Fixed my voicemail

I hate voicemail. Actually, I hate interfacing with it. Unlike email, sms and IM which chase me, I have to chase voicemail. I have to check to see if I have the little voicemail icon, call in, and go through my messages one by one, slowly and painfully. Acting on a voicemail is limited at best and the legacy inherent in the system is frustrating at best.

This morning I fixed my voicemail.

Let me introduce you to SimulScribe. In a nutshell, this service acts like voicemail to the caller, but after they leave the message, SimulScribe takes the audio file, converts it to text with voice recognition and emails it to you. (along with an MP3 file of the actual message).

Sounds so simple. And it is. Better yet, its simply effective by turning voicemail into a random access communications platform. That's the difference. All they did was change how I interfaced with voicemail and poof! I'm happy. ;-)

Now, its not perfect, but its good enough. They have transcribing errors, but its pretty good considering the quality of today's cell calls, etc.

I liked visual voicemail on the iPhone while I had it. While it was still plain old voicemail, the ability to randomly access messages at will made it worthwhile. SimulScribe takes it to the next level and for me, voicemail is a tool again. The service is pretty pain jane and I've already got a list of enhancements for them that are easy to do, and improve the usability another order of magnitude.

You can try it free for 7 days. As I write this I'm still in my first day of service and I'm sold.