At the tone . . .
PERSONAL TECH
Voicemail was once the saviour of the busy executive, allowing people to leave their phones to ring knowing they could chase it up later.
Now, compared to email and texts, it’s clunky.
Dialling into your account and waiting as old messages are played just to hear someone hang up is a frustrating experience and a waste of time.
However, many people don’t want to miss an important call so voicemail, although terminal, lives on, along with its cousins dial-up internet and camcorders.
Research from Vonage, an internet phone company, shows voice-mail messages left on user accounts were down 8 per cent in the past year. And to prove that many people dislike listening to voicemail, retrieved messages fell 14 per cent in the same period. So what is the busy executive to do? The low-fi solution is to change your voicemail greeting so that it asks people to email you or text you instead of leaving a message. Unfortunately, this is a hit or miss approach as some callers will still leave a message which means dialling in to check just in case they did. Though if you look at the text you get after a missed call the duration listed should give you a clue as to whether they left something worth retrieving.
If you love your apps and want something more hi-tech, there are a bunch out there you can try. However, many charge a fee or work on only certain networks.
One good one is Touch Voicemail, which works with all New Zealand carriers and allows you to use the app to manage your voicemail. It lets you see who called, listen to and delete messages all without dialling in. A lot simpler than using the phone app.