From Voice To Text

Furiously scrawling notes while listening to a long, detailed voicemail can be frustrating. However, the days of transcribing may soon be over.

A handful of companies have started to offer innovative software that transforms voicemail messages into e-mails or text messages. These companies, including Simulscribe, SpinVox and Callwave, are answering the call of busy cell phone users across the nation.

These new voice-to-text services demonstrate the increasing popularity of voice-recognition technology. Although cell phone users can also surf the Web, send text messages and listen to music, voice communication remains the primary purpose of cell phones.

Even Microsoft demonstrated its interest recently when it announced that it will buy the privately held speech-recognition developer Tellme Networks for an estimated $800 million. 

Transforming voice to text
Many expect the new voice-to-text services to solve the problems of cell phone users tired of transcribing countless voicemail messages. By simply pressing a button, the voicemail message appears in the user’s e-mail inbox or text message box within a few minutes. With most of these services, text or e-mail messages include every word spoken from the original voicemail. 

SimulScribe also offers a service that allows users to save voicemail messages as .wav files in their e-mail inbox. This lets users listen to a voicemail as many times as they like without having it take up space in their cell phone voicemail.

In addition, SpinVox recently announced that one telecom provider will soon offer its Voice-to-Screen service. This option transcribes voicemail messages and delivers it through SMS (short message service) text messages and e-mail. CallWave, another voice recognition company, introduced its voice-to-text services. However, while SpinVox and SimulScribe offer word-for-word transcriptions, CallWave’s service is not literal, and uses more of a general message.

The cost
While these new voice-to-text services seem like valuable cell phone additions, some analysts admonish the functionality of the software. Critics point out that transcribed messages may lack accuracy and come with a hefty price tag. 

Some consumers may not want to foot the bill on top of their existing cell phone services. For example, SimulScribe costs $9.95 a month, which includes only the first 40 messages. After that, the company charges an additional 25 cents per message.

Despite the costs, however, the convenience of the upcoming service has the potential to make communicating even easier.

Click here for a printable version of this page.

LEGAL NOTICES | CONTACT US