Grand Central by Google

[nickmgray]

I'm not sure if many people here are familiar with Grand Central http://grandcentral.com, I have used this service in the past and it's really great. The service gives you a main phone number to which you can route other numbers to. Work, cell, home all on the same number and there's some neat features like centralized voice mail whic hyou can check throufgh your e-mail as well. Also, there's a feature which allows you to listen in on someone while they are leaving you a voicemail and you can cut in on the message at any time to talk with the other person.

Well I was just on their website this morning and saw that now the Company is owned by google. I'm not sure what google's plans are for Grand Central, but I'm sure they will be trying to integrate these services into their other tools (Docs, Gmail, Calendar) and maybe even use the system as an addon to Android.

[ewdi]

been using GC for over a year now, service were pretty reliable, they did went down for a long period of time that i knew of, but it seems that the service is not getting any major updates since last summer

[ggreeenwood33]

never heard of it... that would be pretty fun on our g1... see what they do.

[regdent]

does it cost?

[MattKilla]

I mention that Google owns GrandCentral every time someone bring up visual voicemail. I'm sure they'll do something with it.

[Cranky Bear]

Not only that, but there's some speculation that this would be a way to circumvent any restrictions that TMo places on VoIP applications, because technically GC is not VoIP. It can be used in a number of media, including landlines, VoIP, etc.

[TheBlur]

I've been keeping an eye out for any news about grandcentral for the past couple of months but really haven't come up with anything yet. They were bought out by Google over a year ago I believe so I really hope they come up with a way to integrate it with Android.

[baji]

I've been interested in trying it out. Spare an invite?

[*susan*]

Yes, I am also looking for someone to send me an invite so I can try it. Please???

[doomcomplex]

My main problem with GC is that I would have to switch phone numbers in order to use it. I like my phone number! It's easy to remember, and all my friends already know it, it would be a pain for me to switch.

That's why I stick with YouMail (which actually does most of the same stuff).

[constellanation]

yeah it would be interesting to try out if I could get in? I reserved my number a long long time ago, and I have heard nothing back. so yeah about those invites, if your feeling generous I would be grateful for one!

[short/y]

I've been using it as my main number for, oh, I dunno, a year or so, now, I think. I love the service but the one thing I don't like is that I have to use the phone's keyboard to answer a call, even if I'm using hands-free mode. Why? You must hit the "1" key to accept a call. I'd love a flag on each of the numbers I have it ring which indicates that if I answer the phone, I want to automatically accept the call.

[LOGIK215]

from everything i've read...it seems youmail.com might be slightly ahead of grand central right now

[MrGibbage]

From what I understand about the way the service works, there's no way to eliminate the "press 1 to answer" because that's the way the system is notified that a particular phone is receiving the call. Perhaps with some intelligent coding, there can be some work-arounds. This too is my primary complaint with the service.

And the service is currently free.

[MrGibbage]

from everything i've read...it seems youmail.com might be slightly ahead of grand central right now

They are two completely different services actually that do two very different things. GC gives you one phone number for life. You give it out to everyone and when they dial it, the system routes the call to whatever number(s) you want it to, including multiple phones. And it does have voice mail capabilities as well.

Youmail OTOH specializes in voicemail and does a great job at that.

[short/y]

From what I understand about the way the service works, there's no way to eliminate the "press 1 to answer" because that's the way the system is notified that a particular phone is receiving the call. Perhaps with some intelligent coding, there can be some work-arounds. This too is my primary complaint with the service.They can detect that a particular line has gone off-hook. The question is, do they detect that. I suspect not.

I've also asked them to prefix the number with an asterisk or some character so I can tell the call's coming through GrandCentral -- that way, they could tell if they've got a call loop (e.g. GC calls my number which forwards back to GC). I do this with my own VoIP system at home. I have both PSTN and VoIP calls going to a single phone set and I can tell by the caller id if it's from PSTN or VoIP.

[doomcomplex]

They are two completely different services actually that do two very different things.

I wouldn't go that far. GC has some "additional" features, but YM and GC do substantially overlap in a lot of ways.

For a lot of people, GC is pointless, because they don't have multiple phone numbers. Younger people, like me, are especially unlikely have a home or business phone in addition to their cell phone. For us, GC is just glorified voicemail. As far as 3rd party voicemail services go, I think YM is much, much better.