Voice mail?

[Jungle King 76]

There are lots of differences between YouMail and Google Voice, and Google Voice does have some neat added call features if you add a Google Voice phone number, but there's one major difference in the greetings that I prefer YouMail for.

Google Voice answers calls that you didn't set up custom greetings for with a generic message that says something along the lines of "The Google Voice subscriber you are trying to reach is not available ..." YouMail has Smart Greeting which uses the Caller ID to greet the caller with their real first name. It also says your name as the one they are trying to reach so it's far more personalized for every caller even if you don't know them.

Let this not be a battle of the posters but instead simply an informative thread providing the pros and cons of each option. I do like Google Voice but it is far more intensive than I wanted for a simple voicemail substitute. YouMail fit the bill nicely for a small footprint solution. I may migrate to Google Voice but I feel the learning curve for Google Voice is longer than that of YouMail so initially I am more inclines to refer people to that option at least initially.





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Yeah, I didn't see anything in this thread that was even remotely argumentative or to be classified as a battle. Just offering options for the op.

However, providing accurate information is important. With that said, Google voice does not answer with a standard greeting. I have personal greetings for each member of my family and closest friend that call the most. All other calls are answered with my regular greeting in my voice that I recorded. This is no different than the standard Verizon voicemail or any other voice mail service. If you do not record a message, it automatically gives a standardized greeting.

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[infantrytrophy]

FoxKat's comments about the "footprint" of YouMail vs. that of Google Voice are spot on. YouMail was easy to set up and start using right away, although I had to drill around their web site to figure out how to turn off the service and disable CFB/NA (call forwarding for busy/not answered calls). YouMail enabled Verizon's CFB/NA automatically, but you have to disable it yourself. Verizon's instructions for this took a bit of effort to find. Once found, these instructions were ambiguous and included some unnecessary steps.

I'm struggling to wrap my arms around Google Voice. It appears to be a very powerful service that does what YouMail does and much more. For a retired guy :biggrin: like me, it will take a cup of coffee and a quiet, non-stressful morning to figure it out. I suppose a 20-something could breeze through this in 5 minutes, but it's obviously taking me a bit longer. Now it has become a challenge, so I'm determined to do it.

Here is a tidbit of information that sheds some light on one of the many differences between the Apple/iOS and Google/Android environment: The iPhone comes with its own integrated voicemail service that bypasses Verizon's standard voicemail. Pretty nice - automatic, works well but not as capable as other options, and you still burn "minutes" when accessing voicemails during peak hours. The Android/Google phone allows you move to the voicemail to other services that are more capable but come with a learning curve. The freedom of the Android environment is just my cup of tea, but it's not for everyone.

Thanks again to JPCalhoun, FoxKat, Jungle King and Zandar for the helpful comments.

 

[FoxKat]

Yeah, I didn't see anything in this thread that was even remotely argumentative or to be classified as a battle. Just offering options for the op.

However, providing accurate information is important. With that said, Google voice does not answer with a standard greeting. I have personal greetings for each member of my family and closest friend that call the most. All other calls are answered with my regular greeting in my voice that I recorded. This is no different than the standard Verizon voicemail or any other voice mail service. If you do not record a message, it automatically gives a standardized greeting.

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Accurate information is important, I agree. I understood completely and never disputed that if you record a personalized "regular" greeting, everyone that calls and for whom you have not recorded a custom greeting will get your personalized "regular" recorded greeting. So everything I said so far has been correct.

With that said, just as you indicated above in your last sentence unless you record a "regular" greeting such as "Hi, I'm away from my phone right now, but if you...", or "Hi, you've reached the cell phone of Phil, please leave...", or unless you've recorded a "personal greetings for each member of my family and closest friend that call the most", such as "Hey Mom, sorry I can't take your call right now...I'm in class, I'll call you later..." Google Voice answers with a "standardized greeting" that simply says something to the effect of "The Google Voice subscriber you're trying to reach is not available right now, please...".

I set up Google Voice last night, didn't record a "regular" greeting and then called my phone from both the home phone which has caller ID active and from my cell phone. In both cases, the Google Voice system answered with a generic "standardized greeting" that in no way indicated it recognized me.

As said before, where YouMail differs here is that even when you don't record a custom greeting for each person, and where you don't record a personalized "regular" greeting (in other words, do nothing), but instead you activate the Smart Greeting feature, it will use the incoming caller's caller ID and will answer your phone with a greeting that is personalized using the incoming caller's name as it's provided by the caller ID, and will also use your name as it's typed in your account. This way, anyone who is not on your contact list and doesn't have a customized greeting doesn't get the same boring "regular" greeting in your voice, but instead actually gets a professional sounding personalized greeting too!

