Review: SimulScribe

Dec. 24, 2007 — -- For those whose voice mail threshold is at full capacity, there's a new crop of digital transcription services that will e-mail a rough transcript and an audio file of a voice mail message, within minutes of a caller hanging up.

One service, SimulScribe, will give users a free month to test the service, and then offer multiple plans for as low as $10 for 40 messages a month.

For me, SimulScribe has been a little bit of heaven on Earth. The process of listening to voice messages is slow, burdensome and sometimes impossible. If you are in a noisy environment, like a football game, you may not be able to listen to your messages, but SimulScribe makes it possible to read a transcript of your voice mail, and decide if the call is something you need to deal with immediately.

Many outgoing messages have become downright hostile. People impose time limits, they remind you to speak slowly, clearly, and to leave your number, and some people have begun instructing callers to "send me an e-mail if you need an immediate response, as I don't check my voice mail frequently."

SimulScribe takes inefficient voice mails and automatically converts them into legible notes that put the power back in the message receiver's hands. The accuracy of the transcripts is suprisingly good, and the time saved, not having to jot down important information, is a real treat.