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GrandCentral Reborn As Google Voice
Some anonymous person wrote in to say that Google has relaunched and rebranded GrandCentral as "Google Voice." The article says it will "revolutionize telephones. It unifies your phone numbers, transcribes your voice mail, blocks telemarketers and elevates text messages to first-class communication citizens." Sadly, the voicemail didn't integrate very nicely w/ my phone back in the day, so I guess I should give it a shot.
I signed up to be notified when it's available to new users.
https://services.google.com/fb/forms/googlevoiceinvite/
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
It would be a voice synth or something, that was really high quality. I was disapointed.
Obligatory blog plug: http://www.caseybanner.ca/
Maybe Google gave it up for undisclosed cash to Apple since they are using the same term for a new type of multicore support in Snow Leopard. Eric Schmidt sits on Apple's board. Crazier things have happened.
"Im sorry, I can't take your call right now, but if you leave your name, phone number and message, I will get back to you as soon as I am out of Beta...."
Last I heard all their features were free, but I kinda felt bad because I knew the ones I liked could disappear at any time because that was what they said the plan was after they left beta.
All features would be free during the beta, and then they said the "core" ones would be free after that with the rest being paid.
I have been a Grand Central user for well over a year, and the biggest reason I did not use them as my primary number was because SMS redirection was not available. I cannot WAIT to get my upgrade in Grand Central, hopefully soon! ::crosses fingers::
Logitek
Seems this service is USA only atleast currently. It isnt really stated on the site. Wish they'd expand it to europe soon.
Anyone know any such european alternatives?
I don't want a revolutionary new phone - the basic idea of the telephone was got pretty much spot on in the 19th century - talk into mic , listen from earpiece. What I want is a phone service thats reliable , cheap and works in an emergency. What I DO NOT want is a phone service that gives me a friggin "select from the following options" load of BS when I lift up the receiver! I have enough of that crap when phoning help desks. As for listening in when someone leaves a message - wooooo! Someone correct me but I believe you've been able to do that with steam powered cassette based answerphones since the 1970s.
Since Caller ID has become virtually useless for identifying anyone other than friends and family (it is regularly blocked or spoofed), it would be nice if Google Voice gave you the option to view the ANI info (which is what is used internally by the phone systems for billing and E-911, and is generally considered unspoofable). I've been waiting for someone to do so for a long time.
I think I'd better keep an empty bladder for the next couple of days, so I don't pee my pants with excitement when I get the upgrade notice.
Aw man, if I had an Android phone syncing my Gmail/Google Voice contacts, too... darn you, AT&T! Hurry up with that!
I've been using GrandCentral for about a year and a half now. The level of control is just stunning. One number that rings your cell phone, home phone and work phone at once; pick up the call from any of them. Transfer phones during the call. Different greetings for friends, family, work, and other contacts. Listen to the message as it's being left. Pick up the call during the message if you like. Voice mails are available to download as mp3 files. Need to save an important message? You can easily. I've saved messages about projects with other files in my project directory. No more looking for that message. Nice! Call anyone in your address book from your address book. This is free now, but will be a paid service. I knew going in this wouldn't be free forever - free outgoing calls to anywhere in the country?? I hope they don't overcharge for this - if it's reasonable, it's totally worth a fee. This service is great and quite solid. If you're waiting for it, hold on... It's worth the wait!
I'm not a human, but I play one on T.V.
What's the deal with this statement in the summary?
"Sadly, the voicemail didn't integrate very nicely w/ my phone back in the day, so I guess I should give it a shot."
What's different between that and, "Sadly, Windows didn't work well for me in 2002, so I guess I should try Windows 7?" Or "Sadly, I hated my Nissan Altima from 2004, so my next purchase should be an Altima from 2009?"
I'm not saying your shouldn't try it out, but that sentence reads like a big fat non sequitur.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
I've had a GrandCentral account for years, never used it. First thing I did today was login and search the help for "port number". As it has said for the past few years:
"Although you can't currently port your existing number to GrandCentral, we hope to offer this option in the near future. Check out our blog to stay up-to-date with GrandCentral news and learn about new features."
