Missed Voice Mail a Text Opportunity

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Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 1/24/2007

Listening to voice mail can be a time drainer—especially if there are several calls to weed through. But new options are hitting the marketplace allowing mobile phone users to turn lengthy messages into quick reads.

SimulScribe, a New York-based firm, soft launched its service last year, but officially hit the market this January, allowing any U.S.-based mobile phone user to have their voice mail messages turned into an SMS or e-mail message. The service clocks in at $9.95 for the first 40 messages, and 25 cents for every message after that, although the company is offering a free one-week trial to anyone who signs up through its Web site.

A UK-based competitor, SpinVox, is reportedly offering similar services to customers in the U.S. according to recent stories in the blogosphere. But calls and e-mails sent to the company were not returned, nor did their Web site indicate that service had started in the U.S.

SpinVox and SimulScribe aren't the only companies offering voice-to-text translation via a cell phone. Jott, a service still in beta, allows account holders to send—or jot—messages to their Jott accounts by calling them in through their cell phone. The messages are translated by a service, and then posted like an electronic, online notepad. Instead, SimulScribe uses voice-recognition software, says spokesman David Gerzof. "And we spent two years getting it right," he adds. Not a small detail as anyone who has navigated an automated service call knows well.