Visual Voicemail–a Step in the Right Direction?
“It’s a very simple idea - speak a message and see the message appear on a screen. Speaking a message is the natural start, and reading a message is the simplest and fastest way of being in touch wherever you are.”
SpinVox, the Voice-to-Screen messaging supplier, has applauded Apple’s decision to include a ‘Visual Voicemail’ feature on its iPhone, calling it a step towards what consumers really want - simple, relevant services.
However, Visual Voicemail - which only shows users a list of their messages so they can pick the ones they want to listen to - is a sub set of the Voice-to-Screen messaging category. This category encompasses all services that enable voice messages to appear as text on screen, according to SpinVox.
It is commented by Daniel Doulton, co-founder of SpinVox that Visual Voicemail on the iPhone certainly makes the journey to message retrieval easier, but it does not complete it. First, you don’t see the actual message - you still need to pick up and listen to the voice message and scribble down notes. Second, this is handset dependent - a simpler and more natural solution is to actually read them.
Added Christina Domecq, CEO of SpinVox: “It’s a very simple idea - speak a message and see the message appear on a screen. Speaking a message is the natural start, and reading a message is the simplest and fastest way of being in touch wherever you are. Imagine never needing to type a text or email again, but just speak it. Never wait until you get to your PC to post your thoughts on a blog, just speak your comments. It’s all about making communication easier, faster and more relevant to the way we live our lives.”
SpinVox is advancing the Voice-to-Screen experience by enabling other new products and services in the category. Services such as mobile blogging, for example, effectively enable voice to become another source of user generated content as voice messages are automatically converted and posted and become searchable and taggable.
It is believed that the future of communications will be led by simplicity - extending the two things we find easiest and most useful, speaking and reading a text.
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