If I have to give the people who call me a new number, it's not worth it. Maybe if I was moving and was getting a new number anyway ( though cell phones and Vonage don't require this ), then I'd use it.
I quite literally used my invite to GC yesterday expecting to use it as is. I'm totally thrilled to see it becoming something even greater!
There is an app for Android called "G1 Central" -- it integrates well with the G1. Hopefully Google will release an even better app or, better yet, integrate Voice with the entire dialing, contacts, and voice mail system. I'm sure T-Mobile would love to have the load off!
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
Everyone's always like, wow what's that service you use, can you hook me up? I'm like, sorry babe but it's beta you know, no more invites. Now the common folk will have access? GREAT, my address book will hopefully slim down!
I'll admit it - I still have a landline phone in my house. My satellite receivers require it, my DSL service requires the line, I feel better knowing it's there in case of an emergency, AND it keeps my teenagers from using up all of our shared cell minutes (the boy used 2700 minutes all by himself last month). In spite of these reasons, I was growing to hate that phone. We get maybe 2 legit calls on that phone a month, the rest are all telemarketers, a dozen a day sometimes, almost always between 6:00pm-9:00pm. It was driving me nuts.
Along comes GrandCentral. Now, my home number is call-forwarded to GrandCentral. From there, I've whitelisted the numbers that are allowed to call us. Some of those numbers ring my cell, some ring my wife's, some ring both. Everything else goes to voicemail or is blocked as spam. Blocked callers hear a "number not in service" message. Voicemails are sent to us as emails.
Very slick, VERY convenient, and it's removed a serious annoyance. Bliss...
As exciting as this would be, vonage is already doing it.
They will ring multiple numbers at the same time, provide web-based accces to voicemail, send you an email when you get a voicemail, and transcribe voicemails if you feel the need.
I'd love to be able to use any computer with a headset as a phone, much as I already do, but with a phone number for incoming calls. Will this be possible?
They are now listening in and converting Voice to Text. I suspect that they are using an AI to figure out the heurestics of converting voice to Text. At some point, that will be useful in a number of new areas. Not just better transcription, but will be EXTREMELY useful for selling products to the Feds. Want to know exactly what Abdula is saying to his Cousin Obama in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia? Of course, that will lead to new translators as well. It could convert nicely from Arabic to English.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
So, now instead of listening to 3 different phone numbers for one person, the NSA simply has to listen to one, or just play the calls back later at their convenience. It's PERFECT! /I am not currently a tinfoil subscriber, I just channel their logic sometimes.
Anybody know how they (or Grandcentral back then) can afford to give dedicated phone numbers? I wonder what it costs to obtain and maintain a real phone number like that.
How does google plan to make money off of this? TFA mentions that they'll be transcribing voicemail to text in near real-time. Will they also be sifting those voicemails for marketing keywords? If my buddy calls to brag about his new car, will I be seeing BMW ads next time I log into gmail?
*Pulling the tinfoil hat even lower over the brow now* Will Google Talk also have the ability to monitor calls made through their service for marketing info?
Yeah, it sounds like a great service, but what's the cost in privacy?
I sit at work all day with one phone on my desk and one in my pocket. It'd drive my colleagues (and me) nuts if they were both to ring at the same time.
If this could use Latitude to see where my cellphone is, then I could set up certain behaviours, like:
* If my mobile is at home during working hours, chances are I forgot it - ring the desk phone.
* If it's at work during working hours, don't ring the desk phone.
Google Voice Basics: Requirements
Print
To use Google Voice, you just need a touch-tone phone and a Flash-enabled browser
Oh well. It was -almost- really cool.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
I signed up for GrandCentral back when it was pretty new, but I never really used it for the sole reason that I had to be at my computer to get my voice mails. If I was wandering around and just barely miss a call, I don't know who it was and what's more (if I recall correctly) I don't know who was calling either, because it's the "GrandCentral" number that comes into your phone. I guess if I had an internet phone I could get around that, but I didn't and wasn't about to buy one (along with a plan for it) just for the ability to have two phones with one voicemail. I also agree with the posts above, because I didn't hand out the number to anyone, I would freak out when once in a blue moon someone would call that number by accident and both my phones would ring at once. I don't know if this stuff has been addressed since google took over, and I guess i won't know since I've moved back to Canada and it doesn't appear to be supported here. Ah well...
