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Judging by the number of voicemail solutions I’ve run into over the past few months, it would appear that there is a real problem with carrier voicemail. In recent weeks we’ve talked about SpinVox and GotVoice, two companies that provide voicemail transcription services. And you know what? I absolutely loved them, and may never use my carrier voicemail ever again. Today, we’re going to talk about a similar service, this of the visual voicemail ilk: YouMail.

While the idea of visual voicemail has been around for a while, it really took off with the release of the iPhone. The basic idea is that when someone leaves you a voice message, they are added to a list, which you can view at any time. This saves a ton of time and energy, since carrier voicemail systems make you go through your voicemails in the order in which they were received.

So let’s take a look at how this service stacks up to the visual voicemail challenge.

Signing up

I couldn’t believe how easy the signup for YouMail was. You hit the big button in the middle of their home page to get started. Then you enter in your mobile number, to where they will send an activation PIN. You then enter your PIN, set a few options, and there you have it. Your voicemails are now routed through the YouMail system.

Getting started

You can login to YouMail from both your BlackBerry and your desktop. This is great when you’re in the office, as you can view your voicemails while you’re busy at work (sure you are). If you’re on the go, it’s easy to check your voicemails through their mobile Web interface. Just go to their site as normal, and you’ll be asked to log in. From there, you can do everything you can with the desktop interface, including listening to your messages through your default media player.

YouMail gives you a custom number to dial into when checking your voicemail. Just assign a shortcut key to it, and it’s basically the same as checking your carrier voicemail. Plus, they give you the option to integrate their voicemail system over your carrier’s, so if you choose you can dial into your normal voicemail and get the YouMail interface.

Checking my voicemail

When you login to your YouMail account, the main screen will list your five most recent voicemails, with an option to play them right there. You also have the option to have the messages listed in a more email-like form, by clicking on “All My Messages,” “All My Calls,” or by clicking the Voicemail tab on top of the screen. You’ll also get this email-like view by clicking on the green “play” button to listen to your message. The browser view is similar, though a bit more stripped down.

The Greetings tab atop the screen will allow you to, well, change your greeting. This is actually one reason I’m absolutely loving these voicemail services I’ve been trying over the past few weeks. They replace the Verizon system, which prattles on forever before actually allowing someone to leave a message. With YouMail, you have the option to search for greetings, record your own, or upload a WAV or MP3 file. You also have the option of setting different greetings for numbers with blocked caller IDs, or unknown caller IDs.

Blocking voicemails

Does someone have your number, yet you don’t want them calling you? It’s a pretty common problem. The last thing you want them doing is flooding your voicemail box. YouMail has devised a solution to this. It’s called Ditchmail, and it prevents unwanted callers from leaving you a message.

From the website, select the caller from your contacts list, and click “Ditch this Caller.” You’ll be able to assign them a custom greeting, and once it’s over, it will hang up, rather than allowing them to leave a message. This can be especially helpful for people who use their personal phone to conduct business on occasion. You can also ditch a contact by pressing 8 6 after listening to the voicemail on your phone.

Replying to voicemails

Through YouMail’s web interface, you can choose to reply to your voicemails via email, text message, or by recording a message to send back. This, of course, is best for those in an office. It becomes just like dealing with email, only it’s through YouMail’s website, rather than Outlook or whatever external mail application you’re using.

Transcriptions

Like the two speech to text services we reviewed, YouMail also transcribes your voicemails for you and sends them to your SMS inbox and/or your email address. The service is still in beta, so there are clearly going to be some bugs in it. All in all, though, I enjoyed the experience.

When you activate transcriptions, you’re asked if you want the message to be sent to your SMS inbox. Then comes the neat part. You’re asked how many messages you’d like this broken up into. This is great for those of us who don’t have unlimited messaging plans. I chose just one, figuring I can get the gist of the message from the first 160 characters. I can then decide whether I want to check my YouMail account on my browser.

As far as the transcriptions themselves, well, they’re not too accurate. I left myself a voicemail saying “Hey Joe, it’s Joe,” and it was transcribed as “Hey Joe its general.” Not that “general” wouldn’t be a badass nickname. But it’s pretty far off from what I said. After checking it, I made some corrections through my YouMail dashboard, and hopefully the transcription program learned something.

Remember, too, that this transcription service, like the rest of YouMail, is free of charge. So if its a bit buggy, it’s to be understood.

Missed calls

Here’s another nifty little service. YouMail picks up on my missed calls. Out at a late dinner on Saturday night, I apparently wasn’t getting the best cell phone service. My pocket didn’t vibrate when a call came in, but I got a text message a minute later telling me that I had, in fact, missed a call, even though my phone mentioned nothing of the sort.

Another plus to this, and I have no idea how YouMail does it, but it told me who was calling. No, it didn’t pick this person’s information off my contact list. I have him listed under a nickname, which I will opt not to print here, but YouMail let me know I had missed a call from [his full name]. Strange, but awesome.

And when a caller is sent to your YouMail voicemail box, they are greeted by name. I thought this was only for people who I added to my contacts list, but alas, the person calling me on Saturday night was greeted by his first name as well.

And it’s free!

As we’ve shown over the past few weeks, there is a growing number of voicemail services. Most of these will cost you a bit, which might be worth it for some. For other cheap-os like us, we’ll take the free, beta service just because it won’t ding the wallet.

So, in essence, there isn’t any risk to giving YouMail a try.

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