Verizon now touting own 'Visual Voice Mail' service
Playing catchup with rival AT&T and technology available on Apple's iPhone since last year, Verizon Wireless on Monday introduced its own visual voicemail service to a limited number of subscribers for an added monthly fee.
The new application, dubbed 'Visual Voice Mail,' offers a visual interface for managing voice messages, allowing users to browse, hear, delete, reply and forward their voicemails without having to first dial-in and listen to the messages in sequential order.
"Scroll through your messages, pick the ones you want to listen to, erase or archive them right from your screen on your wireless device," Verizon says on website touting the new service. "You can call back, text and add to contacts directly from the Visual Voice Mail screen."
Users of the $2.99 per-month service will be able to store up to 40 messages for 40 days, create up to 10 greetings, and specify up to 20 distribution lists and 50 distribution members to receive messages.
For those users who wish to avoid human interaction entirely, the Visual Voice Mail application also offers an option to reply to a voicemail with a text message or another voicemail.
The Alcatel-Lucent- and Comverse-powered service is currently available only to owners of LG's Voyager handset, though Verizon said it "expects to offer Visual Voice Mail on additional devices in the coming months."
Unlike the iPhone, which is capable of receiving new features and software updates over the Internet, existing Voyager owners will need to make a trip to their local Veirzon Wireless retailer to receive a software update that includes the new Visual Voice Mail application.
Newly manufactured Voyager handsets will include Verizon Software version VX10KV09 or later, which will be capable of using the service without an in-store software upgrade.
For those readers curious about the new service, Verizon offers an overview and 7-page user guide on its website.
The new application, dubbed 'Visual Voice Mail,' offers a visual interface for managing voice messages, allowing users to browse, hear, delete, reply and forward their voicemails without having to first dial-in and listen to the messages in sequential order.
"Scroll through your messages, pick the ones you want to listen to, erase or archive them right from your screen on your wireless device," Verizon says on website touting the new service. "You can call back, text and add to contacts directly from the Visual Voice Mail screen."
Users of the $2.99 per-month service will be able to store up to 40 messages for 40 days, create up to 10 greetings, and specify up to 20 distribution lists and 50 distribution members to receive messages.
For those users who wish to avoid human interaction entirely, the Visual Voice Mail application also offers an option to reply to a voicemail with a text message or another voicemail.
The Alcatel-Lucent- and Comverse-powered service is currently available only to owners of LG's Voyager handset, though Verizon said it "expects to offer Visual Voice Mail on additional devices in the coming months."
Unlike the iPhone, which is capable of receiving new features and software updates over the Internet, existing Voyager owners will need to make a trip to their local Veirzon Wireless retailer to receive a software update that includes the new Visual Voice Mail application.
Newly manufactured Voyager handsets will include Verizon Software version VX10KV09 or later, which will be capable of using the service without an in-store software upgrade.
For those readers curious about the new service, Verizon offers an overview and 7-page user guide on its website.
Comments
Well they are, but Apple didn't make up the idea.
Ouch
That Interface is rediculusly Clunky. I'm always amazed at how other companies can never copy Apple/At&T with any effectiveness.
I'm not.
it doesn't matter who invented it. Apple got a carrier to actually implement it. Not to second guess Ireland!
How dare you Murph!
Unlike the iPhone, which is capable of receiving new features and software updates over the Internet, existing Voyager owners will need to make a trip to their local Veirzon Wireless retailer to receive a software update that includes the new Visual Voice Mail application.
Really? I'll have to try that next firmware update OTA. Snark aside, third-party apps and their respective updates != new features. But it is nice to get firmware updates via itunes without having to go back to the store, so suck it Verizon!
Apple or AT&T didn't invent visual voicemail. So they aren't copying them.
Yeah, but someone, somewhere is gonna file a lawsuit.
How dare you Murph!
I need to retract my comment anyway. It's all fanboi.
it doesn't matter who invented it. Apple got a carrier to actually implement it.
I recall Apple accepting terms of the patent holders for VV, I'm guessing the fees are wrapped into the new iPhone and/or carrier fees. I wonder how Verizon did with these fees? $2.99 is steep. The iPhone stores the messages on the device' capacious internal storage, but the info of "40 messages for 40 days" sounds like Verizon will be still be hosting the voicemail messages on their servers but will just send the relevant text data about the call to the handset.
The downsides is that you'll have to be in cell range to listen to voicemails and it will have a longer delay than the iPhone's local voicemail spooling. The upside for Verizon is that these same servers will potentially be able to allow all their phones, regardless of internal storage to have access to Visual Voicemail with a firmware change.
Steve
Unlike the iPhone, which is capable of receiving new features and software updates over the Internet, existing Voyager owners will need to make a trip to their local Veirzon Wireless retailer to receive a software update that includes the new Visual Voice Mail application.
Hmmm, well, I can't speak for this particular phone, but I've certainly done OTA firmware updates on Verizon phones before (though not "over the Internet"). Maybe they just want you to come in so you know for sure they're going to charge you $2.99/month, or to try to sell you something else.
Users of the $2.99 per-month service will be able to store up to 40 messages for 40 days...
This is something I've never understood. Why haven't all voicemail systems (including the older 'non-visual' ones) simply downloaded the messages to the handset's memory, and allow the user to manage them as they see fit? Why this exclusive dependence on the carrier's servers?
This is mainly what copycats don't get, and why they never seem to pull it off right... IMO. I think that 'iPod people' thing has worn off a bit now that Apple's getting so much attention too.
Jimzip
This is something I've never understood. Why haven't all voicemail systems (including the older 'non-visual' ones) simply downloaded the messages to the handset's memory, and allow the user to manage them as they see fit? Why this exclusive dependence on the carrier's servers?
Who knows what would happen if consumers discovered that carriers aren't really doing anything to warrant that $7.00 system access fee...
That and telcos are lazy. Why implement a new feature if you're already sucking your customers dry as is?
Jimzip
Really? I'll have to try that next firmware update OTA. Snark aside, third-party apps and their respective updates != new features. But it is nice to get firmware updates via itunes without having to go back to the store, so suck it Verizon!
Who said OTA? But updating over the internet via iTunes is a whole lot better than waiting on line at a store.
Hmmm, well, I can't speak for this particular phone, but I've certainly done OTA firmware updates on Verizon phones before (though not "over the Internet").
Really? With my RAZR, the only thing I can do OTA is update the roaming-list database. The "program your phone" option when dialing *228 is simply the activation sequence. As far as I can tell, it doesn't install any actual firmware.
When Verizon released a RAZR firmware update a year or so ago, you had to take it to the store. And then convince them to do it, since the update was never advertised - it was simply preloaded into newer phones.
This is something I've never understood. Why haven't all voicemail systems (including the older 'non-visual' ones) simply downloaded the messages to the handset's memory, and allow the user to manage them as they see fit? Why this exclusive dependence on the carrier's servers?
Because they can bill you for a feature when it runs on their server.
Whenever something doesn't make sense, just think of the greed angle, and all of a sudden, it all makes sense again. This is true for nearly all industries, but cell phone carriers are some of the most extreme examples.