I was just telling a friend about PhoneTag, arguably one of my favorate applications that I run on my BlackBerry, after they asked how I replied to a voicemail that they left me with an email.
For those of you that don’t know, PhoneTag is a voicemail transcription service that converts voicemail messagess to text and emails it to you once it is transcribed. PhoneTag allows you to upload your address book so that it can recognize who a particular voicemail is from and enters their information in the from field which makes it very easy to reply back to someones voicemail as an email reply.
I showed my friend how PhoneTag works and they thought that it was the coolest thing since sliced bread and asked me how to get it set up. Anyone can trial PhoneTag for free for seven days, however, if you really want to get a feel for how it really works you may need to test it out for a bit longer than a week.
That being said you can get a 30-day free trial of PhoneTag from RIMarkable by signing up through the link below.
30-Day Free Trial of PhoneTag from RIMarkable
The other day someone sent in a question and asked why they should pay for a service like PhoneTag when Verizon’s Visual Voicemail is free? This is a fair question and deserves an honest answer.
Visual Voicemail
The first thing you need to keep in mind is that Verizon’s Visual Voicemail and PhoneTag, although related, are very different types of services. Visual Voicemail is basically a GUI interface that allows you to see a visual reprsentation of your voicemail messages that you have in your voicemail cue. Think of how email comes into your inbox. Email meessages are displayed in the order that you received them, however, you can read them in whatever order you like.
Visual Voicemail, like with your email inbox, gives you the ability to listen to your messages in whatever order you desire as compared to sequentially like with standard voice mail systems. Visual Voicemail is visual in the sense that you are able to see whom a voicemail is from before you actually listen to it.
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PhoneTag, who recently changed its name from SimulScribe, has added a really cool new feature. PhoneTag is the Visual VoiceMail application that we wrote a detailed review of the BlackBerry version a month or so ago.
The cool new feature that they added along with the changing of their name is the ability for you to upload your address book up to their servers. Doing so will allow their transcription software to send the transcribed message with your contacts name in the To field allowing you to quickly reply via email. It will also properly spell the contacts name so you immediately recognize who the message from.
This feature isn’t terribly new for BlackBerry users who download the SimulSays client to their device. When an email comes in the client software uses caller ID to search for a matching contact in your address book. It will, however, make PhoneTag much more usable for subscribers not fortunate enough to be using a BlackBerry.
A few weeks ago we did a review of SimulSays, an application and service from SimulScribe which essentially gives you visual voicemail for BlackBerry.
When James Siminoff and Mark Dillon started SimulScribe in 2003 they code named their project “Simultaneous Voicemail Transcription” and shortened it to SimulScribe. Unfortunately, the name they choose really is kind of hard to spell and doesn’t give you any idea what the company is about.
The name SimulScribe totally sucks for our business. People have a real challenge remembering the name and they cannot spell it, which is a real problem considering that new customers need to type in our web address to sign up. When your company offers a consumer product that relies on viral marketing, a difficult name is a really bad thing. In fact, I’m constantly amazed at how well we have been able to do with such a shitty name.
To make a long story short, SimulScribe is changing its name to PhoneTag at 11:59 P.M. EST tonight. If you want to here the story of hey the came up with the name PhoneTag head on over to TechCrunch.
If you haven’t already signed up for your free trial of SimulSays from PhoneTag you can do so here. You can get an extended 30 day trial through our link as compared to the standard one week you get through the site.
