Modified On May 29, 2012
The Male Half was recently in a situation where he had access to the internet but he was unable to use his phone. This happens from time to time. Most phone plans here in America charge a lot of money to make and receive phone calls outside the U.S. And being on a cruise ship in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico usually means exorbitant prices for “roaming.” But internet access is almost always available.
Fortunately, a “visual voicemail” app called Youmail is available for free and it’s easy to set up.
Hit the link above, follow the directions and, minutes later, you’ll be hooked up to Youmail. Near as we can tell, it works this way: In setting up the service, you hook up your phone provider with Youmail and give Youmail permission to receive your voicemails. Then, every time someone leaves a voicemail, you receive an email (and a notice on your phone, if you’re not in “airplane mode”) that contains the name and number of the caller, the time of the call and the length of the message left. There will also be a link that you can click to listen to a recording of the call.
It’s also easy to decommission. And they have pretty good customer service in case you need to get some kinks ironed out. (The Male Half received a voice message some time between hooking up the service and the service going “live.” So there was a message “trapped” in a sort of electronic limbo for a few hours, which necessitated the disabling of Youmail for a brief period in order to rescue the trapped vm. Shortly after retrieval, though, the service was easily restored by simply dialing an activation code on the Droid smart phone.)
It’s a good way to keep in touch with friends and associates when in Canada, Mexico or elsewhere. And also a good way to screen voicemails.