Communication just got more human

An inexpensive ‘speak and listen’ messaging process, Voice SMS gives an emotional dimension to personal messages while businesses could use it to broadcast brief company information on mobiles

Imagine you are driving or rushing down the street to a business appointment, and you receive a text message that requires an urgent response. Unless you are adept at navigating traffic and simultaneously typing out a response, replying to the SMS could be a frustrating experience. And this is where Voice SMS steps in. A new short-messaging service that uses voice instead of text or pictures, it works on any GSM handset and any network. As there’s no infrastructure upgrade or back-end provisioning for operators to worry about, or handset configuration for consumers, an operator’s entire subscriber base has access to the service.

Voice SMS is an inexpensive and non-intrusive ‘speak and listen’ messaging process. It is an alternative to the time-consuming ‘type and read’ process of text SMS. Voice SMS lets you deposit a voice message by dialling the called number with a special prefix. It works across all devices. The benefits of Voice SMS include messaging across networks across countries enabled by the global ecosystem. For Indians, who live in countries like the UK, US and the Middle East, it presents an opportunity for international Voice SMS messaging. It will appeal to people who are more likely to use messaging services than conduct real time conversations. It also gives an emotional dimension to personal messages while businesses could use it to broadcast brief company information on mobiles. In many areas, low literacy level and lack of comfort with text messaging reduces its use. This is where voice messaging fills the gaps.

Source: iSource updates