Cellular voicemail

AdamZ

AdamZ

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Messages
14,866
Location
Montgomery County PA
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Display name:
Adam Zucker
So I have a Droid on Verizon's network and the voice mail on Verizon has never been terribly reliable. Delivering messages sometimes days after they were left. I know a few folks who have experienced this problem.

So several years ago I hooked up with a free service called Youmail. It was an internet based voice mail system that was customization. I really liked it. I could leave a custom message / greeting for anyone in my contact list and they had several pre recorded emails including ditch mail messages I could assign to a specific caller. It also sent me emails and texts when a message was left. I could listen to the voice mail on my computer.

Since then the program has become pretty bloated and the free features keep dwindling and the notifications of when I have a message have become unreliable.

Is anyone aware of any apps or voice mail systems ( free or onetime fee) for smart phones which they think are reliable and easy to use.
 
I have used Google Voice since 2010 and don't have any plans to change. It integrates pretty well if you have an Android phone. You can make out calls through your GV number, which I do. Only down side to it is that there seems to be a little bit of a delay, as your call is routed through the Google switches.

It also allows you to make/receive calls from your computer.
 
I refuse to let Google have access to my call records.

Line2 has been recommended to me as an alternative, though I have yet to try it. www.line2.com
 
Thanks Brandon and Bill. I think both of those options give you a new phone number and are "one number options" ie one number wherever you are. My family has a land ine and we each have cell phones that we prefer to keep separate.
 
AdamZ said:
Thanks Brandon and Bill. I think both of those options give you a new phone number and are "one number options" ie one number wherever you are. My family has a land ine and we each have cell phones that we prefer to keep separate.
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You can do as I do: set the cell phone to forward to the second number. That can be either a "no answer transfer" or a straight "forward". My primary cell number is set to conditionally forward to my secondary number.
 
AdamZ said:
Thanks Brandon and Bill. I think both of those options give you a new phone number and are "one number options" ie one number wherever you are. My family has a land ine and we each have cell phones that we prefer to keep separate.
Click to expand...

Actually to use Google Voice as a voicemail only provider you do not have to use the number they assign. You end up setting your phone to forward to your Google Voice number after a set number of rings. The only issue is that (I believe) there are airtime charges while a person is leaving the voicemail.
 
ChrisK said:
Actually to use Google Voice as a voicemail only provider you do not have to use the number they assign. You end up setting your phone to forward to your Google Voice number after a set number of rings. The only issue is that (I believe) there are airtime charges while a person is leaving the voicemail.
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I do this as well. I also have a recording of the voicemail in my Google Voice in box. This has saved me grief once or twice, as I have proof of just what was said in a file, and I just sent it back to the sender when there was a "misunderstanding" as to what was in the message.
I have a Google Voice number, but to my knowledgs, it has not actually been used since I got rid of our land line 3 years ago.

The forwarding thing on Verizon is *71. That is "conditional call forwarding". It rings your phone a few times, if you don't pick up it forwards, in my case to the Google Voice number. GV picks up, and records the message.
 
Google Voice is great. Plus, you can choose a phone number from any area code. So you can have a phone number from Manhattan if you wish.


Google can have my info. So What?
 
AdamZ said:
So I have a Droid on Verizon's network and the voice mail on Verizon has never been terribly reliable. Delivering messages sometimes days after they were left. I know a few folks who have experienced this problem.

So several years ago I hooked up with a free service called Youmail. It was an internet based voice mail system that was customization. I really liked it. I could leave a custom message / greeting for anyone in my contact list and they had several pre recorded emails including ditch mail messages I could assign to a specific caller. It also sent me emails and texts when a message was left. I could listen to the voice mail on my computer.

Since then the program has become pretty bloated and the free features keep dwindling and the notifications of when I have a message have become unreliable.

Is anyone aware of any apps or voice mail systems ( free or onetime fee) for smart phones which they think are reliable and easy to use.
Click to expand...

I use Google Voice exclusively. Not just for VM (which you can do if you choose), but also as my primary number. The beautiful thing is that I have moved from NM, to NC, to CO in the last 5 years, and in that time, my cell phone number has changed area codes a number of times...but my primary number that I give out has remained the same.

(505) 750-7448. I don't mind posting it publicly, because if people start calling me that I don't want to hear from, I mark them as spam (like an email) and they can't call me anymore.

It is awesome.

Additionally, the voice mail feature is great - it transcribes your voicemails (admittedly pretty poorly at times), and you can listen to or read them online, on your mobile device with the Google Voice App, or through your email if you enable the feature.

Also, its 100% free. I used to use YouMail too. Google Voice replaced them for me back in 2008 IIRC.

Also - Google Voice has recently started accepting MMS messages, which get emailed to your gmail account.
 
ChrisK said:
The only issue is that (I believe) there are airtime charges while a person is leaving the voicemail.
Click to expand...

Conditional Call Forwarding often does count as minutes, depending on the carrier. Unconditional Call Forwarding does not, so if you are "Do Not Disturb" it shouldn't charge minutes.
 
AdamZ said:
Thanks Brandon and Bill. I think both of those options give you a new phone number and are "one number options" ie one number wherever you are. My family has a land ine and we each have cell phones that we prefer to keep separate.
Click to expand...

You can do it anyway you want. For example, you can call my cell phone number, if you happen to know it (hint - most people do not), you can call my Google Voice number, or you can call my office number.

You have some pretty good flexibility. As far as Google having access to your phone records? Meh, enough people already do, I don't see what the concern would be.
 
Nick,

A buddy of mine set up a Google Voice number and had it forward to his cell phone. He ran into the problem that all the calls he received showed some Google number in the caller ID instead of the person actually calling. He eventually stopped using the number and just used his regular cell number again.

Have you run into that problem? If so, how did you get around it?
 
bluesky74656 said:
Nick,

A buddy of mine set up a Google Voice number and had it forward to his cell phone. He ran into the problem that all the calls he received showed some Google number in the caller ID instead of the person actually calling. He eventually stopped using the number and just used his regular cell number again.

Have you run into that problem? If so, how did you get around it?
Click to expand...

I think that is a setting, but don't give people your Google voice number if you just want Google voice to be your voicemail. Give them your cell phone number :)
 
bluesky74656 said:
Nick,

A buddy of mine set up a Google Voice number and had it forward to his cell phone. He ran into the problem that all the calls he received showed some Google number in the caller ID instead of the person actually calling. He eventually stopped using the number and just used his regular cell number again.

Have you run into that problem? If so, how did you get around it?
Click to expand...

There's a setting to change that:
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ChrisK said:
I think that is a setting, but don't give people your Google voice number if you just want Google voice to be your voicemail. Give them your cell phone number :)
Click to expand...

I already do that with my cell. I'm thinking about getting a Google Voice number to use as a pseudo land line home number.
 
I've got ATT and the voicemail is OK, but it rarely gets used as the number I give out isn't my cell phone but a forwarding service (RING CENTRAL) that has it's own voicemail that I can either pull up on an app on the iPhone, or just click the link in an email, or I can call and check from another phone.
 
Who listens to voicemail anymore? That's what caller ID is for. ;)

At work my outgoing says "for a quicker reply, please send me an email."
 
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