I just created a Grand Central account. Grand Central is a phone service: you get a phone number that routes callers where-ever you want. The main things I like about Grand Central are
- you can choose what happens to callers when they call: all your phones (work/cell) can ring, for example, or you could have a “do not disturb” message
- your voicemail is stored on-line for all calls that go through Grand Central
- you can “call out” through Grand Central so your grand central number shows up in your call-ee’s caller ID
- you can try out a service like the Gizmo Project (a Skype-like phone program) and no one has to know the phone number or that you’re using your computer
- the site and service has a lot of potential–for example, Google purchased them.
Here are a few tricks I’ve learned so far about Grand Central:
- The “mid-call switch” function (hitting * while talking) is not reliable, because all your other phones ring, and they don’t get asked whether you want them to pick up, so you can start hearing your other phones’ voicemail
- Ideally I think I would want to change all my other phone numbers so no one knows them and they are forced to use Grand Central
- Ideally I would turn off voicemail and any other “non-ringing” features (e.g. Gizmo says “the caller is not available” when you’re not logged in)
- It would be really nice to receive SMS via your grand central number
- Only one Grand Central person can be assigned to a phone, so Lauren and I cannot each use Grand Central for our home phone line
So, anyways, I’m trying it: 336-283-0173.