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Voicemail with an Android phone: How does it work? Apps?

mjschmidt

mjschmidt

Android Expert
I have an HTC Magic on Rogers in Canada. I am NOT paying for Rogers Call-Answer (voicemail).

What I'm wondering is, do all of the various voicemail apps in the marketplace require that you actually have the voicemail/callanswer package with your cellphone provider?

Is there a voicemail app that does NOT require subscribing to callanswer with your provider, but instead can be set up to intercept incoming calls and record them to the SD card? It seems to me this should be possible since there are apps for recording calls you actually answer, and their are voice recording apps that record to the SD card.

Thanks!
 
With Gizmo5 they just mail them to me as an email with a wav attachment. I asked about mp3 format but they won't change or give me a choice. I get so few it does not matter. At least with email I do not have to check my voicemail. I will see it as a new email notice.
 
tiredhiker: Do you pay for the voicemail/callanswer service through your cellphone provider to get voicemail?

What I want to know is, is there an app that will intercept incoming calls to the phone and work like an answering machine, so I don't have to pay my cell provider for their voicemail service.
 
Gizmo5 is a VoIP phone service (at least this is my understanding, I do not personally use it). My guess (again, only a theory, he could shed more light on this than I) is that his gizmo5 service provides him with a number tied to THEIR service (read: not through his mobile carrier) which then gives him the voicemail features and such.

Another possible option to your question, though I have no idea if it will work without having a voicemail plan, would be either the PF Voicemail or YouMail applications...both of these will change the forwarding rules on your account so that in the event that your phone is not answered, it will forward the call to their services (both free). The application on your phone then retrieves the message via the internet.

Sorry I don't have anything more concrete to tell you.
 
I am in Vietnam so I am using a prepaid SIM Card. Not sure if I get my local voice mail for free but I do not use it as I can not speak Vietnam and my business comes from the USA. Gizmo5 is free. I really do not use voicemail. I have tested it and it works but i have never recieved one from a customer but its there to make my website look good..... people mostly like email. Using Sipdroid with Gizmo5 I can call the USA and talk to my customers for 2 cents a minute. I must use a WIFI Hotspot to connect but that is free at the local tourist hotels and many local coffee shops. I can use EDGE but the call is too choppy. When I am in Cambodia I can use 3G and that is good enough for a clear call. My situation is different from yours I would think but many ways to fix a problem. Keep trying...
 
I get the feeling the OP is looking more for an "Answering Machine" type app for his android rather than a "voice mail" app.

Which I dont believe would work properly, because in order for your phone to do that, it would have to answer the phone. I suppose it might work, if the app set the phone to auto answer, auto muted the mic upon answering and was set to record the call. The only thing left would be to dump the recorded message to the SD card and add in a few bells and whistles like new message alerts.

Hmm maybe it is doable. I dont see a huge market for it other than saving a few bucks for voicemail in countrys where its not free with the plan.
 
Well, in Canada on Rogers we pay like $5.00 a month for voicemail (I am currently paying $8.00 a month for call display, which doesn't work with the HTC Magic, so I'll be canceling it soon). So, for me, I'd like to save that $5 a month if possible.
 
Youmail - Enhanced Visual Voicemail For Cell Phones | YouMail

It doesn't get any better than that. Custom greetings for each and every caller and it will send you an SMS when you get a voicemail, as well as e-mail it to you as an attachment. Best of all, there's an app for it in android market that basically gives you visual voicemail. I've been using it for a while and it hasn't let me down yet.
 
@greyhulk: Thanks, I've seen this (and other similar apps/services) mentioned before, but it doesn't really answer my main question, which is: to use apps/services like YouMail, do you have to subscribe to/pay for the voicemail/callanswer option from your cell phone provider?

This question may be confusing for people who live in countries where voicemail is either free or part of their monthly charge. In Canada with Rogers we have to pay EXTRA to get the voicemail service. If we don't pay the extra monthly fee, we DON'T get voicemail. At all.

So, to use YouMail, will I have to pay for voicemail (call answer) from Rogers (my cell phone provider) or does the YouMail app intercept my incoming calls and reroute them somehow?

Do I have to pay for voicemail from my carrier? yes or no?

Thanks all for the input.
 
Technically, no. You are telling your phone to forward all unanswered calls to youmail. So in essence, youmail is replacing your existing voicemail service (unanswered and busy calls never get a chance to go to regular voicemail). Hope this answers your question.
 
So I checked out YouMail, and while it does what I wanted, it only does it for AMERICANS, unless I want to pay longdistance charges to get my voicemail... which I do not want to do.

