I’ve got a Grand Central phone number
Sep 8, 2007 Uncategorized
Okay this actually happened last week but I received an invitation from Google to participate in their private beta test for Grand Central.
If you’re not familiar with Grand Central, it’s Google’s newly acquired “one phone number for life” service and it’s FREAKING AWESOME!
I try not to get too hyped up about anything but this service honestly rocks. Basically GC lets me choose a new phone number in any location. Then, I link all my current phone numbers to my GC account. Next, I import my contacts into GC and give each one a category like, “Family”, “Work”, “Friends” or “Others”. Now I can create group-wide rules like, “route all calls from ‘work’ to my office phone” or “route all calls from ‘family’ to all my phones.”
After doing all this, I had my wife call my new number from her cell phone and guess what happened? My cell phone, work phone, and home phone all rang at the same time (give or take a second or two). When I picked up my cell phone, the others stopped ringing. And better yet, I can press “*” and my other phone will start ringing again. That way, I can transfer a call from…say…my cell phone to my home phone.
If an unrecognized caller calls my number, the system prompts them to say their name. Then my phone rings and gives me four options:
- Press “1″ to accept the call.
- Press “2″ to send it to voice-mail.
- Press “3″ to send it to voice-mail AND listen in (you can take the call at any moment).
- Press “4″ to block the call.
Got someone you really aren’t in the mood to talk to right now? Send ‘em to voice mail. (They won’t know if you rejected the call or if you just weren’t available to answer it.) This is also a great tool against telemarketers. If you get a call from a telemarketer, just block ‘em and they won’t be able to call again. (There’s even a nifty little setting where you can set specific callers to get an “I’m sorry, this number is no longer in service” message…great for ex-girlfriends.)
I’m loving this service and would recommend that everyone request an invitation. In fact, if you’re really persuasive in your comments, I might even share one of my invitations with you 
. Have a great day.
September 27th, 2007 at 2:26 am
One thing I have noticed and maybe I just don’t understand it all fully yet: I get all those call options for unknown contacts, but I’d like to ALWAYS have those options. Am I just missing a setting?
September 27th, 2007 at 5:34 am
Aaron, I’m not sure what you mean exactly. Could you clarify what you want to accomplish?
September 27th, 2007 at 11:15 am
Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that after you enter a number in the address book it is becomes “known” and then it is dialed right through without the “press 1 for this, press 2 for that” options?
I’ll admit I may be way wrong on this, however…
September 27th, 2007 at 11:55 am
Not exactly. After you enter a contact in your address book, then your calls will show that they’re coming from that person. When you pick up, the operator will still say, “Call from…Jane Smith…Press 1 to accept…[etc.]”
The reason being, just because you’ve created a contact doens’t mean you’re always available to talk to them. They just won’t have to state their name anymore (unless in your inbox or call-log, you’ve selected the field “always screen this number,” in which case they’ll always have to state their name).
You can also choose to always send certain numbers directly to voice-mail, or even play a “this number is no longer in service” message.
To access these settings, go into your inbox and just click in the empty space near a person you want to edit.
What other questions do you have?
September 27th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Ok, I just tried it out with my brother and I am wrong… I do still get the menu options even when he was confirmed as a “known” contact.
However, do you know the answer to this one? My brother-in-law first ID’d himself when he called as “Aaron is a douche” – really mature I know. However, now when he calls guess how it is identified to me? Do you know where to “reset” that?
September 27th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
I’m pretty sure that if you add him as a contact, then all subsequent incoming calls will just have a computery sounding voice say whatever name you put in for him.
October 3rd, 2007 at 10:26 am
Wow, I have to say… after reading your post, I am very interested. It kind of reminds me of when google was offering to buy tellme.com. Google always buys up the really slick stuff out there.
I found you blog via the FreelanceSwitch forums. My name is Devin, I work as a freelance web designer. Any way, Nice to meet you and great post!
October 3rd, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Devin, thanks for posting. If you want, I’ll send you an invitation. Just email me at ryanj at starpointemarketing dot com and I’ll get you “in the club”.
January 3rd, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I WOULD LOVE to have this. I was browsing the web and this popped out at me. I know you do not know me and I have NEVER been to your blog but I would love to get an invitation. I travel a lot and this would be awesome for ministry and the book that I have coming out this year I would be sure to thank you in my book and put you on any of my websites!
March 20th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I used to have a privatephone number and they have discontinued service. I own a small business I operate from home and I LOVED not having to give out my home number. I offer my cell but the service saved me alot of time by screening out the unnecessary sales calls etc. If you oculd find it in your heart to send me an invitation to GrandCentral I would be super appreciative. Thanks ~
March 21st, 2008 at 9:32 am
Lorraine, I’d love to share an invite with you. Unfortunately, it appears as if GrandCentral has removed the ability to invite a friend (temporarily hopefully).
One possible alternative would be to sign up for a YouMail account (http://www.youmail.com). It doesn’t give you a new phone number, but it gives you more control over your current cell number. You’ll be able to customize voicemail messages for each caller and even block callers so your phone doesn’t even ring when they call.
It’s worth looking in to. In the mean time, be sure to go to GrandCentral.com and request an invitation. I don’t know how quickly they’re giving them out, but it couldn’t hurt.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:48 am
What is the fee structure of the grand central service?
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:29 am
David, currently there is no fee structure. It’s all free. I believe they’ll be adding ‘advanced’ features for a price in the future, but for now it’s all free.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Hello! I’ve been trying and trying to get my brother hooked up with this service…How exactly do i send him an invitation? I clicked on “tell a friend” but all that does is tell a friend you have a new number….then he clicked on “like this? Sign up” and it didn’t work. He has tried to “reserve a number, and that doesn’t work either. Could someone help? Thanks!
May 7th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Camela, good question. It appears as though they’ve temporarily disabled the ability to invite people. I’m not sure why, but I hope they enable it again soon.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Do you have an extra invite? or three? the rest of my family would like one. How do you get more>?
October 12th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
Scott, unfortunately it looks like they’ve disabled the ‘invite’ feature for a while. I don’t know why but I hope they enable it again soon. To be honest, they’ve been really silent for a long time. I think Google’s working behinds the scenes on some changes.
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