The Youmail service Youmail link for those who do not know what it is, is a voicemail alternative for your cell phone or possibly your home phone. They provide rich features like customizable voice greetings for each of your contacts. It is a really cool service. They recently added an app to the iPhone app store. Soon as I received their email announcing it’s release I jumped on and downloaded it. Well…….. It works. But it’s lackluster on purpose. This is because its features and services are too similar to AT&T visual voicemail. Therefore when you get a voicemail no photo of the person will show. In addition to this when you play a voicemail it’s forced to play in speaker phone. What developer would do such a thing, haven’t they heard of privacy before. You can solve this by grabing some headphones but if you don’t have a pair with you expect your messages to be played aloud.
This is a major concern, if Youmail is to be taken seriously they need to address these matters soon. Also Apple needs to release the stranglehold on developers to create rich content for everyone to enjoy.
Hi…
The Apple SDK currently doesn’t allow developers to check and see what audio path people are using or change the apps behavior based on that. So we’re stuck with the behavior you see now – though it will change as soon as the SDK is updated.
On the app itself, it’s worth pointing out some really key features:
a) you can forward voicemails (or even post them) right from the phone, and to anyone
b) you can read your voicemail in the app (if you subscribe to the premium transcription services)
c) you can change status greetings on the fly (in a meeting, now on a call, now in the car, etc…)
Plus you get access to your voicemail on your computer, and a host of features when you’re away from the phone.
We agree that doing more with pictures would help, and I’m sure you’ll see improvements coming.
Alex
CEO, YouMail
Thank you alex for reading the concerns facing Youmail users. For a voicemail service privacy should be a number one concern for it’s users. Although headphones will temporarily alleviate this dilema it should be of utmost importance in priority. Other than that it works as promised , I have been using Youmail for years now. I am happy to even see an iPhone app for it. Everything else will be a small fix after speaker phone issues can be resolved.
Hey guys, this was annoying me too. I love Youmail but on my new 3gs it was horrible only being able to listen to messages on speaker phone.
What I ended up doing was downloading a free app (they take donations) called Speed Dial (http://appshopper.com/utilities/speed-dial-1) and made the Youmail number the one it dials when clicked [(714) 204-3114]. (I had to make Youmail a contact first.)
It simply calls it and I hear it through my bluetooth!
Hope that helps some of you as we wait for Youmail to update.
-je
That’s the number for checking your voice messages regularly. I suppose this would defeat the purpose of the youmail app if you just dial your youmail number to check the voice mail. But if you needed to hear it in private yes dialing this number would be the solution. Perhaps maybe they can include some type of link in the program to the youmail voicemail number to quickly dial in to hear your messages from the phone.
Hi Alex,
Thanks for commenting earlier. You indicated “The Apple SDK currently doesn’t allow developers to check and see what audio path people are using or change the apps behavior based on that.”…
Now this seems to imply that at least you could allow a user to change audio paths manually. Is this the case? I’m currently very frustrated that I can not choose bluetooth as my audio source to listen to youmail voicemails in the youmail iPhone app. I can understand that it might not be the default, but why is bluetooth not even an option?
I sure hope this can be remedied soon.
Thanks,
-Bob