I came across this site while catching up on my blog reading over the holiday break. Basically they are unified-messaging provider. Their premise is one number for life (of course I’m not sure if “life” means, while you stay with them or if you can port your number over to another unified system at some other point in time). They were purchased in September by Google. Which hopefully means continued free usage and functionality. Currently they are in private invite only, but I got an email from them a couple days ago. I just found the email now, as it went to the old “junk email” spam folder (good thing I checked in there before cleaning it out). Anyway, I just signed up for the service. I elected to get a 202 (Washington DC) area code on account of the move and I. I figure if it works out, I can use that number to “get a local number” without having to go through the mess of actually getting one. That being said, I’m not sure how one can make an out going call using that number. “Hiding” you current number isn’t so much the point of the service, but everyone loves to just hit redial on their phones, which wouldn’t be my GrandCentral number.
I’ve just started playing with it, but there’s a whole lot of featurific things
- Call list is stored online. You can view the list of people who have called.
- Online voice mail. If they left you a voice mail you can listen to it online.
- When someone calls you for the first time, it asks them to state thier name. Later when you check the call log and you want to enter in who it is you can playback what they said. Once they’ve called (or you’ve added them already as a contact) it doesn’t bother them anymore and puts them right through
- If you have a contact stored for that person, when GrandCentral connects you, it tells you who it is and then prompts you to accept it or not. This feature is best used if you set GrandCentral to have your phone’s caller ID display your GrandCentral number instead of the number of the person calling. I’m thinking about this option, then I can know if someone is calling my number directly or if they are calling via GrandCentral. Of course you also know after you pick up since you have the prompting when its going through GrandCentral.
- Call blocking. This is a pretty sweet feature. You can set it up so particular numbers get the generic “This number has been disconnected” message. I think that’s an interesting way to deal with the whole, “stop calling my crazy ex-girlfriend, I’d change my phone number but I’m supposed to have this one for life”. Additionally you can choose to always screen calls from that particular number
- Customized Ringers. Ringers, not Ringtones. So instead of that boring all “ring” people hearing (or clicking if you’re still using a rotary phone) you can let people enjoy a short ballad from Kanye West while you’re trying to figure out why the couch cushion is ringing.
- Ring different phones depending who’s calling. I can send “Friends” to my cell phone by default and “work people” to my office phone. I assume you can set this up to ring all the phones at once, but I only have one phone setup right now.
- CallSwitch. Lets you switch phones right in the middle of a call. Again I only have one phone configured so I haven’t tested this, but its certainly sounds like a great idea. There’s been plenty of times when I’ve been stuck on my desk phone at the office and would have loved to just switch it over to my cell so could work on getting home (or lunch). A great feature for having to sit on hold with tech-support.
- WebCall button. Lets you put a button on your blog/webpage that allows people to call you. It supposed to allow them to call without them knowing your phone number. I assume this involves the person calling a general GrandCentral number and entering some onetime use pin in order for GrandCentral to figure out who they are trying to call and then connecting them. At least, that’s probably how I would write it if I was making one of these.
Its been pretty cool so far. I did have a bit of a glitch when I tried my first call. My cell phone rang, I answered but it never connected. The other cell phone I was calling from ended up going to GrandCentral’s voicemail.
Since they’re in beta its free. From the registration email:
- Unlimited inbound minutes
- Unlimited voicemail
- Unlimited Credit for click-to-call
- All premium features, including call record
I wonder what the cost will be once it leaves beta. With Google buying them there’s a chance it might (at least some of the features) would remain free. I’m hoping at the very least there’s a nice discount for beta testers. Not sure what I’d pay for this service. At this point, I’d say between $5 and $10 a month, provided it will include unlimited inbound minutes. I really don’t want to go back to the time where I have to care about how many minutes I’m using with my phone.
I’m allow to invite friends to use the service (and they would circumvent the wait queue) if anyone’s interested.
