Recently, the Google Voice IFTTT number retention method started charging. via

This morning I saw a V2EX post about Google Voice mutual keep-alive.

One user’s comment caught my attention:

So I started the number retention process. For making calls, you can refer to this V2EX post: Some US numbers for GV number retention.

I chose to call Microsoft customer service for number retention, but found it kept showing “Connecting” status in Chrome browser. I searched online but found no solution.

So I tried calling Microsoft customer service’s GV number on my Android phone, and it connected. I went back to PC and tried Edge browser this time - after logging into my Google Voice account and calling Microsoft customer service, it also connected. That’s when I realized some Chrome extension must be causing the GV dialing failure. I remembered recently watching Buliang Lin’s DNS leak video and installing a Chrome extension called WebRTC Control.

On a hunch, I disabled it and tried calling Microsoft customer service again in Chrome’s GV interface - successfully connected.

As for why disabling WebRTC causes Google Voice calls to fail, see New Bing’s response:

TL;DR

Google Voice uses WebRTC to achieve real-time audio and video communication between endpoints.

Afterward, searching online, I found others had encountered this problem:

• WebRTC Leak Prevent causes Google Voice web version to not work
• disable-webrtc blocks google voice