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Common Voices turns voicemail into email for G1 users

Common Voices has announced the availability of enhanced voicemail for Android G1 phones using the T-Mobile network.

The free service called NowMessage.com removes the restrictions of traditional network-based voicemail by leveraging the email and display capabilities of the G1 smartphone.

"The strategy with NowMessage.com is to offer a free service and build up a user community," said Don Picard, chief strategy officer of Common Voices, New York. "Common Voices sells our software to VoIP and wireless carriers, and it is helpful to have a user base to try new features and receive direct feedback from users.

"The benefit for users is a more feature-rich voicemail product than what they typically get bundled with their wireless service," he said.

NowMessage.com allows users to view and hear their voice messages directly on their G1 handset.
Since NowMessage.com sends your messages to a person's Gmail account, the user's voice mailbox is never full and messages are protected forever.

"The challenge for users today is that they have to manage their voicemail in a manner different from their email - which is a hassle for many people," Mr. Picard said.

"NowMessage solves that challenge by presenting the subscriber's voicemail as an email message," he said. "It also has the benefit of not using wireless minutes to retrieve voice messages, as they are delivered directly to the handset via the data network."

Google built Android from the ground-up to enable developers to create compelling mobile applications that take full advantage of all a handset has to offer.

NowMessage.com calls upon the phone's core functionality, in this case the ability to display and play new and saved voicemail messages on the handset, without having to dial-up a traditional voicemail system.

Since all messages are presented via Gmail, they can be forwarded, archived or replied to as email.
NowMessage.com service works with any email account.

"Common Voices does this because we get direct benefits from having users of our NowMessage software suite," Mr. Picard said.

"It is also very helpful to find out what new features users want rather than trying to determine that through some indirect means," he said. "And it is helpful to show carriers with real consumer data what features people want."

Subscribers can also be notified of all calls missed when the phone is powered off or out of range.

Since voice messages arrive in email over the data network, subscribers can listen to their messages without spending mobile voice minutes.

"Mobile email is growing enormously due to the popularity of smartphones," Mr. Picard said. "I see this continuing in the years ahead, as email is a popular tool for communicating."