One Man's Blog

Specialization is for Insects.

Home / Computing / Google Offers Free Universal Phone Numbers – And I’ve Got Invites

Google Offers Free Universal Phone Numbers – And I’ve Got Invites

John P.

By

GrandCentralGoogle recently acquired a company called GrandCentral, which I was preparing to do a review of anyway after testing the service out a bit. This only makes the offering all that much stronger, and in my opinion it’s something everyone should try out.

Here is the Google acquisition announcement which took about 2 seconds to download directly from my voice mail:
Google Buys GrandCentral

GrandCentral links all of your phone numbers together and layers on a TON of new features. How? They are giving people One Number…for Life – a number that’s not tied to a phone or a location – but tied to you. This number will consolidate your voice messaging, route calls to wherever you are, and even allow you to screen your calls.

With GrandCentral, you can be reached with a single number, answer a call at any phone you want, seamlessly switch phones in the middle of a call, and even know whether a call is important before you take it.

Here are just a few of the features:

    GrandCentral Screenshot

  • Check your messages by phone, email, or online
  • Keep all your messages online for eternity
  • Record and store your phone calls (just like voicemail)
  • Quickly (and secretly) block an annoying caller
  • Click-to-dial from your address book
  • Surprise your callers with a custom voicemail greeting
  • Forward, download, and add notes to your messages

Folks, if you’ve never used a Find-me, Follow-me service before or had access to your voicemails as e-mail attachments then you don’t know what you’re missing. You really, really need to sign up.

There are a great number of advantages to having this service:

  • First, you are no longer tied to a service provider for your phone number. You can change cell numbers, home numbers… whatever. Your GrandCentral number never changes.
  • You can set up call screening which requires unknown callers to announce themselves before you accept the call. No more solicitations!
  • You can have multiple phones ring simultaneously and grab the one that’s most convenient (or cheapest).
  • You can put a “Click to Call” button on your Web site for people to reach you directly from your site.
  • While you’re at home or in the office talk on your landline phone, then transfer to your cell if you need to leave, transfer back when you return!

There are also some drawbacks to using a service like this but they can be minimized:

  • Friends and Family type calling plans on cell phones get screwed up by this sort of service. Calls from the same network pass through the GrandCentral system so they probably burn up your minutes. So, either have those people continue to use your direct cell number or upgrade your minutes!
  • The GC Terms of Service state that it is for non-commercial use only. Considering that people have jobs and are going to have the phone ring to their office I don’t know what they mean by this. But I guess just be aware of it.
  • The Web Click to Call feature may conflict with the business use terms. I’m guessing it also only works in the US.

Room for Improvement:

  • Find a way around the “Friends and Family” call routing issue.
  • For the number to truly be universal it needs to be able to accept inbound faxes as well. (They’ll probably charge for this later.)
  • I imagine they will add on optional 800 number support at some time in the future.
  • Click to Call from your address book needs to be integrated with Outlook so you don’t have to log in to the Web site.
  • How about inbound caller ID notification pop ups on my PC and perhaps a small application that sits in the system tray which gives me access to everything without visiting the Web site?

Now, they are currently in Beta with the service and you have to wait for an invitation. According to their blog it’s kind of hard to get an invite right now. But luckily I’ve been a tester for a while and I can send invites to allow you to skip the wait! All you need to do is drop me a comment below with a request for an invitation (make sure you put your real e-mail address in there).

EDIT: Folks, this service is now known as Google Voice, and I have NO more invites! So please don’t bother asking for one because they don’t exist for anyone, anywhere. You just have to wait to get it direct from Google. In fact, I’m closing the comments on this one…

Comments

  1. I’ve been a skype user computer to computer for some time. I would love to try google voice to go computer to phone. I would appreciate getting an invite from you if you still have some. Thanks!

  6. Hello can you pls send me invite. for Grand central. i ould love to try it out.

  7. I heard about Google offering this service from my son and I am very interested in using it!

  12. Can you possibly send me an invite? I’m watching my signif other enjoy this new service…am fascinated…so would like to join him in the experiment! Thanks so much!!! (Kirstin@thelyndes.com)

    Kirstin

  13. I would like to request an invitation if you have any left. I like your blog and will be reading for more updates and upgrades you do.

    Best regards.

  14. I’d love a Google Voice invite if you’re still up for that.
    Staring at another $18 recharge for my Skype-In number that already has money on it and wishing there was a fairer alternative.

  17. Great Review! Heard about this on CNN, but they did not give as much information. Thanks.

    I would like an invite if you still have one.

    Thanks Again

  18. This sounds interesting still a little shaky as to how it would work but please send me an invite thanks.

  20. Hello!

    I read your update but it seems they are still waiting on a few things. f you could please invite me to GoogleTalk, it would be VERY appreciated!

    Best,

    Jon

  21. Hi John P.
    I got an invite from my friend about a year ago. I didn’t really need the service then but things have changed. So now that I need it, I discover that it was one of the emails that TDS lost in the switch to Google Mail. I would ask my friend for a new one but he is my IT Mentor and can be pretty critical of me at times. If I could get one from you, he will be none the wiser, unless he tracks this down, and I wouldn’t put it past him!
    Thanks in advance John!
    Mark

  25. Hello, this is just what I need to start a new home based business. Pls send me an invite. This sounds great! thank you

  27. Hi, I’m just beginning to start a networking business for myself, but will be moving from the state to state in a couple of years and having one number without having to go through the hassle of telling everyone everytime my number changes sounds great! If you have anymore invites, I would really appreciate it. The article was good!

  29. This looks so sweet. Would go perfect with my G1. If you have an invite I’d be eternally grateful.

  30. Please send me an invite. I really need this. this service would realy simplify my life.

    can’t wait!!!

    Thanks,
    Shawn

  31. My goodness what an amazing service!!! Please send me an invite if you have any. I followed the link and it appears to be in beta still.

    Thank You,
    Jim

  33. I stumbled across your blog after searching for this “free number” thing going around other posts and blogs. I would like to request an invitation if you have any left. I like the blog and will be reading for more updates and upgrades you decide to profile. Thank you in advance for sharing.

  34. I don’t know how new your post is, but I want an invite so bad I don’t care. I feel like Eric Cartman from Southpark when he froze himself because he could not wait for the Wii game system to come out. Please help me,,,,I really don’t want to feeze myself!!!

    Thank You in advance
    James

  35. Could I please get an invite to google voice. Would really really appreciate it! Thanks a million.