LostInTechnology

Get Voice Mail Transcribing with YouMail

Posted on 23. Jun, 2010 by Larry.Behrens in Internet Tools, Software

There is no phrase in the English language that can accurately portray how much I hate checking voice mail. Like the unknown force that causes a printer crash when you most need a document, there is another that will fill up your voice mail with messages moments after you empty it. I harbor a special hate for the callers who listen to your entire greeting only to hang up seconds after the beep, leaving nothing.

So, the search that ended at YouMail began with a Google tool bar and the words “free voice mail transcribing.” The quest is simple. I want a service that will send me e-mails or texts with the content of my voice mails, and since my life centers around tech on a budget, I want it all for free. YouMail was the closest I found (if you know of another service please let me know).

Overview

YouMail will essentially take over your voice mail (VM) service, instead of using your carrier for your messages. You register at their site by giving them your phone number, and it works with all the major carriers. They offer not only VM transcription, but VM greeting customization and .wav file delivery of your messages.

Off the top, I find out that they will charge you for the VM transcription. They do have a free plan that will give you 7 free transcriptions a month, but if I only got seven messages every thirty days, I wouldn’t need the service. Their pricing plans are reasonable, but for me, none are able to justify the expense.

Using YouMail

Once you’re in the YouMail system and your calls are routed through them, you should expect to get 2-3 messages per missed call. I would get a notice from my phone, a missed call text and a missed call e-mail. All of this before I received one voice mail message. You will have to tweak this in the account settings. The VM transcription takes about 5 minutes after the missed call to get to your phone, and then it’s only the first 15 or so seconds of the message, but the text I got from YouMail proved to be pretty accurate to the message that was left. However, bottom line is you’ll still need to listen to your VM.

The unexpected cool part of YouMail is in the VM greeting customization. The greeting people hear when they call your cell phone is usually a static phone number greeting or a one-size-fits-all message from you. With YouMail, you can use any number of pre-recorded messages as your greeting, and you can set a specific greeting for a specific contact. Have an annoying bill collector, ex-boyfriend/girlfriend or inmate pen pal? You can set a special “Go Away” message for them.

The collection of the messages available on YouMail are mostly in the juvenile humor arena, thus their appeal to me, but for those looking for a more professional presentation, there are some straight-laced options.  The coolest among the greetings may be your own. YouMail allows you to record a specific greeting of your own, and then you can set it to be heard by one or all of your contacts. This is all offered free from YouMail and it alone is worth signing up for the service.

Of course, there are YouMail apps available for Blackberry, iPhone and Android. I found that I rarely use the app on my Blackberry, since the messages are set to go through my e-mail anyway.

Conclusion

At the end, YouMail is worth it. Even though my e-mail inbox now also fills up with messages just like my voice mail. The greeting customization is simply too good too pass on. If I do find a free voice mail transcription service, I would likely switch, but until then, I’m making sure my boss and my probation officer get a different greeting, YouMail is worth it.

(By) Larry Behrens is the founder/editor of PoorDadTech, a tech blog aimed at those on a budget. He lives in New Mexico with his wife and four kids who will have to pay for college on their own because of his love for gadgets.

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Tags: budget, cell phones, free, voice mail, voice mail transcribing, YouMail