SpinVox automatically converts voicemail to text messages

Sorta reminds us of Samsung's plans for a cellphone with built-in speech-to-text conversion capabilities, but a company called SpinVox has introduced a new service which takes your voicemail and automatically converts whatever was said into an SMS text message (a company called DictoMail also offers something similar). Sounds way easier than having to frantically scrawl everything down when you're checking your messages, but we're the tiniest bit skeptical about the accuracy of their transcriptions. SpinVox is only available in Britain right now, and they offer a pay-as-you-go plan that charges 25p per message along with a couple of prepaid options that offer discounts and/or access to advanced features.

[Via bookofjoe]

[Brian @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

I sure hope my friends forward me my drunken rants in text format.

[Eion Murdock @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

I would think that this service would be extremely useful to deaf people.

[John G @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

It is a fantastic service! I've been using it for 4 months now ... and it really works the way it is described.

For business use it is pretty much indispensible: The voice message is translated into text extremely accurately which is then somehow sent to your phone with the original caller's ID. For a nominal charge you can also opt to have messages forwarded to email as well!

It is invaluable for when people leave names and numbers which you try to pick up while on the move. As they are immediately available to you to call without going through the usual rigmarole of listening to message / finding pen / finding paper / writing down message.

And it costs no more than standard messaging either as 95% of the time you don't need to pay call charges to pick-up messages!

Truly useful.

[ZapWizard @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Sprint has had this service both for business and the deaf for at leat a year now.

[snax @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

is it automatic, or is there a chance that your message is being transcribed by humans on minimum wage?

we had a similar service in australia, except when you got through to voicemail a human picked up, took your message, and txt'd it to the person.

[Brian Anderson @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

Incredible, this has been number one on my "I can't wait until this is a consumer product/service." list. I think many people have wanted something like this for a long time. I'd much rather skim through my email than hear 4 minutes of someone suggesting I give them a call back.

[Faf @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

I work for the Carphone Wahreouse projects department and we have been trialing this for some months now.

It works great most of the time because it does announce to the person leaving a message that the service requires conversion of voice to text.

Most people then speak very slowly... thus making it easy to convert.

The only problems so far, as expected is when someone calls me speaking some local Ghanaian language (i'm Ghanaian) ... then you conveniently get a message saying the voicemail couldnt be translated.

It still gives you the number of the person anyway, so you can choose to call them back or call voicemail depending on which will be the cheaper option.

I was quite surprised how it seems to translate a lot of messages that my buddies leave for me in pidgin english. Thir pronunciation is way off from what you'd get in a normal English (british) accent or similar, and it still works.

I've had plans for the voicemail to email functionality but havent tried it yet.

I know if gives more space for voicemail than my phone provider does.

It provides three folders... new/old/saved

One annoying feature is that it plays oldest messages first in when you enter these folders

but it counter that by allowing you to jump to a specific message; every message is sent with a number at the end in this format *NN eg. *06 so pressing start oh five takes you directly to that message.

Converted messages are moved to old which can then be moved to saved.

After the trial period is over.. i hope this becomes a standard feature with my service provider for a fixed monthly fee instead of a per message service so i can stick with it.

I can see some improvements being made in future, where you can dial right into someones voicemail without calling them first.

I cant think of any practical uses for it right now, but i know i've wanted that for some time. Can anyone thing of something useful for it? Apart from leaving it on a blog and getting people to call in with entries?

[RRF @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

message: I am hiding while my ex can see someone else

translated: I am high in wild ecstasy I'm blessed

[Stephen @ Dec 19th 2005 12:11AM]

I've been using Spinvox for 3 months now and have just started using one of their new tariffs which means I now get the voicemail to email included in my price plan, which I didn't previously.

You also get a fixed number of inclusive Spinvox voicemail messages which can be up to 3 texts long if your friends/family like to leave long messages. And I like the way that you can reject calls but still find out what the caller had to say.