Project Fi's text forwarding is being shut down on September 12

TL;DR

• Google has announced that it’s shutting down Project Fi automatic text forwarding service.
• Fi’s call forwarding will not be affected by this change.
• As many of Fi’s features are based on those found on Google Voice, this could signal an eventual separation of the two services.

Project Fi subscribers got a bit of bad news today in the form of an email. In it, Google announced that it would shut down the service’s text forwarding feature on September 12. A screenshot of the message provided by Android Police can be seen below.

The automatic text forwarding feature allowed users to receive text messages sent to their Project Fi number on other phones with different phone numbers. This feature has been incredibly handy for those who might use multiple smartphones but only want to give out a single number.

Fortunately, Project Fi’s call forwarding feature won’t be going anywhere for now.

Both the text forwarding and call forwarding features made their way over from Google Voice, a service that Project Fi strongly relies on. While Google did not give a reason for the text forwarding feature’s departure, one possible reason could be an eventual separation from Voice.

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This idea is pure speculation, but the move would make sense as Voice recently ended its Sprint integration and would allow Project Fi to work without having to rely so heavily on another Google service.

Those who still wish to receive their text messages on other devices should try using Google Hangouts. The app integrates with Project Fi and allows users to interact with their messages on almost any device. With everything set up, texts sent from a separate smartphone, tablet, or computer will show up on the recipient’s phones from your Project Fi number.

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