I was lucky enough to get a grand central number early on. Grand Central, which touted itself as, "one number for life", was a simple service which allowed you to give out your grand central number to people and based on their call group (coworkers, friends, family, etc) could be routed to one or multiple phone numbers, screened, get alternate voice greetings, etc. Purchased by Google back in 2007, the service seemed to stagnate and at one point Google even stopped allowing new people to join the service.
Yesterday I was finally migrated to Google Voice, and I can say that I am absolutely a convert. The number of new features that are available as well as the easier to use interface simply make this a must have service. Some service highlights for me:
When someone sends your Google Voice number a text message, their phone number is included in the message body but the sender number is not the same, it is some Google number. If you reply to that phone number via a text message, or call that number, it connects you to the original number but shows as being from your Google number. When playing with this feature, I noticed that each person who texts my Google number is assigned their own unique Google number (with a 406 area code).
What I assume Google is doing here is creating a basic mapping between your phone number and people you interact with. So when you reply to a text message at one of these 406 numbers, Google says, "Okay, which contact have we assigned this to for this Google Voice user?" and knows not only which Google Voice user you are (based on your ANI) but which destination number you are trying to reach (based on what contact was assigned that number).
This also means that Google Voice can map an unlimited number of users to each number, each one having a distinct destination contact. Hopefully this service doesn't go the way of Google Notepad and some of the other services that Google has decided to ditch in the past few months. Obviously, if you're giving out your Google Voice number to people, you are like me and hoping Google doesn't discontinue the service.
Yesterday I was finally migrated to Google Voice, and I can say that I am absolutely a convert. The number of new features that are available as well as the easier to use interface simply make this a must have service. Some service highlights for me:
- Can receive text messages to your Google Voice number
- Can reply to text messages and they show up from your Google number
- Can initiate calls from your Google number, both from the web as well as from any phone
- Voice transcription of voicemails can be emailed to you
When someone sends your Google Voice number a text message, their phone number is included in the message body but the sender number is not the same, it is some Google number. If you reply to that phone number via a text message, or call that number, it connects you to the original number but shows as being from your Google number. When playing with this feature, I noticed that each person who texts my Google number is assigned their own unique Google number (with a 406 area code).
What I assume Google is doing here is creating a basic mapping between your phone number and people you interact with. So when you reply to a text message at one of these 406 numbers, Google says, "Okay, which contact have we assigned this to for this Google Voice user?" and knows not only which Google Voice user you are (based on your ANI) but which destination number you are trying to reach (based on what contact was assigned that number).
This also means that Google Voice can map an unlimited number of users to each number, each one having a distinct destination contact. Hopefully this service doesn't go the way of Google Notepad and some of the other services that Google has decided to ditch in the past few months. Obviously, if you're giving out your Google Voice number to people, you are like me and hoping Google doesn't discontinue the service.
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