Is SMS replacing voicemail?

[<moLe>]

If the system miss a word it will put a holder in the relevant place in the message. Something like: "John please call me you (?)"

If it can't translate the voice message at all (in Afrikaans for example), it will send you an SMS to say you got a voice message that could not be translated.

If you leave a voice message for someone with this service enabled, it will actually ask you to leave your message in English.

Ok, that's quite rad, although this is South Africa and only a minority of the population is english so is their any efforts to maybe let it translate some of the other official languages?

 

[vodacom3g]

Ok, that's quite rad, although this is South Africa and only a minority of the population is english so is their any efforts to maybe let it translate some of the other official languages?

I'll ask, but it's pretty good with English at the moment, and I'm not sure how easy it is to get to that level with a new language.

 

[Tns]

will be funny to see how it attempts to translate afrikaans or some of the native languages

or english for that matter.... years ago i saw on a program call beyond2000 they were testing a auto translate phone system, it worked well until it tried to translate australian...... i think the system crashed.was just too difficult for it.

 

[<moLe>]

or english for that matter.... years ago i saw on a program call beyond2000 they were testing a auto translate phone system, it worked well until it tried to translate australian...... i think the system crashed.was just too difficult for it.

Oh so they call that "language" that the Australians speak english? lol

 

[AutoX]

Doubt if it will work

 

[DJ...]

I used the free trial period when it first came out, and whilst it was about 80% correct in my experience, the 20% still required me to call my voicemail to double check. If it is used for business, it has to be 100% guaranteed, which is nearly impossible so I doubt it will take over as a new standard. This was 20% of message content, not 20% of messages.

Also, the cost is/was back then prohibitive as the cost vs benefit factors were rather disparate in favour of cost. I did find it somewhat useful, but saw it more as an expensive luxury gimmick as opposed to a must-have, beneficial add-on...

 

[vodacom3g]

I used the free trial period when it first came out, and whilst it was about 80% correct in my experience, the 20% still required me to call my voicemail to double check. If it is used for business, it has to be 100% guaranteed, which is nearly impossible so I doubt it will take over as a new standard. This was 20% of message content, not 20% of messages.

Also, the cost is/was back then prohibitive as the cost vs benefit factors were rather disparate in favour of cost. I did find it somewhat useful, but saw it more as an expensive luxury gimmick as opposed to a must-have, beneficial add-on...

There is another product that might work for you or other and is free (I think).

It converts your voice mail to a wav file and e-mail it to you.

I found this especially handy if you want to keep a record of the voice mail.

 

[DJ...]

There is another product that might work for you or other and is free (I think).

It converts your voice mail to a wav file and e-mail it to you.

I found this especially handy if you want to keep a record of the voice mail.

Sounds vaguely interesting. I like the idea that Vodacom are trying new technologies and giving the client choices, but personally I would prefer that the money be spent on getting the basics right (see my 2 rants)

The vm to email is only vaguely interesting because my cell is more mobile than my email, and less expensive to download as well (in fact my vm is free). Curious to find out more about this though - is there a link because I didn't see it on the vodacom4me site. Ah well, it might be all in vain because if Vodacom do not sort out their contract issues, I will be moving over to MTN - I had planned to go sign my MTN contract today already... Vodacom are pricing themselves completely out of the market right now...

 

[ProSMS]

Study confirms sms gets far quicker response

SMS text messaging someone gets a far quicker response than voice mail. In a study by Sprint, those under the age of 30 are four times more likely to respond within minutes to an SMS than a voicemail, with roughly 91 percent responding within the hour. Adults 30 and older were twice as likely to text a reply within minutes rather than call.

In fact, the only people who tend not to reply in messaging form were those above the age of 65.

Original article:
http://gizmodo.com/5068119/for-a-quick-response-text-message-instead-of-voice-mail

Vodacom3G wrote:
>So, I don't think someone is going to call me, cannot get hold of me, drop the call and then SMS me. While it might happen in some cases, for most it's just easier to leave a voice message.

Not true, people are indeed hanging up and SMS'ing instead. It is indeed easier to leave a voicemail, but for some the quicker response is worth the effort. It is also being driven by people de-activating voicemail completely, or changing their voicemail greeting - prompting people to SMS instead.

It is even more compelling for businesses. Imagine an operator working at a panelbeater, with the fulltime job of getting hold of clients. It is far more effective and efficient to use SMS to get hold of clients. Sending SMS messages from a PC is also lot easier than sending from a phone.

ProSMS

 

[<moLe>]

SMS text messaging someone gets a far quicker response than voice mail. In a study by Sprint, those under the age of 30 are four times more likely to respond within minutes to an SMS than a voicemail, with roughly 91 percent responding within the hour. Adults 30 and older were twice as likely to text a reply within minutes rather than call.

In fact, the only people who tend not to reply in messaging form were those above the age of 65.

Original article:
http://gizmodo.com/5068119/for-a-quick-response-text-message-instead-of-voice-mail

Vodacom3G wrote:
>So, I don't think someone is going to call me, cannot get hold of me, drop the call and then SMS me. While it might happen in some cases, for most it's just easier to leave a voice message.

Not true, people are indeed hanging up and SMS'ing instead. It is indeed easier to leave a voicemail, but for some the quicker response is worth the effort. It is also being driven by people de-activating voicemail completely, or changing their voicemail greeting - prompting people to SMS instead.

