number that you will own forever it is fundamentally insecure and problematic without reason, must like why WhatsApp and SMS suck already. It's just carrying on a bad legacy without fixing the issues.
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Confirmed, only Americans may use Google Voice and only while they are physically in the US. The rest of us don't have access to it. It's not a universal service whereas WhatsApp was specifically designed for the non-US market.
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@scottalanmiller said:
But if you don't have a phone, you can't use it.
Just open Gmail and the text messages show up in there.
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It's at google.com/voice. Sign in and click get a voice number.
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@johnhooks said:
It's at google.com/voice. Sign in and click get a voice number.
Yes, that's the page that tells me I can't get it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@johnhooks said:
It's at google.com/voice. Sign in and click get a voice number.
Yes, that's the page that tells me I can't get it.
Ya since you aren't in the US. But I was saying if you are that's how you get it.
One other way to look at it is, the phone number is the only piece of info they have on you.
Email is just as throw away as a phone number. If I don't pay for my domain, someome else can buy it and use the same address I've been using.
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@johnhooks said:
Email is just as throw away as a phone number. If I don't pay for my domain, someome else can buy it and use the same address I've been using.
But there are many global free email services and buying a domain is cheap and can service a family, village, country, etc.
Phone numbers are not cheap and orders of magnitude more throwaway. There is no free for life phone service outside of one I've never seen work and is, at best, US only where the issue is trivial compared to the rest of the world. It's an American-ism to think of phone numbers as being tied to people long term. Much of the world does not see them that way.
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@johnhooks said:
If I don't pay for my domain, someome else can buy it and use the same address I've been using.
But if we use Google as the example... the only service that makes phone numbers viable is US only and from the same vendor all the same protection is available for email, but globally.
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@scottalanmiller said:
But if we use Google as the example... the only service that makes phone numbers viable is US only and from the same vendor all the same protection is available for email, but globally.
But now you have the same problem you stated here:
That's not "bad", but also means we just reverted to a Google central system
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@johnhooks said:
@scottalanmiller said:
But if we use Google as the example... the only service that makes phone numbers viable is US only and from the same vendor all the same protection is available for email, but globally.
But now you have the same problem you stated here:
That's not "bad", but also means we just reverted to a Google central system
I agree, my point was that if Google Voice was the only solution to the phone number problem, it means email is the better choice based on the Google offerings alone. That anyone else offers email makes it that much more robust. My point was only that using Google as the reason that phone numbers were viable meant that phone numbers were even less viable than originally thought.
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This definitely should've been web based, classic applications are fast approaching Egyptian artefact status.
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@tonyshowoff said:
This definitely should've been web based, classic applications are fast approaching Egyptian artefact status.
It is!! There is a web option too, I'm just not using it.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@tonyshowoff said:
This definitely should've been web based, classic applications are fast approaching Egyptian artefact status.
It is!! There is a web option too, I'm just not using it.
I partially withdraw my criticism and add that nothing should be non-web based or have classic interfaces. You gotta be stubborn about something, I'm choosing this.
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It has a generic web client and one for Chrome that supposedly integrates better for ChromeOS users.
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Anyone with a Chromebook handy to test how it works there?
