Video Voicemail. Thoughts?

[Hobbes.]

Today I was trying to FaceTime my friend and it just kept ringing...and then it hit me.

I was not provided with an option to leave him a voicemail (regular) at all. After ten minutes of trying to connect, I had wifi and he didnt.

I ended up having to text him because he did not receive a notification of a failed FaceTime attempt.

Why is there not an option to either A) Leave a regular voicemail or B) Leave a Video Voicemail.

Also, I know I could just send him a "video voicemail" via MMS but then I might as well not have attempted the FaceTime at all.

So thoughts?

 

[Mr Kram]

i've thought of this too. the only problem would be how it would be stored. right now face time operates only on wifi. tango operates on 3G, but you are charged against your data plan. if you left a video voicemail, it would have to stored somewhere until that person picked it up. otherwise it would have to packaged somehow and delivered directly. either way, it would eat data and i don't know how at&t would look at that.

 

[Dyspareunia]

i've thought of this too. the only problem would be how it would be stored. right now face time operates only on wifi. tango operates on 3G, but you are charged against your data plan. if you left a video voicemail, it would have to stored somewhere until that person picked it up. otherwise it would have to packaged somehow and delivered directly. either way, it would eat data and i don't know how at&t would look at that.

I think at&t would just say: Video VoiceMail add-on - $19.99/month.
It'd be another extra they could cash in on. The person who decides to add this better pray they are always on wi-fi or only check their video-facemail when on wi-fi or have the unlimited data plan, or at&t is going to salivate some more when the overages start!

 

[Mr Kram]

I think at&t would just say: Video VoiceMail add-on - $19.99/month.
It'd be another extra they could cash in on. The person who decides to add this better pray they are always on wi-fi or have the unlimited data plan, or at&t is going to salivate some more when the overages start!

the $19.99 makes sense. wifi wouldn't work, because someone still has to "host" the video.

 

[Dyspareunia]

Well if the phone companies, or in our case, at&t were to model this hypothetical Face-Mail feature after the existing Visual Voicemail feature. I imagine the messages would be stored/hosted on at&t servers, and then later retrieved by your handset. What I was referring to in the Wi-Fi part of my previous post was that there might be an extra cost in data consumption by retrieving your Face-Mail over 3G, if you didn't have the Unlimited data package or weren't on Wi-Fi, since you are downloading it off the storage server.

 

[Hobbes.]

Back when I had my RAZR, I was on Alltel which is now owned by Verizon...Anyways, all my sent and recieved picture messages were stored online and could be easily retrieved/shared via their site + my login.

So it is possible for hosting by the company however since I have unlimited I wouldn't want to have to pay extra.

I just wish you could notify them that you attempted the FaceTime. I sent off an email to Job's and don't expect a reply but still I'd like at least an option of video voice mail or go straight to the person you are callings regular voice mail.

 

[scaredpoet]

I was not provided with an option to leave him a voicemail (regular) at all. After ten minutes of trying to connect, I had wifi and he didnt.

I ended up having to text him because he did not receive a notification of a failed FaceTime attempt.

There's no need to add a whole new layer of "facemail" infrastructure when you technically already have this capability through a video MMS. And, it doesn't require WiFi, and won't cost you an additional $19.99 from AT&T.

What's worse, if it becomes an add-on, then you're going to have people who have it and people who don't. Sorry, I'm not paying extra so you can be lazy and not tap a couple buttons to leave a text message (or a video MMS if video is THAT important to you).

Of course, AT&T could require the add-on, like they do data. I can just see people howling how instead of a mandatory $20-$30 a month on top of their voice plan, they're now paying $40-$50. No thanks!

Also, I know I could just send him a "video voicemail" via MMS but then I might as well not have attempted the FaceTime at all.

That's not true at all. Facetime is live, MMS isn't. Facetime is full-duplex, and MMS is half-duplex with a delay, requiring you to send something and await a response. And if it's really the same thing to you, then isn't that indicative that Facetime might just be a gimmick anyway?

I sent off an email to Job's and don't expect a reply but still I'd like at least an option of video voice mail or go straight to the person you are callings regular voice mail.

I don't see why it's so hard to tap - literally - 2 buttons on the screen to take you out of the facetime call and into the text message window.

 

[Small White Car]

It should send you to regular voicemail, yes. (Or just offer an "in-Facetime audio message" service.)

But there's no reason to make it video...the whole point of that is to interact with someone. If it's just me then audio will do just fine. I love using Facetime and even I would never leave a video voicemail for someone to watch.

 

[Hobbes.]

It should send you to regular voicemail, yes. (Or just offer an "in-Facetime audio message" service.)

But there's no reason to make it video...the whole point of that is to interact with someone. If it's just me then audio will do just fine. I love using Facetime and even I would never leave a video voicemail for someone to watch.

If it provided the user with an audio only VOICEMAIL then that would be great.

Also, to the guy above, I see what you are saying but if I really only had to push 2 buttons I would just text people and not call/facetime in the first place.