SO... I will say once again, that if someone named Steve, who I've never spoken to before, don't have in my contacts list, and for all intents and purposes is a complete stranger should answer an advertisement and call my cell phone and it goes to YouMail voicemail, YouMail will answer based on his caller ID. If his caller ID is Stephen, then the call would be answered with "Hello Stephen, Phillip is unavailable right now..." This feature saves me time since I don't have to set up custom greetings for all my family and friends, and they actually get a kick out of the way it answers my phone for me in someone else's voice (like a personal assistant), and yet still knows their name.

I also find that feature alone to be quite powerful especially for me as I run a business where complete strangers call me for our businesses' services, and when they do and our voicemail answers and greets them with their own name, they are both surprised and delighted. It generates a talking point when we actually do get to speak with them since one of the first things they ask is how our voice mail we knew who they were and how our answering machine knew to greet them by name. With this personalization they are generally more inclined to let their guard down and be ready to discuss their needs and how we can fulfill them.

And it wasn't necessarily a battle (my poor choice of words) but felt like it might be headed towards a "my voicemail is better than yours" kind of thing. There would be no reason for someone to discount one service for another since not everyone wants all the bells and whistles. The OP mentioned a Voicemail system, I replied, and so did Zandar. When the OP asked next for a FREE Texting alternative, I responded, and again so did Zandar. It just so happens that my recommendations were two separate tools or services, and Zandar's were one and the same. Neither one is perfect for everyone and the desire for choices and personalization is a part of human nature, otherwise we'd all be talking on the iPhone forum right now.

It wasn't what was said that caused me to address the "battle" but how it was said. I simply wanted to make sure that I wasn't being misunderstood to be promoting such a joust and also to be sure Zandar didn't either. As far as I'm concerned, Zandar and I are cool, and I believe he or she feels the same. If not, I'm sure he or she will address it with me. Perhaps I was a bit over-sensitive as well and for that I apologize formally to Zandar, but as you probably know, things can get pretty out of hand fairly quickly on these forums and I was only interested in keeping it civil, informative, and on topic.



:biggrin:

 

[Jungle King 76]

No worries here foxkat. I get you but it just seems like you keep feeling the need to explain yourself or defend something that nobody is attacking. Why the need to repeat something that was already said?

The only person comparing on here is yourself because myself and zandar simply mentioned what app we prefer and why.

As for everything you have said so far being correct...... this is not true. You clearly stated that anyone who does not have a "custom " greeting set up will get the generic "the Google voice subscriber" message. This is incorrect/ misleading and I wasn't trying to trump you but simply clearing it up because anyone not familiar with Google voice would take your statement as saying that you have to create a custom greeting for everyone or they get the computerized voice.



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[Zandar]

That auto answer from caller ID on YouMail definitely looks like a cool feature. I don't know that I could ever be torn away from GVoice (I'm a total Google fan) since I use it as my one number and for all my texting (plus I text from my work computer via GVoice a lot) and it's free and pre-integrated, but it's nice to see that there are viable options out there.

OP, let us know what you end up doing. There will probably be some poor, stranded soul that wanders onto this thread from a desperate Google search and your situation will be just what the doctor ordered. I have a feeling that, by the end of your investigations and trials, you're going to know more about Android voicemail/texting solutions than I ever have!

 

[donnie5336]

I don't know about a different app but you can do this: go to menu>settings>call settings>voice mail. Enter *86 then a ","and your the password for your voicemail. When you activate your voicemail either by long pressing the "1" key on your keypad within the phone app or when you long press the the voicemail notification icon in the pull down notification bar, it will dial voicemail and your password so you don't have to enter it.

What about the home screen voicemail shortcut? I can't get this to work when press on the shortcut icon. It always only dials *86. If I go to my contacts and scroll down to voicemail it will dial *86 plus my password. Anyway to get this to work with the homescreen icon too?

 

[jpcalhoun]

What about the home screen voicemail shortcut? I can't get this to work when press on the shortcut icon. It always only dials *86. If I go to my contacts and scroll down to voicemail it will dial *86 plus my password. Anyway to get this to work with the homescreen icon too?

Unfortunately it won't work with the voicemail icon shortcut...sorry.

 

[Zandar]

What about the home screen voicemail shortcut? I can't get this to work when press on the shortcut icon. It always only dials *86. If I go to my contacts and scroll down to voicemail it will dial *86 plus my password. Anyway to get this to work with the homescreen icon too?

