Another view of GrandCentral

I’ve been using Grand Central since last October and overall I’m very happy with it. Michael Gartenberg says that he doesn’t want to give them control of his phone number and doesn’t like the interface for incoming calls.
GrandCentral solves a problem that I haven’t been able to solve any other way — I can’t get cell service in my home — and it solves it in an elegant fashion. My GrandCentral number rings both my cell and my home office. Its email notifications and message inbox are beautifully designed and easy to use.
I still wish that it had a more powerful set of rules (e.g. don’t forward to my home number before 9am). I wish I had more control over the greeting. Like Michael, I wish I could turn off the “Press 1 to take a call” feature — for selected callers. GrandCentral seems to fluster some callers, who sound confused by what precisely they’re talking to at first. And I really wish I could use my GrandCentral inbox with my iPhone (It requires Flash, of all things). And although I’ve heard some complaints about call quality, there are so many steps in the telephone chain these days, it’s really difficult to say how GrandCentral affects the quality of your calls.
I’m a lot less troubled than Michael about giving GrandCentral control of my phone number. It’s a big advantage for me that I don’t have to make my “real” numbers — the ones I do plan to keep for life — available to everybody. I use my GrandCentral number in my email sig.
Ever since I’ve been using GrandCentral, I’ve felt like I’ve had much more control of my telephone communications. And that’s something I’d pay money for.
Originally published on my blog at JupiterResearch.