ARGH! Why are there no services for Canadians?
 
Ugh! Sorry, man. Somehow I didn't realize you were in Canada. I love Youmail. I don't think I could live without it. I even used it on my iPhone in place of the native visual voicemail app.
 
Did you ever come up with a solution for this? I too am on Rogers without paying for voice mail and thought about writing an "Answering Machine" app but it seems like a fair amount of work for possibly limited appeal.

Thanks!
 
+1 for sending along a solution :)

I do pay for caller ID so its probably better that I have that and VM bundled. Ah well.
 
Hi, Did you ever find a solution for something like this? I dont see why people do not see the value in something like this? I live in India and the Voicemail service from my Mobile provider is FREE, but, I would still like to have a native (on the phone residing app), that acts as my Answering Machine. The advantage for me is: (i) The message is stored on my phone SD card, (ii) can be emailed to my email account, (iii) I get to set multiple types of greeting messages for groups of callers.
 
Would Google Voice work for you? No invite required anymore, just sign up with your Google account and get a number. I "played" with creating a new account and it gave me an option for countries other than the US.
 
@mplevy: Again, I am in Canada, so US solutions like YouMail and GV won't work here. GV only has US numbers right now, so while there are long complicated workarounds using SIP and other things (it confuses me) it's not a user-friendly option.

At the moment i have set my phone to route unanswered calls to my _home_ phone, which has voice mail. I haven't actually tested it yet. i suppose I could do that tonight. Of course that means that if someone else is at home when the call comes in and answers it, I might not get the message! (stupid teenagers!)
 
The application called AirVoice records conversations (both speakers) AND allows you to use it as an aswering machine.

If you do not answer the call, it plays a Wave file (your voice greeting) and then records the message.

Regards
Brendon
 
how much do you canadians pay for phone service... they seem to like to ding you for stuff thats normally free like caller ID, voicemail. I mean, really? your phone plans better be cheap as hell then because it sounds so basic.
 
Hi

I am confused. You want something ON THE PHONE that takes voicemail, instead of the voicemail being collected by the carrier.

This is exactly what AirVoice does. The only reason I mentioned the recording of realtime conversations is because the "marketing blurb" for the app focuses on the recording of conversations, and barely mentions the voicemail feature.

Brendon
 
@Brendonhatcher: Thanks for the suggestion (just to clarify, I am the OP looking for an alternative to carrier VM. I don't know who that other guy is, he has sort of jacked my thread. ;-) )

I took a look at AirVoice on App Brain: AirVoice - Android app on AppBrain

The comments don't look too good. Also, in the description it says the voicemail only works on the "G3". What the heck is a G3?

I have an HTC Magic (MyTouch 3G) on Rogers in Canada, and I'm still stuck on 1.5 (until at least the end of August when we eventually get 2.1).
 
I know exactly what kind of thing the OP is looking for and I would really like to find an app for this as well as I hate forking over money to Bell for VM. It really should be a simple for an app to do this.

When I was living in Japan for a short time, my Softbank phone had an "answer phone" feature built in which would work just like a carrier voicemail. When enabled, any call that was not answered would be picked up in the background by the phone itself, a built in greeting played to the caller, and the message would be recorded directly to the phone's internal memory.

It seems to me that something similar could easily be done in android by someone with the know-how to do so.
 
Not absolutely sure it does exactly what is being asked for or what countries it covers but have a look at HulloMail
 
mjschmidt said:
@Brendonhatcher: Thanks for the suggestion (just to clarify, I am the OP looking for an alternative to carrier VM. I don't know who that other guy is, he has sort of jacked my thread. ;-) )
Click to expand...

I've cleared this issue up...seems like someone merged his thread with yours as both have similar titles. So I've created his own thread :)

Cheers,
Roze
 
1. In case it is unclear, you DO NOT NEED carrier voice mail to use third party voice mail services. In fact, the incoming msg never hits the carrier VM. That's because you forward the call to a third-party and the third-party handles the VM.

2. To answer your question, the best I've come up with is to get a phone number from freephoneline.ca. (You don't need the home phone, just the number). It has voice mail. It also has a feature that will take your voice mail as an ".AU" file and send it as an attachment to an e-mail address.

Set-up:
- get a FPL phone #
- turn on its voice mail
- set it to forward voice mails to your e-mail address (hopefully on your mobile)
- take your cell, forward missed or busy calls to your FPL phone number
- you're done.

When someone leaves a voice mail you will get an e-mail on your mobile with the voicemail attached as an .au file. If your mobile can play .au files, you are good to go. If not, you'll have to check them from a desktop, etc.
 
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