Earlier this year we wrote about Slydial, a free service that lets you dial any mobile phone number and get directed straight to voicemail. It may sound counterintuitive, but it can be a godsend for avoiding awkward phone conversations – I’ve had it saved in my phone’s ‘Favorites’ menu since the service launched (though I’ve never used it, honest).
Unfortunately the system is a little cumbersome: to place a call, you have to first dial Slydial’s number (267-SLYDIAL), then manually enter the number you’d like to call. Today the service is streamlining the process by releasing free applications for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile platforms. Now instead of having to manually enter a number, you can simply launch the application and select a contact from your address book. From there you’ll be directed straight to their voicemail (they may see a missed call depending on the carrier, but they won’t have a chance to pick up). You can download each application here.
Slydial says that since its July launch it has seen over one million calls placed, and expects to see that number rise dramatically with the new applications. I won’t be surprised if it becomes one of the more popular apps on each of these platforms, but I pray that it is used sparingly – Slydial may be nice for avoiding awkward conversations, but if people start using this in place of Email or text messages it will become incredibly annoying. Remember: always think before you voicemail.
Sprint has had this for years and its quite nice in certain situations. Agreed if it becomes yet another form of messaging its going to be a pain because I think a lot of people HATE checking voicemail. In fact I cant think of a situation that really merits its necessary or exclusive use unless you are trying to be sly in some way.
I dont see it in the apple store…anyone else?
You should be able to:
- sync or upload your contacts to a web app
- record the message from your computer to preview & edit
- push the message to a contact from the web
That’s a service I’d actually use.
My service does that. Although I’d like to incorporate the direct-to-voicemail feature too (currently it will ring the phone and leave a voicemail if no answer).
If anyone knows how slydial can do this please let me know.
Look at your vmail number. If you dial it directly from a phone other than your own mobile, you will be asked to input the number you are calling, and then th ePIN for vmailacccess. Just opt ot leave a message.
Looks they have assembled a list of all vmail numbers.
seen http://www.pinger.com?
If you go to their site, it says it is pending approval for the App store. So, it is NOT available for the iPhone as of now – please correct the article.
@HomePro, Sprint has had it only for other users on Sprint network. Doesn’t work cross-carrier.
It’s a nifty app that will come in handy for us all on occasion, but let’s look at the economics:
They need to terminate a call, and then either dial out via VOIP (presumably) or pehaps somehow avoid telco outbound entirely and use bandwidth to “send” voice mail to cooperating systems. I doubt it’s the latter as calls show-up as missed calls. But it’s unavoidable that there are marginal costs for inbound and outbound.
Rev model? Audio advertising in the call could work well, and is probably the only option as the number of folks willing to pay for this service is likely small. Or, most likely, this is a proof of concept and they want to show people will use it, and then sell tech to carriers who will bill on usage as they do SMS. Idea being if people will pay for asynchronous text communications they would presumably pay for a similar voice based service?
@Home Pro — I have a friend who is a surgeon. I’d like to contact him and let him know I can’t do lunch today, but (happily!) I don’t know if he’s in a consultation with a patient right now (I assume he leaves his cellphone somewhere else when he’s in surgery) or is otherwise busy.
Yeah, I could send him a text message, but I don’t know if he’s hip to SMS… but everyone seems to understand voicemail. So there’s your use case.
LISTEN UP JAJAH…
“you can simply launch the application and select a contact from your address book. From there you’ll be….”
I have tried to tell Jajah reps for years this is they should initiate calling. Simply launch Jajah app, choose contact, and wait for an incoming call.
Who wouldn’t do this to save big money on overseas calling?
When is SlyDial going to unveil their technology for use on landlines?
@Walter -
There is no technology for SlyDial. They are making two concurrent calls on your behalf with a .5 sec gap in between. Call #1 dials – hangup in .5 sec and then Call #2 goes to the mobile VM. How do you do that on a landline connected to an answering machine unless they are on a corporate VM or Carrier’s VM?
Stop the dumb @ss question.
After reading techcrunch on my Blackberry, I signed up. Like many applications for bberry, getting signed up and downloaded was not easy (their should be a simpler sign up process). Once downloaded I clicked on the “Go to Address Book” button. Unfortunately now I get an error that reads “Uncaught exception: ApplicationArguments object type does not match specified application type.” Hopefully other bberry prospects have had better luck.
I downloaded for my BlackBerry today and it ran smoothly without any glitches. It sent an SMS to my phone with the link and I downloaded it right then. I would try adjusting the Permissions on your app? That might make it work.