Isn't this idea already implemented by telnic with their dotTel?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.tel
What about video? We've been told we'd have video phones for as long as we've been promised flying cars. Seriously, how hard would it be to integrate video into this phone system?
OK, sure there are hardware and protocol requirements. But nearly any current "chat" service offers video. Even if you didn't want to do this directly from you computer, Google could sell or license phones that connect directly to your wireless router that have a small screen and camera. They could even sell a device that connects to your TV. Of course, for now, it would require both sides to have Google's phone service, but there's no reason this couldn't be an open protocol that would allow video calls from say, Vonage and Google customers.
Looks like they are thinking big, but they could think bigger!
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
I was just thinking the same thing - Google is in many ways an engine of innovation, and they bring a lot of cash to bear on a problem. But as you suggest, the same was true of Microsoft in the late 80s and early 90s. The only real difference is attitude, and attitudes change.
As someone who makes use of Google's services, I think this is great, but I can't help but wonder whether this is ultimately stifling advancement in the field. Google doesn't NEED to innovate in voice, it just WANTS to. In some ways, that results in a better product: they take risks a small software house dares not. But they're not as committed to innovating, and they drive a lot of people out of the market. Gmail is a great service, and Google continues to do new and interesting things. But I haven't seen a single new webmail service since Gmail went live, and that's a little worrisome.
As a software developer, I used to worry that Microsoft might find my particular niche potentially profitable. Now I worry that Google might think it's cool.
My question would be how well it will integrate with the andriod phones and specifically the G1. Can I have/build/get an app that will see it's from GrandCentral and prompt me on screen with the appropriate choices rather than a voice menu?
Also, can my phone use it's settings for things like "route straight to voicemail" to handle the incoming calls for me?
I'm a fiscal conservative, it's a pity we don't have a political party anymore
Ah, another Google service that might one day disappear because Google don't think it's valuable enough.
See Google Browser Sync and Google Notebook for other examples.
I'm a freelancers. I've been using Grandcentral for years, and these new features are going to make it the perfect fit for any freelancer and entrepreneur.
I have a separate phone number for business calls that rings whichever phones I want, when I want. I can transfer calls around between the phones, do conference calls, and screen them. I can have a separate voicemail message for my business callers than I do my personal callers. Now I'll be able to get transcripts of my voicemail, and do other useful things.
Slap this number on your business cards, and it's an instant, easy system to handle business calls.
That reminds me of a quote from Sid Meier's Aplha Centauri by entrepreneur Nwabudike Morgan: "We are not a monopoly. Our product is simply so good that no one chooses to compete with us."
I'm not terribly concerned about Google, to be honest. I know they have a lot of my personal data. But they provide high quality products/services and don't treat me like shit. They're reliable and friendly and trustworthy. Microsoft, on the other hand, has always been shifty in one way or another, and their products have always seemed only partially baked and ready.
Benevolent dictators are okay when they're actually benevolent. So far, Google hasn't done anything to wrong me.
I setup my GC account a year or more ago. It's pretty slick for the most part. I have GC forward my incoming calls to my free Gizmo (http://gizmo5.com/pc/) SIP soft phone or SIP desk phone depending on whether I'm on the road or at my home office. For my friends I also have it ring my cellphone/homephone.
I was also able to have GC import my Outlook address book (before they removed the feature) so all my contacts are already loaded.
The nice part is that ALL calls are in-bound to me (so far) so I essentially pay nothing (if sent to a phone other than my cellphone). If I need to make a call I can make it through my GC Address Book. There are even some free apps floating around that let you quickly dial your contacts or a phone number without having to log into the GC website.
I'm happy that Google is *finally* doing something with the technology. I'm willing to give Google Voice a shot once my account gets the upgrade.
And I find it really useful. I commonly have about 15 voicemails on average, and its really useful to see them all visually, what numbers they came in on, and skip thru the playback of the messages themselves.
