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What are some "no brainer" inventions or features that just haven't made it to the consumer yet? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago by TehBamski@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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[-] shrugal@lemm.ee 57 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

A better voicemail.

I just re-watched the introduction of the first iPhone, and one thing that stood out to me was this "visual voicemail" thing they showed. To this day I still just get an SMS if someone leaves a message, and then have to call my voicemail and listen to recordings one by one. That's still the norm for standard phone contracts here afaik, it's ridiculous!

[-] faltryka@kbin.social 28 points 11 months ago

I didn’t know that was even still a thing. For years now on my iPhone I’ve just looked at the text transcriptions of my voicemail in my phone app.

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

This has been a standard android feature on the phones I've owned for the last... I wanna say 10 years.

[-] TheGreenGolem@lemm.ee 3 points 11 months ago

I'm sure it could be comfortable in an English speaking country.

[-] gregorum@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Now my iPhone, actually transcribes my voicemail live and gives me the opportunity to pick up during them leaving the voicemail. Like old-school answering machines used to do.

[-] DarkGamer@kbin.social 11 points 11 months ago

That's odd, Android transcribes my messages by default

[-] shrugal@lemm.ee 19 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Seems to heavily depend on your provider. Some work with the standard phone apps, some have their own apps, but most don't seem to offer it at all here in Germany. One even sends you an audio MMS instead and just calls that "Visual Mailbox". It's crazy to me that such a basic and useful feature still isn't just a standard thing on all phones.

[-] TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

My husband and I have the same provider but different brands of phone. I have visual voicemail, he doesn't and my phone is the older one. It seems like Samsung and Apple are the only ones to even offer the app so far.

[-] sbv@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

It depends on your service provider. In Canada they charge for it. Last time I checked it was around $7/month.

[-] echodot@feddit.uk 2 points 11 months ago

How do you make it do that mine's not doing that. And I'm on the latest version of Android.

[-] DarkGamer@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

Using the Google phone app, one of the tabs is voicemail and it automatically converts it to text.

[-] aredditimmigrant@endlesstalk.org 1 points 11 months ago

Mine also allows you to see each voicemail in your acct inbox and play/delete/call back each one like a song on a media player.

There's still the cell providers limit on how many voicemails are allowed though. Better to use Google voice and have unlimited voice mail

[-] PsychedSy@sh.itjust.works 7 points 11 months ago

I've had my google voice account handle voicemails for like 15 years and it did that for me. Well, now I don't have to, but it's been great.

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago

I generally love T-Mobile, but it's obnoxious that they charge an extra monthly fee if you want visual voicemail.

[-] variants@possumpat.io 2 points 11 months ago

Wait what, when did that happen

[-] ChonkyOwlbear@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

I've had them for years and it's always been that way

[-] TheDoctorDonna@lemmy.world 5 points 11 months ago

I have a Samsung S20 and it has visual voicemail, haven't dialed my voicemail in years. I assumed most phones from the past couple years had it, but my husband's Google pixel doesn't,.

I agree, this needs to be a standard.

[-] dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 11 months ago

Huh on iPhone in the UK. I get a transcript of any left messages.

this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2023

193 points (96.2% liked)

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