Last week I announced that I would be testing out the new STT service provided by custom, online community-driven voicemail services provider YouMail. I was a guinea pig for one week, and had some interesting experiences with the program. After a frustrating set-up process and initial confusion, I have formulated my opinion about YouMail’s transcriptions (which are performed by YapMe.com). For the full run-down of my experience, click “More.”

Day 1 [Set up] : I logged in to YouMail’s main site, and set up my free account. Well, I tried to. YouMail is supposed to send you a text message with a four-digit pin number that will activate your account. I waited a minute, then five, then ten, and still hadn’t received my text — I had full coverage in the office, so I don’t know why it took so long. I re-registered twice, and finally got a text. Ten minutes later, I received what must have been the original text. Ugh!

Day 2 [Actually using it]: So, one of the biggest draws for me was the fact that YouMail lets you record personalized voicemails for each person who calls you, by following a few prompts. I tried this, multiple times, but never got it to work. I had friends call me back, asking if they received their personalized message, and the result was nil. I then logged on to the site to try out some pre-recorded voicemails made by other YouMail users. OK, so most of the messages were pretty weird (”Dog the Bounty Hunter greeting,” “No one wants to buy your sh*t [solicitors greeting],” and my fave, “Clairissa - chillin with my girls here”), and totally not usable. Maybe some would have been cool when I was 15 (”Eric Cartman - face melter”), but I’m 23, and I don’t want my friends associating Lauren with “chillin.” So my voicemail is back to default — “Hi, it’s Lauren. Leave a message.” 

Day 3 [STT]: Now comes the fun part. YouMail released its beta STT service last Tuesday. The first few messages I got were so-so quality transcriptions, but most of them made no sense. An example below — the first transcription is the original voicemail. The second is what YouMail sent me.

Hey Lauren, it’s Sarah calling, I just wanted to, um, touch base, I got your text and  I am going to be at a shooting scout all day, and thought maybe I might catch you. Certainly give me a call if you can, I don’t know if I’ll be able to talk, but um, call, and if I can pick up I will. OK?

ignoring sarah call and I wonder if you oh save it in caps hair and the I yeah um uhhuh healthcare and all these sisters have maybe i’m entice you um is there anything at all yeah I don’t know obvious on the top right uh you know call and if I can pick up I well ok 4 1 second see too so away

You be the judge. My verdict– no way, Jose. I’m giving YouMail the boot. I respect their goals, but I must say it’s not worth the effort they expect from users (read the article in that link for the full details on the STT voicemail project).

[Photo: DoublePlusFail.com]