The mobile landscape is increasingly innovating in all aspects except for voicemail, which has been rather stagnant since its introduction.

Alex Quilici, CEO of Aliso Vieho, CA-based YouMail came to Mobile Marketer's office in New York to talk about the way his company is innovating the voicemail experience for users.

YouMail is completely visual. Users can see who called, from where and even their picture is shown. Before, all that was accessible was the caller's number. YouMail lets users use their smart phone or computer to listen to voicemails, but in a different way.

Here is what Mr. Quilici had to say:

What is YouMail and how is it different than the voicemail we have all become accustomed to?

YouMail is visual voicemail. Our technology allows users to treat their voicemail messages like email. They are able to view the voicemails online or via their mobile phone and can pick and choose which ones they want to listen to, forward on and reply to.

One YouMail feature is YouSee. When a caller leaves a message, the user instantly gets a text message alerting them of the voicemail. The text message lists the caller's name, phone number, city, state and carrier.

The great part is that users can just click to call the person back instead of searching through their phone book for the person's contact information. Users can also answer messages via text message, to avoid a more confrontational call back.

YouGreet allows users to create different voicemail greetings for every caller. Or, if the user is going to be hard to reach, he or she can use greetings to update callers.

YouManage lets users choose how to handle messages -- either by phone, email or text.

YouIdentify gets the specifics on every caller whether they've left a message or not. YouBlock lets users decide who can contact them and who cannot.

For example a user can send an unwanted call straight to voicemail with a very formal, "This number is no longer in service."

Messages like this are available to users via the YouMail community.

Since the service is free, is there any ad-support?

Yes, there is. We partnered with 4Info and it serves both in-text ads and banner ads on the YouMail Web site and the mobile site at http://www.m.youmail.com .

The ads are non obtrusive and can be targeted by location and carrier.

Some advertisers include the University of Phoenix, Hertz and 1-800-FREE-411.

We also have some partnerships with regional carriers. They use the YouMail service to communicate with their subscribers.

Regional carriers need to differentiate themselves on pricing and features.

Who are you targeting?

Like I mentioned before we are targeting regional carriers.

In addition we are targeting consumers who get a lot of voicemail messages, ages 25-45.

Our service empowers people. If a client leaves you a nasty message you can always post it on Yelp, for example.

What's the current state of mobile voicemail?

The average person is on the same voicemail that we had 20 yrs ago. Companies like us are trying to innovate, giving people a choice of how they use their voicemail.

Carriers are opening up their platforms and therefore there is an opportunity to open up voicemail. You can see more and more of that showing. And, innovation is like a snowball rolling down hill.

So what is next for YouMail?

You can safely assume that we will soon be launching a YouMail application.