[JaggedJax]

One of the benefits mentioned is essentially having a record/backup of sms messages. I've always felt bad about loosing all my text messages when I get a new phone or run out of space.

With my past few phones I've used this app to save all my sms messages to my Gmail account: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles....

[jonknee]

You don't lose SMS if you're on iOS, your new device has all the content of the old one. That's a nice part of the walled garden I suppose.

[untog]

All SMS or just iMessages?

[cdcarter]

All SMS. To the user there is no meaningful distinction between SMS and iMessage, except for the extra features. My mother, as an example, just thought that some contacts were green and some were blue as a nice way to make things interesting.

[seagreen]

That's one of the things I like about Google Voice.