The first visible voicemail systems were introduced to the market 15 years ago. Since then, the speech-to-text translation landscape has changed dramatically. Today’s devices produce more accurate transcriptions, and there is a wide range of service providers to choose from. In addition, several free third-party apps can convert your voicemail messages to text professionally, and iOS and Android mobile devices have built-in visual voicemail choices. We’ll look at how visual voicemail can help businesses and busy professionals, as well as seven of the greatest visual voicemail tools.
Definition
A service that converts voicemail messages into text is known as visual voicemail. If someone left you a voicemail in the old days, you’d get a notification that you’d missed a call and a message was waiting for you. If you received more than one, you had to listen to voicemails in reverse chronological order. All of the important information is supplied in written form with visual voicemail. You don’t have to dial in to learn who phoned, how long each message is, and what it says. Instead, you can listen to the recording at any time by clicking through the messages in any sequence.
General information, which is typically provided with a visual voicemail app, includes the caller’s name and number, the call time and duration of the voicemail, and the message of the voicemail.
Benefits
For businesses, visual voicemail has several advantages. For example, when you utilise a visual voicemail app, you can accomplish the following:
- Easy readability for messages. Glancing at who called and what they said helps prioritise responses and improves productivity when you’re waiting in an airport arrivals lounge with eight voicemails and a bag to track down. You also avoid having to listen to long pocket-dialled messages from folks who didn’t realise they had called you.
- Messages are accessible regardless of signal strength. You don’t need a strong phone signal to hear the message without distortion or dropouts while using visual voicemail. Voicemails frequently arrive when you’re in places with poor or no signal, preventing you from retrieving the message by calling in.
- Information can be shared quite easily with visual voicemails. Voicemail messages can be transcribed into an email easily. Copying and pasting of voicemail transcriptions can be done easily, and there are several online services that help you forward voicemail transcriptions to the written format. Written messages are helpful in business scenarios.
- Enjoy greater discretion, privacy, and serenity. In many cases, reading a written word is easier and less stressful than listening to an audio recording. For example, hearing an angry voice can be unsettling and frightening, but reading their comments might help you feel calmer and more detached.
- Obtain extra services. Additional features of visual voicemail apps include the ability to record personalised greetings for specific contacts, broadcast an out-of-office message, and block nuisance callers from leaving a message.
7 Best Free Visual Voicemail Apps
- iPhone Voicemail (iOS Only)
In 2007, one of the first iPhone breakthroughs was a speech-to-text voicemail transcription software. Open the dialler app now and tap the voicemail symbol in the lower right-hand corner to view your iPhone’s built-in visual voicemail. You’ll be requested to set up your visual voicemail inbox if you haven’t previously. Unfortunately, your carrier will not deliver visual voicemail if you are linked to an audio-only automated voicemail system. Downloading a third-party solution to view visual voicemail is your best bet.
- Android Voicemail (Android Only)
Google’s Android operating system has followed Apple to create a similar voicemail system on its platform. The built-in visual voicemail service on Android allows you to view voicemail messages as text. Go into the dialer and pick or swipe over to voicemails to view voicemails. You should notice a Play button (to listen to the message) and transcribed message text when you open each logged voicemail. Try downloading third-party software if you have an older Android phone or if your service provider doesn’t support visual voicemail.
- You Mail
YouMail has been in business for 15 years as the first third-party multi-platform visual voicemail provider. It claims to block irritating spam calls and telemarketers with clever caller ID and a junk mail folder on your visual voicemail. Other advantages include the ability to view your voicemail through the cloud from any device and the ability to hold conference calls. Additional business-oriented capabilities include unified voicemail for numerous phones, auto-reply, call routing, and the option to record greetings with a Professional account. YouMail’s basic package is free, while the Professional service costs $17.99 per month or $180 per year. Other services, such as call blocking, virtual phone lines, and even virtual receptionists, can be included with subscriptions.
- Google Voice
For calls, texts, and voicemails, Google Voice provides you with a phone number. You’ll need a Google account and a phone number in the United States to sign up for Google Voice. Text messaging isn’t available in all parts of the world. The ability to transcribe pretty well is an important feature of the Google Voice system. Transcripts can even be emailed to you using Gmail. Google Voice is especially beneficial to customers who make a lot of international calls or those who are already part of the Google ecosystem (such as Chromebook users).
- InstaVoice
InstaVoice continues to offer free and unlimited visual voicemail, as well as missed-call alerts and voice SMS, whereas competitors have instituted minimal charges. You may organise, view, and respond to messages in various ways with the InstaVoice voicemail management system. You may check your missed calls, text messages, and visual voicemail transcriptions using the chat interface, which organises your most essential discussions for you. One can send voice messages to your receiver via SMS using the app and can store an infinite number of messages in your account, and you can access your voicemail from any device as well as by email. Premium capabilities (such as transcription and audio messages) are available for a fee, with 100 credits costing 99 cents and 500 credits costing $4.99.
- Voxist
Voxist is a free visual voicemail service that allows for ten monthly transcriptions for one number, albeit it isn’t available in all areas. Transcripts and audio recordings can be emailed as well. You receive 30 monthly transcriptions and even multilingual transcriptions with the premium service ($4.99 per month), which is excellent if you frequently field calls from folks who speak various languages.
- Hi Voicemail
Hi Voicemail, an iOS-only service that offers free voicemail personalisation and preset greetings, as well as cloud storage and spam protection, delivers limitless free visual voicemails. Customers who pay $5.99 per month for the PRO version get an ad-free interface, various greetings (including location-specific greetings), and the ability to instantly forward voicemails to email. Hi Voicemail is available for iOS in the App Store.