Do you find voicemail to be helpful or a nuisance? Depending on your age, your answer may vary. The younger generation’s obsession with smart phones relies heavily on text-based communications, almost completely moving away from voice communication. So with that in mind, should voice-to-text or voicemail transcription become a key component to unified communications systems?

Voice-to-text or voicemail transcription allows voicemail messages to be converted into either text messages or emails. The benefit of this would be allowing a better timeline for messages in one place. No need to take the time to call your voicemail inbox to listen to messages. The downfall would be availability and accuracy of transcription. What you say and what people hear or read can vary drastically. For example, how accurate is the voice command on your smart phone? Have you ever misinterpreted a text because you read something wrong, or a key word was missing?

Despite the shift away from it, voice messages and live phone calls still hold substantial value. There will always be room for miscommunications, whether face to face or in text form, but when you’re speaking with a person over the phone or listening to a voice message, you get a more personal exchange. You can interpret the inflections and tone of voice for a better understanding of the message, whatever it is.

But in terms of convenience, for most people these days, email and text messages seemingly win. With smart phones allowing us to easily access our email accounts, and text messages serving as a more immediate communication route, phone calls and voice messages may become a thing of the past. These days, people don’t bother setting up their voicemail or fail to leave voice messages, instead sending a quick text to follow up the call. Smart phones even offer a text option if you reject a call. Voicemail transcription seems like the only way to keep voicemail alive in this text-based society.

And in the sense of true unified communications, voicemail transcription would take us a  step closer to that. But are we willing to trade convenience for quality communication? Would you prefer voicemail transcriptions or do you still rely on voice messages? Share your thoughts with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+.

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Tags: voicemail to text transcription, voicemail transcription