It is even more compelling for businesses. Imagine an operator working at a panelbeater, with the fulltime job of getting hold of clients. It is far more effective and efficient to use SMS to get hold of clients. Sending SMS messages from a PC is also lot easier than sending from a phone.

ProSMS

still **** cause it doesn't work for any language apart for english,,deal with it. Probably will start spurting out crap just with the South African english accent.

 

[Rouxenator]

SVS, SMS, Voicemail, all of those will die because MMS 1.3 can take up to 600kb attachements. A 600kb AMR file is more than 6 minutes of talk time. Plus the bridge betweem MMS and Email si very small.

In the future your voicemails will be emailed or MMSed to you are AMR files. Your friends and also do the same. In fact, Nokia has this already, it is called Audio Message.

 

[vodacom3g]

still **** cause it doesn't work for any language apart for english,,deal with it. Probably will start spurting out crap just with the South African english accent.

Maybe try it a few times. I use products like Dragon Naturally Speaking (on the Home Automation side) and it battles with my SA accent. The Voice->SMS service seems to be doing much better which also surprised me.

I've even tried a few lekker, local words and most of them came through.

If you want, PM me and I'll give you a cell number with the service and you can phone and leave a voice message and I'll forward the SMS to you.

 

[vodacom3g]

SVS, SMS, Voicemail, all of those will die because MMS 1.3 can take up to 600kb attachements. A 600kb AMR file is more than 6 minutes of talk time. Plus the bridge betweem MMS and Email si very small.

This will only happen once the technology to do so is in every mobile phone used and is easier to use than SMS. So I don't think we'll see a drop in these messaging systems in the foreseeable future.

In the future your voicemails will be emailed or MMSed to you are AMR files. Your friends and also do the same. In fact, Nokia has this already, it is called Audio Message.

Voicemail to E-mail is already a service you can get from Vodacom and is independent of make of mobile, i.e. it'll even work with an iPhone! Think I posted about it above somewhere.

Voicemail to MMS is the next phase for SVS.

 

[ProSMS]

SVS, SMS, Voicemail, all of those will die because MMS 1.3 can take up to 600kb attachements.

The quick reply to SMS is as a result of its limit in length. An increase in message lenght or size, whether for text messaging or voice messaging, will simply increase the delay and unlikelyhood of a response.

Some stats on SMS vs MMS in the UK
2007 - 56 922 541 647 SMS messages sent, compared to 448 962 359 MMS messages sent (0.8%).
SMS year on year growth - 40%
MMS year on year growth - 55%

At this rate MMS has some way to go. SMS is as unlikely to die as e-mail at this stage.

 

[Rouxenator]

This will only happen once the technology to do so is in every mobile phone used and is easier to use than SMS. So I don't think we'll see a drop in these messaging systems in the foreseeable future.

True, but my grandma, the only person I know that does not MMS, has not got that many years to go, so soon MMS will take over the world. At least the cost per byte is a lot less than on SMS. Although that is not something might want to hear because that could spell an end to having international stars like Robbie Williams perform at the Vodacom year end functions

Voicemail to E-mail is already a service you can get from Vodacom and is independent of make of mobile, i.e. it'll even work with an iPhone! Think I posted about it above somewhere.

I love that feature, it is on Truphone as well. These days I use them for land line calls in SA because they charge $0.1 per minute.

Voicemail to MMS is the next phase for SVS.

Ah yes, the phase codenames "catch up"

 

[<moLe>]

This will only happen once the technology to do so is in every mobile phone used and is easier to use than SMS. So I don't think we'll see a drop in these messaging systems in the foreseeable future.


Voicemail to E-mail is already a service you can get from Vodacom and is independent of make of mobile, i.e. it'll even work with an iPhone! Think I posted about it above somewhere.

Voicemail to MMS is the next phase for SVS.

To continually sound this optimistic Vodacom probably have to feed you allot of prozac. Nah I prefer my plain old voicemail (easier to ignore).

 

[vodacom3g]

To continually sound this optimistic Vodacom probably have to feed you allot of prozac. Nah I prefer my plain old voicemail (easier to ignore).

Not sure which of the 3 points:

1) SMS will take a long time to die out - fact
2) Voicemail to e-mail already a VC service - fact
3) SVS to MMS in next phase - fact.

you don't agree with?

 

[<moLe>]

Not sure which of the 3 points:

1) SMS will take a long time to die out - fact
2) Voicemail to e-mail already a VC service - fact
3) SVS to MMS in next phase - fact.

you don't agree with?

haha dont get so stressed up bout it buddy, saying its all cool. Interesting thread but I dont use my voicemail..sms is here to stay ..agreed...just think compared to the virgin guys I'm paying to much for my sms's. Voicemail to e-mail is cool aswell..but like I said I prefer to ignore my voice mails, if something is important enough they'l send me a sms or phone again. svs to mms I dont understand, why didnt vodacom do that first?

 

[vodacom3g]

haha dont get so stressed up bout it buddy,

Not stressed at all Just wanted to check what you're questioning.

svs to mms I dont understand, why didnt vodacom do that first?

As opposed to dial-in retrieval?

Remember the service is aimed to be as simple and pervasive as possible.

So Roux's granny aside, providing a MMS-only solution would pretty much put you back to square 1.