soft phone services from 2001

I started using "soft phone" software in 2001. At Microsoft, where I worked, we had the "Communications Server," which became Lync and then Skype.  We used "soft phone" software instead of desktop phones. VOIP was great. We also had the free internet cellular fax "remote printing" service at tpc.int.

Meanwhile in 2005, GrandCentral  provided a free service whose tagline was "one number for life!" The single phone number provided free fax (send, receive), free voicemail (send & receive), free SMS, and free voice (dial-out & receive calls).  The software ran on PCs, laptops, tablets, & mobile phones. Google acquired GrandCentral and put it to sleep for a while but eventually resurrected it as "Google Voice."  Google removed the fax services but added gateways of SMS to / from email and voicemail transcription to email.

For a while, Google merged Google Voice with Google Hangouts, which was cool at the time because the merger added video conferencing and video messages on any device to all of the telephony features.  However Google killed Hangouts, so Voice became the only free consumer VOIP service the evil search giant (ESG) supported.  Google Meet for enterprise now has dial-out and dial-in to "meetings," but it's not the same as on-demand VOIP. I still use my GrandCentral phone number as the only number I give out to everyone and I use that phone  number on about a dozen devices in which I come in contact relatively frequently, including my mobile phones and home computers.  I do not give out the cellular carrier phone number.

It's interesting how these consumer services have "enshitified" over the decades.