01-06-2006, 11:00 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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How Do You Manage Your Voicemail?
I read a column a short while back that was actually more of an endorsement for a service called GotVoice. The writer brought up an interesting point when it comes to voicemail. When someone calls my cellphone and leaves a voicemail, I'm more than likely to just call the person back and find out why they called than I would be to bother checking the voicemail (isn't it quicker most times?). I find that a lot of my friends will do the same. I'll leave a voicemail only to have them call me a few minutes later asking if I had just called.
So what GotVoice does is essentially route your voicemail messages to your email inbox. How's this better than just checking your voicemail? Well, assuming you sit behind your computer most of the day (don't lie to yourself, I know most of you do), you may find it to be more convenient to just double-click an attachement, listen to the message, then delete the email at your leisure than it would be to pull out your cellphone, dial your voicemail, listen to the message, delete the message, and then hang up (all the while your full attention has been taken away from you computer and placed onto your cellphone).
What are your thoughts? Do you guys do anything special for your voicemail?
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01-06-2006, 11:16 PM
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Executive Editor, Android Thoughts
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 3,233
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I've been using Callwave's service since we posted on it a few weeks back. It's been a pretty good experience, and having it forward to my email has been great. Granted the last few weeks I've had world-record lows in cell traffic 
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Dr. Jon Westfall, MCSE, MS-MVP
Executive Editor - Android Thoughts
News Editor - Windows Phone Thoughts
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01-06-2006, 11:18 PM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 4
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My main problem with this kind of service is this:
I'm assuming there are 2 possible ways to handle this.
1. Forward voice mails to my email and from voice mailbox
2. Forward voice mails to my email and keep message in mailbox.
Option 1 is definitely not a good idea. What if I am away from my computer, I still want access to my voice mail right?
Option 2 means that even after listening to the message in an email, it will still be left on my voice mailbox and I would have to use my cell phone to get rid of it or mark it as listened to etc'.
The solution would be to be able to manage the message on my voice mailbox from the email itself - for example, a URL embedded in the email that will interact with the voice mailbox and delete it, mark as listened to etc'
Any idea if this is part of the service?
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01-06-2006, 11:26 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 444
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A few years back, my office was enticed by the wonderful world of voice activated voicemail systems. The big draw was that the system we were getting, Sandi, would be able to use text to speech to read emails over the phone.
It also, if configured correctly, allowed viewing voicemail messages as emails with AVI attachments.
Of course, as soon as the president and vp realized that it was a new system and that they had to learn how to collect their voicemail a different way, we scrapped the system (after about one month) and went back to our old voice mail system.
I think that is is very handy to be able to "view" your voicemail in list format and even save and categorize them like any other object in Outlook. That said, I don't get enough voicemail messages myself to make too much of a difference.
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01-07-2006, 12:25 AM
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Neophyte
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 4
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Since the service is free, I thought I'd give it a try. After testing 2 voice mails (one a GetVoice test message & one from me) and receiving 2 email's with zero size mp3 attachments, I decided it probably needs some work and canceled my account.
Good luck if you try this out...
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01-07-2006, 12:55 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 327
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I too have been using the Callwave free service, and it does this quite well and it rocks. I have it forward my voicemails to my Gmail account, which has loads of space available, and is a great way to archive my voicemails. Very handy for when I delete a voicemail and want to refer back to it.
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01-07-2006, 01:41 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 74
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I think a better solution would be if it got forwarded as a txt message to my cell phone.
The reason I don't anser my cell is because I'm busy or I don't have my cell with me (*gasp* is that legal??). That means that the next time I do get to my phone or free up time, all I need to do is respond to my cell phone prompting me that I have a new txt message. If there was a call back number on there as well, I could (after reading the txt message) click one button and call back the person.
email's a nice idea, but I think most of us are probably more easily accessible via cell phone than email.
What happens when I get japanese (or other language) voicemail? Does it get converted to text properly?
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Newton MP2k --> iPAQ 2215 --> xv6700 --> xv6900
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01-07-2006, 01:41 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 92
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got Vonage?
I use Vonage at home. Among other things, it will forward a small .wav file copy of all received voicemails to a selected email address. So far it's been bulletproof.
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01-07-2006, 02:17 AM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 120
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Re: How Do You Manage Your Voicemail?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ekkie Tepsupornchai
Well, assuming you sit behind your computer most of the day (don't lie to yourself, I know most of you do)
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Right on! 
I voted maybe, I would have to try it. If the service provided voice to text transcript I would use it all the time and be happy to pay for it. I myself am not thrilled about audio attachments. No particular reason really.
From what other people are saying about the service, it doesn't sound like it would meet my needs. Basically, if I choose not to take a call its because I don't want to be disturbed. Which is the case 9 out of 10 times. I always have my phone and its always on. I sleep with it under my pillow 8O
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01-07-2006, 03:07 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Re: How Do You Manage Your Voicemail?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Ekkie Tepsupornchai
The writer brought up an interesting point when it comes to voicemail. When someone calls my cellphone and leaves a voicemail, I'm more than likely to just call the person back and find out why they called than I would be to bother checking the voicemail (isn't it quicker most times?). I find that a lot of my friends will do the same. I'll leave a voicemail only to have them call me a few minutes later asking if I had just called.
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It's that very reason why I decided to disable voicemail from my account years ago. Now, if I miss a call, it'll show up on my missed calls list. More often than not, I'll just call them back.
Being a computer junkie, GotVoice has appeal, though I'm not sure it'd be enough to convert me. Besides, I don't live in North America. 
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