Baseball, Beer, Travel, and Running

I'm sure Apple will receive undeserved credit for creating the visual voicemail concept when the iPhone launched. Several companies beat Apple to the punch, saving us from wasting time listening to our messages without needing an iPhone to get the job done. I first started testing visual voicemail in 2007, but didn't find a service I liked until PhoneTag came along. I was enamored with their service fairly early on (when they were still called SimulScribe) and have kept a PhoneTag account ever since.

Recently Vonage added a visual voicemail feature for $0.25 per message. I already get my messages from Vonage delivered as audio files to my inbox, which dramatically decreases the amount of time required to review messages. Adding visual voicemail makes a huge difference, because I no longer need to write down phone numbers. The numbers are conveniently stored in Outlook, where I can easily retrieve the information at a later time without looking for the scrap of paper I used to write the number down. The 0.25 fee represents an extra $3-5 on my phone bill (based on the past several months message volume), which is an acceptable fee for the convenience.

If you haven't tried visual voicemail yet, I highly recommend giving PhoneTag a test with your cell phone. The time savings is definitely worth it.

If you're already using a visual voicemail product, which one is it? Do you love it? hate it?