Not to get on a soapbox, but if you use Google Voice for your voicemail it has a widget you can place on the homescreen that will show you your most current received item (be it a voicemail or a text via Google Voice), and you can scroll with it to older ones, too. Tap on the message or voicemail from the widget and it launches you right to the item. If it's a voicemail, you can read it or listen to it right from there (all over data; no minutes required), or reply to it if it's a text. Like with all Google services, you can also tap on the contact to call, text, email, etc. the person, too.

 

[jpcalhoun]

Not to get on a soapbox, but if you use Google Voice for your voicemail it has a widget you can place on the homescreen that will show you your most current received item (be it a voicemail or a text via Google Voice), and you can scroll with it to older ones, too. Tap on the message or voicemail from the widget and it launches you right to the item. If it's a voicemail, you can read it or listen to it right from there (all over data; no minutes required), or reply to it if it's a text. Like with all Google services, you can also tap on the contact to call, text, email, etc. the person, too.

I understand, but I don't think donnie5336 is there yet:biggrin:

 

[SallyC]

What about the home screen voicemail shortcut? I can't get this to work when press on the shortcut icon. It always only dials *86. If I go to my contacts and scroll down to voicemail it will dial *86 plus my password. Anyway to get this to work with the homescreen icon too?

I don't know what homescreen icon you have, but I just created a Contact called Voicemail with a phone number of *86,, plus my password. Then I long pressed on my home screen, selected App actions> Contact and selected Voicemail. It dialed my voicemail, put in my password and worked fine.

EDIT: App Actions is found under the Shortcuts menu.

 

[FoxKat]

No worries here foxkat. I get you but it just seems like you keep feeling the need to explain yourself or defend something that nobody is attacking. Why the need to repeat something that was already said?

The only person comparing on here is yourself because myself and zandar simply mentioned what app we prefer and why.

As for everything you have said so far being correct...... this is not true. You clearly stated that anyone who does not have a "custom " greeting set up will get the generic "the Google voice subscriber" message. This is incorrect/ misleading and I wasn't trying to trump you but simply clearing it up because anyone not familiar with Google voice would take your statement as saying that you have to create a custom greeting for everyone or they get the computerized voice.



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Your observation and desire to clarify are justified and it's all too obvious now that I see the explanation from your point of view. :frown:

It's generally assumed by most that you can record a standard greeting (just like any normal voicemail or answering machine). Unfortunately I had lumped those greetings with the "custom" greetings for friends and family in both Google Voice and YouMail into one category. My purpose was to draw the contrast of doing a standard greeting or none at all versus the Smart Greeting. My feeling is the standard greeting in your voice or the generic one provided if no recorded greeting is done both feel rather generic to someone calling who was not on the calling list. That's where the Smart Greeting does look appealing, at least to me.

Obviously I didn't express it well.

 

[Jungle King 76]

Your observation and desire to clarify are justified and it's all too obvious now that I see the explanation from your point of view. :frown:

It's generally assumed by most that you can record a standard greeting (just like any normal voicemail or answering machine). Unfortunately I had lumped those greetings with the "custom" greetings for friends and family in both Google Voice and YouMail into one category. My purpose was to draw the contrast of doing a standard greeting or none at all versus the Smart Greeting. My feeling is the standard greeting in your voice or the generic one provided if no recorded greeting is done both feel rather generic to someone calling who was not on the calling list. That's where the Smart Greeting does look appealing, at least to me.

Obviously I didn't express it well.

No worries. I will admit though that sometimes I just enjoy a good back and forth debate. If I come off harsh it is unintentional. The more I get someone to debate with me, the more I learn by getting to see their side and things I may not have thought of myself.

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[donnie5336]

I don't know what homescreen icon you have, but I just created a Contact called Voicemail with a phone number of *86,, plus my password. Then I long pressed on my home screen, selected App actions> Contact and selected Voicemail. It dialed my voicemail, put in my password and worked fine.

Thanks. I knew you could add a contact to your homescreen but hadn't found it yet. I didn't know it was listed under "app actions."

 

[SallyC]

Thanks. I knew you could add a contact to your homescreen but hadn't found it yet. I didn't know it was listed under "app actions."

I'm fairly new to Android and didn't know about "App Actions" either until FoxKat posted about using it. I thought it was really cool and am happy to be able to share it. Glad it serves your purpose.

 

[PSR12]

FoxKat, Did you you download the WhoAreYou Caller ID?