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

ByJohn P.

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…

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John P.

John P. is a former CEO, former TV Show Host, and the Founder and Wizard behind Texas Metal Works. You can find him on X, Facebook and LinkedIn. Feel free to send shoutouts, insults, and praise.

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237 Comments

  1. Great article. That’s exactly what many of us have been waiting for a long time. Please send me an invite.

    Thanks!!!!!

  6. Hi John, if you have any invites left, I’d really appreciate one.

    Thanks!!!,
    Brian

  19. Hi and thank you so much for this information. I have been searching for a internet phone service. If possible, could you send me an invite so that I may try the service. Thank you

  29. Like everyone else, I’d love an invite if you still have any. I know your entry says the service is out of beta, but I guess they went back to it.

  33. Could really use this service and would truly appreciate an invite from you or snyone that could help. I recently just started my own company and money is very tight.

  34. Hey, I’d like an invite as well. Thanks for the info. I look forward to using the service.

  35. I’m sure they are all gone but if they aren’t, I’ve been trying to score an invite for a while. Thanks

  36. Hello, could you please send me an invite also … I would love an opportunity to use this product.

  37. Hi! I would be very grateful if you would email me a GrandCentral invite. Thank you and have a great day!

  38. My friends currently use grandcentral… of course I caught on late, but they all rave about it and the usefulness of the service. Excellent idea, I just wonder how google will develop it seeing it recently has gone under its roof.

    I am still in dire search for an invite to grandcentral… I would love it and seriously need it for business reasons… so please send an invite!

  40. Sounds like a great service, I would like an invite if you have them still available.

  42. Hi John,

    I just tried but Google says they are in beta (again?) and the only option is to try and reserve a number. I would appreciate an invite ffrom you for a number.

    I was one of their email beta testers and invited many but so far no luck with GC.

    thx
    Mack

  47. I have been looking for an invite to the GrandCentral for a while and seem to be getting nowhere. Are they still allowing invites? I really appreciated all your information on the subject, and would love to test it out.

    Thanks,

    David

  50. I just happend onto your blog. I am very interested in this unique service and am hoping that you still have invitatinos available. If so, May I please have one? Thank you.

    Pamela

  53. Please send me an invite. I went to their site several times, but it still requires an invitation.

    Thank You,

    Joe

  54. Hey JP, I found your blog while looking for a vista business cards review. Your blog looks good! Got any GrandCentral invites left?

    Thanks, RB

  55. please if you still have invites, please can you send me one
    i’m student and i hope spend more time in calling my family

  58. Followed the link to Grandcentral, looks like another great service from google thanks for sharing

  60. Hoping you still have invitations to google single number reach – though I see it has been 6 months or more since you posted this blog.

    TdB

  64. Hi, I just happened onto your blog and noticed the information about the google and Grand Central. Per you, I am requesting an invite to this new service. Thank you.

    Dahni

  67. Terrific review. The technology and product definely looks promising to help integrate the multi-phone number family. Love to get an invite.

  74. oh i need this very badly! so glad to have an oportunity to get an invite, if any are left, i would most appreciate one! Please email me one.thanks so much

  75. Very interesting. First was VIOP and now a central mechanism to take all phone no with you. If there are any invites left, please email me. Google certainly changed the lanscape

  76. This is a very interesting article but I’m guessing John P has run out of invites by now. I requested one and received no reply. However, I did receive an invitation directly from Grand Central by going to http://www.grandcentral.com and asking for one. I just simply added my name to the list and the next day they sent my an invitation. Good luck to all. And thanks to John P for the very informative article.

  80. GrandCentral sounds very interesting. I was using PrivatePhone but they are discontinuing their free phone number/voice mail service in mid-December. I’m shopping around for a replacement. If you have any invites left, I would appreciate one. If you don’t, do you know any other free phone number/VM services? AIMphoneline was supposedly one but they don’t seem to be in service anymore. Thank you.

  98. Wow this is a great services but from your post I didn’t figure out is it available to the entire world or just to US people?

    I guess I’ll have to read once more :)

    S.

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