I find it easier to check my e-mail than to check my voicemail. Now a company has just the solution that I need: my voicemail messages get sent to my e-mail address with attached MP3 audio files of the voice messages. It even will check multiple voicemail accounts and send all the messages to your one e-mail address. Cool!
GotVoice lets you connect your voicemail to the web. All of it. GotVoice Net can automatically forward voicemail from your mobile, work, and home phones to your office e-mail while you work. It can also send office voicemails to your home e-mail address so that you don't have to keep checking voice mail when you are out of the office. If you spend a week visiting distant family, you can use their computer to check your e-mail, including any voicemail to your home or work phone.
Here's how it works: You tell GotVoice how to get your voicemail. At scheduled times or just whenever you tell it to, GotVoice will check your messages for you. If you have any, it will e-mail them to you as MP3s and also make them available in their web-based interface.
GotVoice even has a voicemail caller ID feature. You can see who left messages before listening to them.
GotVoice for home use is available free of charge. It works with cellular phones and with home phone voice mail provided by the telephone company. It will not work with home answering machines, however.
Use of GotVoice on a corporate voicemail system requires payment. It costs $9.95 per month per user, with discounts available as the number of users increases.
GotVoice is not available everywhere. However, it is available in most parts of the United States, and the company says it is increasing its coverage daily.
I decided to sign-up for cell phone voice mails to be sent to my e-mail address. The sign-up process was simple: enter your cell phone number, the name of the provider, your e-mail address, and a bit of personal information about yourself. A minute or so later, a test message appeared in my cell phone's voice mail. Another minute or so later, an e-mail appeared in my in-box with an attached MP3 file of the same test message. The MP3 audio quality was about typical of any telephone connection, recorded at 32kbps mono.
The same e-mail message also tells how to retrieve the voicemail message from GotVoice's web site although I don't see much need for that.
All in all, GotVoice works well and is a great way to receive messages without having to keep checking for new voice mail messages. It works with Windows, Macintosh, and Linux systems. GotVoice also offers an optional GotVoice Message Center program that installs on your PC. The Message Center is for Windows only, but I doubt if Macintosh or Linux users will miss it.
Of course, the price is right: free for personal use.
For more information or to sign up for GotVoice's free service for home users, go to http://www.GotVoice.com
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