6:46 AM
Paul B
Many many moons ago, when T-Mobile first appeared in San Diego, my wife and I signed up for their service because it was the cheapest thing available. For the most part we liked their services, but what we didn’t like was that every time you got a voice mail message you got an alert on your phone saying you had a voice mail, you also got a text message. They have since removed that feature, but it was sort of annoying.
Currently I am on Verizon, and their voice messaging is okay. I mean, it does what it is supposed to do. What I don’t like about Verizon’s is that when I dial in from my cell phone I still have to put in my pin number, then to play a message, I have to select “1’ or something to play it. It is rather inconvenient when I am driving, and I am supposed to be “hands free” yet I still have to look down to dial pin numbers, and menu items just to check a voice message.
All of those annoyances have gone away for me though. My buddy recommended an alternative voice messaging service, that is free to use, and has some really cool features. The service is called Youmail, and here is what they offer:
Visual Voicemail - See who called, from where, and even their picture
- Use your smart phone or your computer - or you can still dial in like before
- Save time - Point, click and play or delete
- Personal Custom Greetings
- Voicemail Sharing
- Unwanted caller blocking
- Voicemails at MP3’s direct to your email
Setup for me was really easy, and they have detailed instructions for just about every carrier out there to switch over to their service.
Another feature they offer (for a premium of course) is speech to text, so you can just read your voicemails. Pretty cool sounding, but I am not paying for that myself.
I have been using it for a week, and so far I like it way better than the stock Verizon voicemail. It is more convenient, and if I am close to the computer, I can play my messages through Windows Media Player, and I never have to call my voicemail.
What do you think? Do you find your current provider’s voicemail kind of annoying? What don’t you like about it? Have you tried Youmail? Know of a similar service? let us know in the comments.
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