Google’s Project Fi is an exciting experiment that could change the way American wireless carriers handle voice and data plans. However, if you have a Google Voice account, you should probably know that signing up for Project Fi will disable your Google Voice number unless you port it over to Project Fi.
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So here’s the deal: When you sign up for Project Fi, you have the option of bringing over your Google Voice number to the new system. If you don’t port your Google Voice number over and instead choose to go with a separate number for Porject Fi, your Google Voice number will be released for someone else to use.
The reason for this is pretty sensible: There are a finite amount of numbers Google can use for these two projects so it can’t let every separate account user double up on numbers and still meet demand.
Even so, some Google Voice users who are happy with the service may want to hold off on signing up for Project Fi if they’re not sure it’s something they’re interested in. And as AndroidCentral writes, you can always use a separate Gmail account to get a fresh number generated for Project Fi if you want to keep your Google Voice number for your primary Gmail account.
