How voicemail should work

I hate getting voicemail. The last thing I want to see when I look down at my phone is that stupid little voicemail icon. My messages go unchecked for days if not weeks, and every time I finish going through a backlog, I consider changing my greeting to something like "Please DO NOT leave a message. Send me an email, send me an SMS, or even better, just hang up since my phone will tell me you called anyway." But I don't because as much as I dislike it, I know voicemail is necessary. And I also realized the other day that it isn't actually voicemail itself that I dislike so much -- it's the horrible implementation that every mobile phone carrier seems to use.

To get my voicemail, I have to call in, wait, enter a code, wait, listen to the stupid greeting, wait, then navigate through one or more messages using a very clumsy and non-intuitive numeric interface. Even with all the menu options memorized, it still takes far longer than it should.

So how should it be done? Here are two ideas:

1. If the call actually reaches the phone, the phone itself should just record the message as an MP3. That way, when I want to hear my voicemail, it's available instantly. And I should just be able to use the phone's built-in media player to play my messages so that I have familiar and intuitive controls. Saving, replaying, and deleting messages should be as easy as managing a playlist. The phone could even encode the caller's phone number into the MP3 itself as an ID3 tag to make it easy to return the call (if the player sees a phone number tag, it could display a "return call" button).
2. If the phone is not reachable (if it's off, or otherwise not receiving a signal), the message could still be recorded on a central server, then automatically and transparently sent to my phone the next time it is available. In other words, rather than sending my phone an alert that I have a message waiting, why not just send the message itself so that it's actually convenient for me to access?

The idea of recording messages as an MP3 on mobile phones, or even playing downloaded messages on a built-in media player, might have sounded crazy a few years ago, however I'm pretty certain all modern mobile phones now have more than enough CPU power and memory. All that remains is for carriers to make the investment in improving the current horrible voicemail experience.

Comments

[Josh]

Amen - I hate voicemail on my mobile as well, for many of the same reasons you listed. That's why I love using Vonage for my home phone - if someone leaves a message, I get an email with an mp3 attachment to listen to there. When I need to delete voicemail, I can do it over the phone, or, just login to my account and delete them all at once.

It's still voicemail, but at least it's tolerable.

[Chris Charlton]

Great concept. I feel that VoIP services, which does MP3 messages like you want, will leak into the mobile spectrum and we will have our MP3 (ID3 tagged) messages.

[RR007]

I am with you. I also hate voicemail. Josh, good call on the Vonage, I think that is exactly how it should be implemented. I use it myself all the time, plus it has phone hunting features, if you don't pick-up one phone it will ring the next. As far as the two options for cell phone messages. Think of this, if your cell phone can record the message that is being left, then it will also mean it has to incurr the costs of the time the message is being left in your cell phone. Option #2 sounds like a great idea. And it should give you a list of Messages with date and time, name of voicemail (which will be the phone number that called, if no # then user Unknown-01, Unknow-02, and so forth). And as soon as you hear it you can either delete or save.

[Mark Helmstetter]

Good ideas. Maybe this is stupid, but shouldn't the voicemail system be able to skip the authentication step when the call comes from the mobile number? To me, that would alleviate much of the pain. The other thing that puzzles me is that it seems that my last 2 providers do not allow me to delete the message until I've listened to the entire message, which is a pain. Then again, maybe that's the other problem, having to know/remember which number corresponds to which command which happens to be fairly inconsistent among all phone systems.

[Christian Cantrell]

Skipping the authentication step is a good idea. That sounds like a relatively easy way for carriers to make the experience tolerable until they get it right. And being able to delete messages at any point is a necessity. When I listen to voicemail from people I know, I usually only listen long enough to make sure there's no emergency, then delete it and call them back when I have a chance.

[Bert Garcia]

Actually thats how Vonage works. My voicemails get emailed so i can easily check'em on my computer. So there's no reason why cell phone providers can do the same.

[Aaron West]

I've never really had a problem with voicemail, but I do think your ideas on how it could/should work are pretty interesting. Honestly, I've never thought it through. As far as you disliking the process for checking voicemail there probably is a solution. On Verizon, I program my phone to call my voicemail, pause, enter the pound sign, pause, enter the password, etc. to automate the message retrieval. This has worked great for years. Now, on Verizon's new voicemail implementation there are even less steps in the automation process, but it still works like a charm.

To check my voicemail, I simply hold down '1' and listen. It works so well I've had several people ask me to enter the codes (stupidly simple) into their phones.

[oyunlar]

Great concept. I feel that VoIP services, which does MP3 messages like you want, will leak into the mobile spectrum and we will have our MP3 (ID3 tagged) messages.

[HilB]

I finally found you guys! Whew! There is nothing I hate (and I never use that word lightly) more than checking my voicemail. It makes my skin crawl. I would go into my details about how it affects me but i don't want to get worked up right now. My friends and family can't stand it but who wants to check voicemail when there's 26 new messages that are a month old? I almost stroke out every time I have to check them. And I know how to skip through them and delete them immediately, I've been doing it for ten years. Is vonage the only system that emails you your voicemail? Is there anything out there that would convert the message into text for me? I would pay dubious amounts of money for this service and it may save me from future cardiovascular problems (I'm only 26 there's still a chance). My goal is to never have to check my voicemail ever again. Is there any way to leave a kind message to people in my greeting to let them know I will never ever hear their message ever? Feedback on this conundrum would be greatly appreciated.

[Jack]

Here is a way to get close to what you want.
Activate a voicemail box at Livematch.com. Users can leave you free voice mail using their microphone on their computer. If you sign up as a VIP they can call and leave a voicemail by phone on the Live-Line telephone system and it will automatically show up in your voicemail box that cam be streamed over your browser. Try it!

[ben]

The answer to your prayers:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/phone/

click the link that says voicemail

I cant wait until this comes out...

[Wes Alvaro]

Looks like someone should be using Google's recently acquired GrandCentral.
http://www.grandcentral.com/
I'd be willing to send an invite your way if you want.

[harbiden]

The idea of recording messages as an MP3 on mobile phones, or even playing downloaded messages on a built-in media player, might have sounded crazy a few years ago, however I'm pretty certain all modern mobile phones now have more than enough CPU power and memory.

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