7 ms·

Grand Central To (Finally) Launch As Google Voice. It’s Very, Very Good.

157 points by vaksel 18y ago

smoody 18y ago
it doesn't sound like they've solved one of the bigger single phone number issues: people still have to know my mobile phone number because when I dial direct from my mobile phone, I cannot get my Grand Central number of come up as my caller ID number (the best I can tell anyway and for obvious reasons).
- dotpavan 18y ago
  You can- 1) If you initiate a call via browser from GC's site, you have the option of making the number of your choice (your GC or cell/land #) or 2) if you use GrandDialler app on iPhone, it too can make the call with your GC # as the source edit- forgot to add, there is vocito app (http://code.google.com/p/vocito/ http://code.google.com/p/vocito/) for mac
  - rufo 18y ago
    In addition, there's now an option when you dial your Google Voice number to just dial directly - the "Place Calls" video at https://www.google.com/voice/about https://www.google.com/voice/about demos it.
daveambrose 18y ago
"About damn time." Gmail integration will be the killer feature here.
- physcab 18y ago
  Has anyone checked out the TOS of this thing? I'm a pretty connected guy, and I don't mind technology infusing with my lifestyle, but where does the line get drawn? With Google Voice, they now have access to every bit of your private life. Even if they are a "don't be evil" company, that doesn't exactly sit well. I'm surprised there hasn't been more negative press about this addition. Those wire-tapping cases got massive amounts of attention in all the major media outlets. I'm not a paranoid person, but wow. I'm definitely staying away regardless if it makes things more convenient.
mcav 18y ago
> We have 100 Google Voice accounts to give out to readers, but you must have a gmail account. If you’d like one, please send an email from your gmail account to techcrunch@gmail.com (note that this isn’t an account we check regularly) with the exact subject “Google Voice Account” - the first 100 will get an account invitation from Google.
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
peregrine 18y ago
I wonder how this will integrate with Android. I suspect soon they will have a feature to use grandcentral voice mail, then I will get the fancy visual voice mail but with the text underneath. Awesome.
- brandonkm 18y ago
  I've been using G1 Central on my phone for a couple weeks now to make free calls. It's pretty awesome. Visual voicemail works great (minus the app downloading the voicemails to your sd card) and being able to sort everything online is really nice too. I'm hoping we get an official Google voice app with the cupcake update thats coming in April.
dmix 18y ago
> GrandCentral will also remain solely a U.S. service. Alright, I am now adding Google Voice to my (Canadian) technology waiting list along with: Amazon Kindle, Skype Inbound #, Mint.com and Braintree Gateway.
- Hexstream 18y ago
  and Hulu! and Google Checkout...
  - deleted 18y ago
    [deleted]
  - racetrack 18y ago
    I'm pretty sure that Hulu's problem is the fraking CRTC's CanCon laws.
    - wvenable 18y ago
      I don't understand how youtube would be allowed but Hulu wouldn't. The real problem is that all the content is licensed regionally; Hulu has the rights to content in the US but not Canada. And we're probably just not worth the hassle. So much for the World Wide Web; I feel like it's getting more regional every day.
  - brunoqc 18y ago
    and Android (with 3G)
- kubrick 18y ago
  I think this is why God made proxy servers. Actually, that's really surprising. Why on Earth would you not be allowed to get to those services? Canada, of all countries? The 51st state? ;-)
  - patio11 18y ago
    Proxy servers don't help too much if your bank isn't signed up to share data with Yodlee, which is where all the Mint stuff comes from. On the other hand, if you hypothetically wanted to use Amazon's Video on Demand service and got caught out by the US-only licensing restriction, you might be interested that Apache's mod-proxy can turn your Slicehost slice into a Virtual Private American. (I feel guilty about doing this. Which is really weird, because I'm feeling guilty about trying to pay them money while every other expatriate I know just flies the Jolly Roger.)
blasdel 18y ago
Oh man, I have a GrandCentral account from right before the acquisition. My number gets a lot of voicemails from collections agencies. For a while I had it forwarded to my office number, and something in the process must have confused their autodialers, because I'd get at least one dead call a week. I never thought to sell the account on eBay!
- andreyf 18y ago
  I'm wondering if it's worth trying, or if I'll get scammed... does anyone have experience with this?
evbart 18y ago
I've been using Grancentral ever since it was aquired by google, and its been great. The main use was so that I didn't have to give out my personal cell phone number for work, and so that I didn't have to carry a second phone. Having a separate voicemail box just for work has been great, and I've even used the call recording feature when someone was giving me very important detailed instructions. No concerns with spam, and I haven't noticed any downtime, so I'd recommend it. Would love to see more integration so I don't have a whole separate address book in Grandcentral...
- sgoraya 18y ago
  I've been using my GC# in a similar manner and its been a great experience. The call log and the ability to filter #'s is a good way to categorize and 'file' my phone calls - And I really like the new UI too! I was skeptical at first when GC launched (mainly having to give out a new number), but once you properly configure your settings and start getting phone calls you start realizing the service's usefulness.
pauljonas 18y ago
Really need a /ignore techcrunch.com article filter for HN. Yeah, I know it displays here on the HTML page displayed in my browser, but it doesn't show in my RSS reader (Google Reader).
- unalone 18y ago
  This was a useful, informative article. TechCrunch writes a lot of shitty things. This wasn't one of them. I'm fine with TechCrunch rants, but unless you've got something interesting to say beyond "I dislike TechCrunch," save it, ignore the article, and move on.
- elidourado 18y ago
  I send the HN rss feed through Yahoo Pipes to add the url of the link to the text. http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=zFbbu_cK3RGfhLcgn0artA&_render=rss http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=zFbbu_cK3RGfhLcgn0...
jorgeortiz85 18y ago
One phone number for all your phones, for life. I already have that. It's called a cellphone.
- snprbob86 18y ago