The other feature that I like is that the caller has to state their name when they call. Grandcentral calls me, tells me the name the person stated, then I have these options:
1 Pick up the call
2 Send to voicemail
3 Send to voicemail and listen to the message as the caller leaves it
This call screening is really useful when I'm busy and need to prioritize my time.
Overclockers
This seems like a really great service. But remember that Google is public about the fact that they crawl through your data so that they can profit from it. Email is bad enough, but why anyone would send their whole life streaming through Google is beyond me. It continues to surprise me how comfortable and trusting people are getting with the cloud.
Ignorance is bliss.. Sorry to wreck it for you.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
I want to be excited for this, but I'm not sure if it's for me. I'd consider myself a big techie, and I get excited when new things come out on the web, but with Google Voice, I'm having a hard time.
I have a cell phone. My wife has a cell phone. I don't have a home phone. I have a work phone, but noone calls it but internal people. Most of my friends and family are on the same cell service as me, so when they call my cell it doesn't cost them or me. I text with my wife and a few friends, but nothing serious.
Is this for me? Should I be more excited for it? How can I use this to better my phone experience?
I have a home land line, a work land line (mandatory), a work cell, and a home cell. My wife has a cell and my daughter has a cell.
I can, depending on the caller ID (and I'm talking about reliable ones from people I know -- like my boss) have GC ring all of my phones, just my phones, just me work phones, just my home phones, my daughter's phone, or just about any combination I want.
Or no phone at all.
I suggest it for anyone who deals with clients and wants their number to remain the same after they leave a job. Get a GC number and put it on your business cards. Link up your cell and your desk phone. Leave the job, keep the cards, your clients may not even know the difference.
It has always been a good service.
Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's English.
To simplify, number portability makes this concept completely moot, and proprietary packages/offerings is a "bullet to the brain."
Phone numbers aren't like email systems... users don't set-up lots of aliases, or have fractured paths that need to be reconciled (at least not most users). At the same time, the move to mobile and the ability to take your number with you means that everyone is already converging around a single number scheme.
Basically we're all going to end up with a single phone that is also our computer, and that phone is going to have a single number/identity the same way we do today. Unless you're thinking of annihilating traditional numeric telephone addressing (and I don't think you can, simply from a worldwide pattern perspective) there is zero traction here.
In fact, the market is moving away from you, particularly with the current trend of "packaging" data and getting on a single network... in other words, aggregation is something accomplished on a vendor basis.
It's one of those ideas that sounds cool but actually turns out to be less needed than you would think.
rt
That reminds me of a quote from Sid Meier's Aplha Centauri by entrepreneur Nwabudike Morgan: "We are not a monopoly. Our product is simply so good that no one chooses to compete with us."
The quote was intended as was as a reference to Microsoft (the slogan that ended the clip was even "Where do you want your node today?").
The delay will give me enough time to find out my friend's work number, home number, and boss' number...
WTF? How is GP link spamming? He has his blog in his sig, and posted about misunderstanding the name. If posting one line and your sig having your blog link in it is "Link spamming" than a whole bunch of people who have excellent karma here are link spammers... I know, I know, don't feed the trolls, but I couldn't help it...
The google help page states:
What do I do if I am already a GrandCentral user?
To upgrade to Google Voice, sign in to your GrandCentral account and follow the instructions at the top of your inbox.
I have nothing in my Grandcentral inbox though. I wonder if it's just delayed and I am impatient, or are they picking and choosing? I will check back later today. The SMS feature is a MUST HAVE for me.
I have one phone, it is with me everywhere - what is the problem?
And if you still have a landline (which most don't) the phone company can just redirect calls to it when they register your cell phone is "home". If you leave it goes to the phone.
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
It would be nice if google used this service as a way to ween people off of the whole POTS style phone numbers forever. I think that something more like voice://[identity]@[company] makes much more sense in the long run.
When someone calls my google voice number, it could redirect the call to my google talk, skype, personal sip server, or even fall back to a landline or cell number if able. Then when I need to contact someone inside the POTS network, it would be nice if there was a way to multiplex back out through that same phone number.
