It’s well known that VoIP lets new companies offer neat features that just aren’t available with your phone company. GrandCentral, for example, wants to give you a free phone number that you can use to organize your phone identities. It started as a voicemail service, but has grown to include some nifty options.

Basically, you can add any number of “real” phone numbers and when someone calls your GrandCentral number, all those phones will ring. Let’s say you’re at work and your phones ring. Rather than picking up your mobile phone and possibly incurring charges for incoming minutes (or draining the battery), you can just pick up the landline. thereupon whether you actually do have to leave your cubicle, GrandCentral lets you seamlessly transfer the signal to your cellphone. The calling party never has to know which phone you’re talking on!

For those worried about their privacy, you get much more control by your shout screening, even whether you don’t have CallerID. Any moment you reply a GrandCentral signal:

First, we’ll tell you who’s on the line (’Call from Ted Baker’). thereupon, we’ll present you with:
1) accept it,
2) send

it to voicemail,
3) ListenIn^TM on the voicemail, or
4) accept and record the call

You can plus press 4 at any duration during the signal to start recording. With ListenIn^TM, you’ll get to take in the person record the voicemail and decide whether you want to take the signal immediately. Through the web-based control panel, you can organize your contacts into groups and setup robotic behaviors and filters for each incoming phone number. You even get an e-mail address (yournumber@grandcentral.com) that forwards to your real e-mail, whether you’re so inclined.

This Screencast from Molly at Screeniac is a great “in-action” overview. Om Malik additionally writes to say that GrandCentral now has unlimited incoming calls, even on the basic free accounts. Lastly, the downside is that GrandCentral is still in beta checking and doesn’t have phone numbers in all area codes yet. They are plus currently unavailable outside the United States.

Original post by Zack