  I'm not sure why this was downvoted. Negative tone? I mean, he really does have a point. I'm interested in some of the other features (such as voice mail transcripts and advanced call routing), but the singular phone number issue was never a problem for me: my only phone has been my cell phone. I'd suspect a lot of young people are in the same boat.
  - aneesh 18y ago
    While I'm sure it's more useful with multiple numbers, I've gotten a lot out of it having just one number. It gives me a second number that I can give out to folks who I don't want to give out my primary number to. It gives you much more flexibility: you can block certain numbers, forward to calls to voicemail, forward to other phones, record calls, make calls & listen to voicemails online, etc. There's plenty of utility even if you have a single phone.
- pieter 18y ago
  I don't get it... I'd rather prefer unlimited phone numbers for some of my phones. What if you give your phone number to the wrong people? They'll keep calling you. You might be able to filter out some, but they can always call from another number (think phone spam). I'd rather have the option to generate new phone numbers and give one number to each person / 'community'. Then if I quit my job I can just filter away all people calling me on my job number. That's also why people use multiple email addresses, or plus addressing.
  - Xichekolas 18y ago
    Except your standard 10 digit phone number scheme only allows 10 billion numbers... which isn't exactly a big enough space to allow you to generate new phone numbers whenever you want. The idea is kind of cool though... like generating one-time-use credit card numbers for dodgy e-commerce sites.
kolya3 18y ago
My favorite feature of GrandCentral is that you listen in while the voicemail is being recorded and then jump in at any moment.
rufo 18y ago
https://www.google.com/voice/about https://www.google.com/voice/about has a bunch of videos showing off the new features. I must say, the new interface looks like a nice improvement over GC - although I'd love to see integration with my Gmail Inbox (Gmail Labs, anyone?)
scorpioxy 18y ago
So i can't imagine why they made this a free service. I think that a lot of people would be willing to pay a reasonable price for this. I know i would(if i was in the US). Missed opportunity? Or a lack of vision from my part?
- briansmith 18y ago
  A lot of the Google technology is based on statistical analysis, which only really works well for huge data sets. Accordingly, a lot of Google's services exist so that Google can build giant data sets based on your use. As far as I know, Google records (or can reconstruct) every single byte that you send/receive through its services except for a few of your IP address, in order to build these data sets. For example, Google Reader is free so that Google can collect attention data. Google Analytics is free for the same reason. Google's 411 service is designed to collect voice data to fine-tune its voice-to-text engine. Some of those services also provide a platform for presenting the user with tiny classified ads, which is an additional revenue stream for them. Finally, some services are offered for free with no SLA and no customer support in order to stress-test the paid versions of those same products (Google Apps, Gmail).
RK 18y ago
Please tell me this will finally kill SMS, at least in that an incoming SMS can just be routed to my gmail and I can designate an outgoing email as an SMS... Of course I'd rather have end to end mobile email with instant (configurable) notification.
- Raphael 18y ago
  I'm with you. The SMS feature would still be useful if your contacts still use it. Or if you are the one stuck with SMS, route that as an email (assuming the recipient does not use Google Voice).
jlam 18y ago
CNET News posted a more in-depth article http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10194446-2.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10194446-2.html and gave an answer to a question i had: can i port a number to Google Voice? (No, not yet.)
- calambrac 18y ago
  Cell phone companies have to port numbers between carriers, I wonder why Google can't do it? I would be all over this if I could keep my cell phone number...
  - edfrghjk 18y ago
    I suspect like Skype they are being careful not to claim they are a telco - so they don't get hit with all the regulation and requirements stuff that real phone companies have. At the moment they are treated like those companies that sell cheap international calling cards.
Erwin 18y ago
Transcripted voice mail? I wonder how well that will work out (looks good in the screenshots on techchrunch but are those real). Next step would be to do to this for ordinary phone calls as well and integrate them with Gmail, so you'd have a "Phone Calls" link like you have "Chats", with gmail search being able to find those. That might be awesome for a business though perhaps unfcomfortably transparent.
- jonknee 18y ago
  That would be most likely be illegal in many states so I wouldn't hold my breath.
- charltones 18y ago
  These people http://www.spinvox.com/ http://www.spinvox.com/ do exactly that. The answer is that it works quite well, but maybe not well enough to rely upon. It struggles with people's names, jargon and noisy environments as you might imagine. Also there's been a few occasions where it missed a vital word and changed the whole sense of the message "Hi, I'm calling to let you know I'm going to be at the station tonight as planned" - missing a NOT. Ooops.
smoody 18y ago
anyone come across instructions for upgrading a grand central account to a google voice account yet?
ejs 18y ago
How annoying, I signed up with the beta link to be notified probably over a year ago, I am sure others have as well. But a bunch of random tech crunch people get invites instead of the people who signed up so long ago?
aphistic 18y ago
Does anyone familiar with the service know how the Google Voice number you're assigned works with long distance providers? I've been using my cell phone as my primary phone for a long time now and get free (domestic) long distance but if someone who pays extra for long distance tries to call my Google Voice number would it be considered long distance even if they're local to me?
minalecs 18y ago
any word on how to port existing grandcentral account to google voice ? - i wish i could delete this now.. but i see a big upgrade me link now.. last night was not there sorry
pj 18y ago
Hi, this is Google Voice. It sounds like you and your friend are talking about Widgets. Here's a list of widget retailers you may be interested in. Press the 2 button to hear more about Acme Widget company. Press 3 to hear about Joe Widget and Sons... Acme widgets are currently $2.99, press 4 to enter your credit card number and purchase widgets directly from Acme widget company. How many widgets would you like to order? Please enter the number of widgets followed by the pound sign...