This way, I can give my grandparents a single phone number to contact me, and I would only need to have a data plan on any given mobile device, instead of these hybrid internet/pseudo-POTS style plans that are sold with phones these days.
Then I could give my business contacts my work identity, (deanpierce@unemployed), and give my friends/family my google identity (pierce403@gmail), or even my home identity (dean@deanpierce.net), and never have to bother with phone numbers ever again. Phone numbers just seem like such an antiquated method of identity management. Those other identities could also be used for other things such as IM or email etc.
Also, as a big plus for google, they would then have complete legal access to the full tetragrammaton of human thought. Searches, IM, Email, and Voice.
Why the hell am I being linked to a registration-required site? What is this, reddit?
Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.
So when will we get GoogleFingers, GoogleEyes, and GoogleEars to go with GoogleVoice?
I feel sorry for all those overexcited individuals unfamiliar with the fact that there is no free lunch.
Keep in mind that google will record all your conversations and use them to improve it's speech recognition engine, which afterward will be used to collect information about you, your contacts, and your preferences, which, in turn will be used to feed you with targeted ads.
Imagine receiving a phone call from an adult shop "Hello, Mr. xxx. Do you have a minute? You know, your friends yyy and zzz have just purchased our new dild0. We currently have a promotion where you can buy the same item with 50% discount."
So, go ahead, register all your phone numbers with google so they know where to find you.
For the rest of the population -- there are VoIP services that have all or nearly all of google voice features (except maybe for those you will never need) and even more. For example, Xebba offers all typical voice features plus small business oriented services (fax,IVR, conference calls) not available at google. Of course, the service is not free (well, duh!), but their prices are lower than grandcentral used to charge.
Come on, sober up, everybody. Google already serves ads on every other page you visit and they are about to upgrade the way they track your browsing behavior. Do you also want them to tap into your phone conversations?
Disclaimer: I am not associated with Xebba or any other VoIP provider.
[...] I'd rather be able to implement them with an Asterisk box [....]
Get on over to PBX in a Flash and download a pre-built VM or ISO. Or, buy it in a bootable USB thumbdrive, or even pre-built in a Asus EEE laptop. There are other oprions, too.
Asterisk used to be a hairball. Now, it's a piece of cake.
And, needless to say, Google won't be mining your SMS and speech-reco'ed voicemail or phone calls so they can "personalize" the advertising you get from their "partners"
I understand all the features and there use, but whywuold someone want to use it?
"Whenever somebody dialed your uni-number, all of your phones rang at once."
WTF? No, I do not want all my phones ringing. I have separate phones for a reason.
many of the features listed already come with my G1, and the iPhone does them as well. I'm sure other smart phones have these features.
Maybe when I see it in action I'll change my mind, but right now I don't see why the average person would need or want this.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Does this send folks like Yahoo and MS shopping for services like http://youmail.com/ in order to be competitive?
In addition to that point, they aren't TAKING any personal information from you against your will. You have to consciously provide it. As long as you don't provide them with anything you don't want getting out there and until they suddenly start hacking and stealing information from us, I don't see what the big problem is. Google is still optional, save the complaining for when it isn't.
Of course they're benevolent; 'don't be evil'...
Well, with google and "beta" tags, that means you have 5 more years of free service.
If you can get passed the infringement on your privacy.
BTW, I've been a beta grandcentral user for almost 3 years. My business cards have that number on them. I figure I can buy new cards if it becomes pay.
Does anyone know how many languages Google has real-time voice-to-text transcription for? (I followed the links, read reviews, shit I even googled it, but I can't see any references.)
Real-time automagical transcribing in multiple languages, combined with Google-(text)-Translate, gives you live bi-directional Google-(voice)-Translate on a device that fits in your pocket.
Since that device is fitted with a still+video camera, and OCR is old-tech, capture+OCR+Translate means you could also read any sign/document in any language. (You could do that now, but with some video cleverness, you could overlay the translation onto the live video image.)
Google seems to be developing a lot of tech that would work together in interesting ways.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.