ErrorZap special project · Telecom, DIY 8 messages · 1 number · 0 middlemen

Google Voice → a phone company of my own → my own texting app

I Fired Google Voice and Built My Own Texting

For ten years my business lived on a free Google Voice number I couldn't automate, couldn't back up properly and didn't control. So I moved the number to a carrier I rent from, built my own texting server, and then built my own texting app. This is the whole trip, including the parts that broke.

Comic illustration: the bald, bearded ErrorZap host at a dark desk holds up a phone showing a glowing chat bubble, a small homemade server blinks on the shelf behind him, a padlocked box labeled BORROWED sits in the trash, and he says MY NUMBER. MY SERVER. MY APP.
The whole story, one message at a time

Inbox

  1. 01 Ten Years on a Borrowed Number 86,252 texts, no API, and sent messages my own software could never see.
  2. 02 We Built a Phone Company in One Night A cloud phone system, a brand-new number to practice on, and the first texts landing on a server I own.
  3. 03 The Paperwork Boss Fight, Then Port Day Brand verified, campaign approved, a signed letter, and one morning when Google Voice showed no number at all.
  4. 04 Six Hours Later: The First App An open-source app forked in an afternoon, notifications that never made a sound, and a text box that ate my typing.
  5. 05 Tear It Down, Build It Right Push instead of polling, a fake phone company for testing, 18 server bugs, and a whole new app in one afternoon.
  6. 06 Making It Mine A sound for every person, reminders that won't quit, quiet hours, a desk page, and voicemail inside the app.
  7. 07 The Robot Answers the Phone (and the Three Silent Days) An AI receptionist, a VIP list that rings straight through, and the change that quietly broke it for three days.
  8. 08 What It Costs and What I'd Tell You The real bill, my AI assistants finally reading my texts the right way, and seven lessons if you want to try this.

I’ve had the same business phone number since 2015, and for all of that time it lived inside Google Voice. Clients texted it. My family texted it. Appointment reminders and delivery notices went to it. Ten years, over 86,000 texts.

And I couldn’t touch any of it. There was no way for my own software to read a text, answer one, or even keep a copy of the ones I sent. My whole business ran through a free consumer app that I had no control over.

So I changed that, in three steps:

  1. Take the number back. Move my number from Google Voice to Telnyx, a carrier that rents numbers to anyone with an API.
  2. Build my own texting server. Every text in or out now goes through a small server I own, at home.
  3. Build my own texting app. The KCCS Text app on my phones, plus a desk page on my PC, talks to that server instead of to Google.

I didn’t do it alone. My two AI teammates, Leo (Claude) and Orion (ChatGPT’s Codex), wrote most of the code, and I’ll tell you which one did what. I also won’t skip the times the whole thing quietly broke.

Start at message 01 for the whole story, or jump to the one where the AI answers my phone.

The two-minute version

I Fired Google Voice and Built My Own Texting AppThe whole story in about two minutes. The chapters below have the details. Watch on YouTube ↗

The whole trip on one screen

  1. The Google Voice number startsThe earliest record in my Google export. For the next ten years it was my business line, my personal line and my family line.
  2. First count of what's in thereOver 83,000 messages. No API to reach any of them.
  3. A phone system of my own, built overnightA cloud phone system on a rented server, wired to Telnyx, with a brand-new business number. The same night I exported all 86,252 Google Voice texts.
  4. First texts arrive on my own serverIncoming texts reached the new number with no carrier registration yet. Sending was a different story.
  5. The server that would run everythingA small web service at home that takes Telnyx’s webhooks. Built by Orion (ChatGPT’s Codex) as a pilot.
  6. The paperwork boss fightBusiness brand registered and verified, ID check, a customer-care texting campaign approved by the carriers.
  7. Port dayMy ten-year-old number moves from Google Voice to Telnyx. Google Voice shows no number at all.
  8. "Is there a way to have a Google Voice-like texting app?"Orion forks an open-source VoIP app into the first KCCS Text app.
  9. The audit, then a real web appLeo (Claude) finds why the app eats my typing and builds a web app with instant updates and push notifications.
  10. The AI starts answering my callsCalls to my number now hit my server first. Something quietly broke, and nobody noticed for three days.
  11. Rebuild in one afternoon: v0.2, then v0.3 that nightNew server code, new app, new Android shell. Per-contact sounds, reminders, quiet hours.
  12. Desk page, VIP ring-through restored, failover, monitor
  13. Every line test-called, business voicemail inside the app
  14. My AI assistants get their own key to the inboxA command-line tool so they read and draft texts from my server, never from Google anything.

How a text gets to me now

Someone's phoneany carrier, anywhereTheir carrierthe phone networkTelnyxholds my number nowMy servera small container at homeMy appboth phonesDesk pageon the PCTelegrambackup alert
    Tap the buttons to follow a different trip. Everything below the Telnyx box is mine.