157 points by vaksel 18y ago

it doesn't sound like they've solved one of the bigger single phone number issues: people still have to know my mobile phone number because when I dial direct from my mobile phone, I cannot get my Grand Central number of come up as my caller ID number (the best I can tell anyway and for obvious reasons).

dotpavan 18y ago
You can- 1) If you initiate a call via browser from GC's site, you have the option of making the number of your choice (your GC or cell/land #) or 2) if you use GrandDialler app on iPhone, it too can make the call with your GC # as the source edit- forgot to add, there is vocito app (http://code.google.com/p/vocito/ http://code.google.com/p/vocito/) for mac
- rufo 18y ago
  In addition, there's now an option when you dial your Google Voice number to just dial directly - the "Place Calls" video at https://www.google.com/voice/about https://www.google.com/voice/about demos it.

daveambrose 18y ago

"About damn time." Gmail integration will be the killer feature here.

physcab 18y ago
Has anyone checked out the TOS of this thing? I'm a pretty connected guy, and I don't mind technology infusing with my lifestyle, but where does the line get drawn? With Google Voice, they now have access to every bit of your private life. Even if they are a "don't be evil" company, that doesn't exactly sit well. I'm surprised there hasn't been more negative press about this addition. Those wire-tapping cases got massive amounts of attention in all the major media outlets. I'm not a paranoid person, but wow. I'm definitely staying away regardless if it makes things more convenient.

mcav 18y ago

> We have 100 Google Voice accounts to give out to readers, but you must have a gmail account. If you’d like one, please send an email from your gmail account to techcrunch@gmail.com (note that this isn’t an account we check regularly) with the exact subject “Google Voice Account” - the first 100 will get an account invitation from Google.

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]

peregrine 18y ago

I wonder how this will integrate with Android. I suspect soon they will have a feature to use grandcentral voice mail, then I will get the fancy visual voice mail but with the text underneath. Awesome.

brandonkm 18y ago
I've been using G1 Central on my phone for a couple weeks now to make free calls. It's pretty awesome. Visual voicemail works great (minus the app downloading the voicemails to your sd card) and being able to sort everything online is really nice too. I'm hoping we get an official Google voice app with the cupcake update thats coming in April.

dmix 18y ago

> GrandCentral will also remain solely a U.S. service. Alright, I am now adding Google Voice to my (Canadian) technology waiting list along with: Amazon Kindle, Skype Inbound #, Mint.com and Braintree Gateway.

