Out of the Blue [Mar 29, 2023, 11:59 am ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
I got my first voicemail on my new Galaxy phone yesterday. Thankfully it was a
butt-dial from my brother, because it took me a while to listen to it. When I
tried, I was told the visual voicemail app requires precise location
permissions. I never saw this before, so I guess it was enabled on my old phone?
I don't get myself too worked up about every corporation in the world wanting to
know what uninteresting things I'm up to, but this seems particularly egregious.
I haven't seen an explanation of why Verizon or Google would need my location to
play back my own voicemails for me (I doubt there's an acceptable one). But I
haven't seen a workaround either. I was able to access the voicemail by dialing
in (after resetting a password I hadn't used in ages). But that was a nightmare.
I had listen to about a minute of robot voice prompts telling me about my
message, and then I had to listen to all three minutes of rustling and
background noise before I could delete it since I didn't remember the shortcut.
I'll try and hold out trading privacy for convenience in this case, which I may
be able to do since I don't get a lot of voice messages. But I also wonder why I
bother. I'm sure they've got the full book on me already.
Voicemail Round-up
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Follow-up
My current Android phone, a Google Pixel 6 (that rarely has the location service turned on), has a voicemail feature that I love. It converts voicemails to text automatically (as long as it can understand them) - plus, both a delete button and call-back button is right next to the text so it's about as convenient as it gets. Both my parents are 83 and neither have the eyesight or dexterity to create a text that would take them less than 30 minutes to compose, so this voicemail to text feature is beyond perfect.
I know this info doesn't help you, Blue, but looking at the Google Play store, I see that there are voicemail-to-text apps, so maybe you can use something other than what Verizon loaded on the phone.
My last phone was a Galaxy / Verizon combo and I remember switching the texting app from the default Verizon version to a much more basic Samsung version. I can't remember why I switched, but I do remember that it was worth the trouble.
I know this info doesn't help you, Blue, but looking at the Google Play store, I see that there are voicemail-to-text apps, so maybe you can use something other than what Verizon loaded on the phone.
My last phone was a Galaxy / Verizon combo and I remember switching the texting app from the default Verizon version to a much more basic Samsung version. I can't remember why I switched, but I do remember that it was worth the trouble.
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