I don’t believe you can hook up Google Voice’s number up into a call forwarding system – as Google voice is a call forwarding system itself. I agree with you though, free SMS on my laptop is my favorite part of Google Voice, and sadly it made me realize how often I’m on the computer. I can usually reply to any texts within an hour of receiving them on a good day. Anyhow, I would suggest initiating any conversations with a new “G-Voice contact” by saying something like “Hey, it’s _____, this is my texting number. I get free texts on this number. What’s up?” Also, there is a mobile version of Google Voice which you can use on your iPhone. But you probably already knew that.