Hexstream 18y ago
and Hulu! and Google Checkout...
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- racetrack 18y ago
  I'm pretty sure that Hulu's problem is the fraking CRTC's CanCon laws.
  - wvenable 18y ago
    I don't understand how youtube would be allowed but Hulu wouldn't. The real problem is that all the content is licensed regionally; Hulu has the rights to content in the US but not Canada. And we're probably just not worth the hassle. So much for the World Wide Web; I feel like it's getting more regional every day.
- brunoqc 18y ago
  and Android (with 3G)
kubrick 18y ago
I think this is why God made proxy servers. Actually, that's really surprising. Why on Earth would you not be allowed to get to those services? Canada, of all countries? The 51st state? ;-)
- patio11 18y ago
  Proxy servers don't help too much if your bank isn't signed up to share data with Yodlee, which is where all the Mint stuff comes from. On the other hand, if you hypothetically wanted to use Amazon's Video on Demand service and got caught out by the US-only licensing restriction, you might be interested that Apache's mod-proxy can turn your Slicehost slice into a Virtual Private American. (I feel guilty about doing this. Which is really weird, because I'm feeling guilty about trying to pay them money while every other expatriate I know just flies the Jolly Roger.)

blasdel 18y ago

Oh man, I have a GrandCentral account from right before the acquisition. My number gets a lot of voicemails from collections agencies. For a while I had it forwarded to my office number, and something in the process must have confused their autodialers, because I'd get at least one dead call a week. I never thought to sell the account on eBay!

andreyf 18y ago
I'm wondering if it's worth trying, or if I'll get scammed... does anyone have experience with this?

evbart 18y ago

I've been using Grancentral ever since it was aquired by google, and its been great. The main use was so that I didn't have to give out my personal cell phone number for work, and so that I didn't have to carry a second phone. Having a separate voicemail box just for work has been great, and I've even used the call recording feature when someone was giving me very important detailed instructions. No concerns with spam, and I haven't noticed any downtime, so I'd recommend it. Would love to see more integration so I don't have a whole separate address book in Grandcentral...

sgoraya 18y ago
I've been using my GC# in a similar manner and its been a great experience. The call log and the ability to filter #'s is a good way to categorize and 'file' my phone calls - And I really like the new UI too! I was skeptical at first when GC launched (mainly having to give out a new number), but once you properly configure your settings and start getting phone calls you start realizing the service's usefulness.

pauljonas 18y ago

Really need a /ignore techcrunch.com article filter for HN. Yeah, I know it displays here on the HTML page displayed in my browser, but it doesn't show in my RSS reader (Google Reader).

unalone 18y ago
This was a useful, informative article. TechCrunch writes a lot of shitty things. This wasn't one of them. I'm fine with TechCrunch rants, but unless you've got something interesting to say beyond "I dislike TechCrunch," save it, ignore the article, and move on.
elidourado 18y ago
I send the HN rss feed through Yahoo Pipes to add the url of the link to the text. http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=zFbbu_cK3RGfhLcgn0artA&_render=rss http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=zFbbu_cK3RGfhLcgn0...

jorgeortiz85 18y ago

One phone number for all your phones, for life. I already have that. It's called a cellphone.

snprbob86 18y ago
I'm not sure why this was downvoted. Negative tone? I mean, he really does have a point. I'm interested in some of the other features (such as voice mail transcripts and advanced call routing), but the singular phone number issue was never a problem for me: my only phone has been my cell phone. I'd suspect a lot of young people are in the same boat.
- aneesh 18y ago
  While I'm sure it's more useful with multiple numbers, I've gotten a lot out of it having just one number. It gives me a second number that I can give out to folks who I don't want to give out my primary number to. It gives you much more flexibility: you can block certain numbers, forward to calls to voicemail, forward to other phones, record calls, make calls & listen to voicemails online, etc. There's plenty of utility even if you have a single phone.
pieter 18y ago
I don't get it... I'd rather prefer unlimited phone numbers for some of my phones. What if you give your phone number to the wrong people? They'll keep calling you. You might be able to filter out some, but they can always call from another number (think phone spam). I'd rather have the option to generate new phone numbers and give one number to each person / 'community'. Then if I quit my job I can just filter away all people calling me on my job number. That's also why people use multiple email addresses, or plus addressing.
- Xichekolas 18y ago
  Except your standard 10 digit phone number scheme only allows 10 billion numbers... which isn't exactly a big enough space to allow you to generate new phone numbers whenever you want. The idea is kind of cool though... like generating one-time-use credit card numbers for dodgy e-commerce sites.

kolya3 18y ago

My favorite feature of GrandCentral is that you listen in while the voicemail is being recorded and then jump in at any moment.

rufo 18y ago

https://www.google.com/voice/about https://www.google.com/voice/about has a bunch of videos showing off the new features. I must say, the new interface looks like a nice improvement over GC - although I'd love to see integration with my Gmail Inbox (Gmail Labs, anyone?)

scorpioxy 18y ago

So i can't imagine why they made this a free service. I think that a lot of people would be willing to pay a reasonable price for this. I know i would(if i was in the US). Missed opportunity? Or a lack of vision from my part?

briansmith 18y ago
A lot of the Google technology is based on statistical analysis, which only really works well for huge data sets. Accordingly, a lot of Google's services exist so that Google can build giant data sets based on your use. As far as I know, Google records (or can reconstruct) every single byte that you send/receive through its services except for a few of your IP address, in order to build these data sets. For example, Google Reader is free so that Google can collect attention data. Google Analytics is free for the same reason. Google's 411 service is designed to collect voice data to fine-tune its voice-to-text engine. Some of those services also provide a platform for presenting the user with tiny classified ads, which is an additional revenue stream for them. Finally, some services are offered for free with no SLA and no customer support in order to stress-test the paid versions of those same products (Google Apps, Gmail).

RK 18y ago

Please tell me this will finally kill SMS, at least in that an incoming SMS can just be routed to my gmail and I can designate an outgoing email as an SMS... Of course I'd rather have end to end mobile email with instant (configurable) notification.

Raphael 18y ago
I'm with you. The SMS feature would still be useful if your contacts still use it. Or if you are the one stuck with SMS, route that as an email (assuming the recipient does not use Google Voice).

jlam 18y ago

CNET News posted a more in-depth article http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10194446-2.html http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10194446-2.html and gave an answer to a question i had: can i port a number to Google Voice? (No, not yet.)

calambrac 18y ago
Cell phone companies have to port numbers between carriers, I wonder why Google can't do it? I would be all over this if I could keep my cell phone number...
- edfrghjk 18y ago
  I suspect like Skype they are being careful not to claim they are a telco - so they don't get hit with all the regulation and requirements stuff that real phone companies have. At the moment they are treated like those companies that sell cheap international calling cards.

Erwin 18y ago

Transcripted voice mail? I wonder how well that will work out (looks good in the screenshots on techchrunch but are those real). Next step would be to do to this for ordinary phone calls as well and integrate them with Gmail, so you'd have a "Phone Calls" link like you have "Chats", with gmail search being able to find those. That might be awesome for a business though perhaps unfcomfortably transparent.

jonknee 18y ago
That would be most likely be illegal in many states so I wouldn't hold my breath.
charltones 18y ago
These people http://www.spinvox.com/ http://www.spinvox.com/ do exactly that. The answer is that it works quite well, but maybe not well enough to rely upon. It struggles with people's names, jargon and noisy environments as you might imagine. Also there's been a few occasions where it missed a vital word and changed the whole sense of the message "Hi, I'm calling to let you know I'm going to be at the station tonight as planned" - missing a NOT. Ooops.

smoody 18y ago

anyone come across instructions for upgrading a grand central account to a google voice account yet?

ejs 18y ago

How annoying, I signed up with the beta link to be notified probably over a year ago, I am sure others have as well. But a bunch of random tech crunch people get invites instead of the people who signed up so long ago?

aphistic 18y ago

Does anyone familiar with the service know how the Google Voice number you're assigned works with long distance providers? I've been using my cell phone as my primary phone for a long time now and get free (domestic) long distance but if someone who pays extra for long distance tries to call my Google Voice number would it be considered long distance even if they're local to me?

minalecs 18y ago

any word on how to port existing grandcentral account to google voice ? - i wish i could delete this now.. but i see a big upgrade me link now.. last night was not there sorry

pj 18y ago

Hi, this is Google Voice. It sounds like you and your friend are talking about Widgets. Here's a list of widget retailers you may be interested in. Press the 2 button to hear more about Acme Widget company. Press 3 to hear about Joe Widget and Sons... Acme widgets are currently $2.99, press 4 to enter your credit card number and purchase widgets directly from Acme widget company. How many widgets would you like to order? Please enter the number of widgets followed by the pound sign...