Callwave, one of the original Internet voicemail systems, will be offering the official version of its vTXT voice-to-text service on Monday, ending the beta testing phase[it's still beta]. The service is two-fold, offering SMS summaries of voicemail messages as well as a full email message. There are no “live operators” involved, thus ensuring privacy. I gave it a whirl this morning and the service performed, ummm… acceptably?

[SNIP] and I don’t know how to do we can you I bites me how to do it [SNIP]

There were a few things like this to iron out but I got the gist of the message and was then able to listen to the entire thing through my web browser. The SMS option shortens the message considerably, ensuring you don’t rack up messaging bills and the email has a regular “play” button and the dictated message tacked onto the end.

Clearly, this space is opening up and I think Callwave’s competitors should take note and current competitors in this space, Jott included will probably step up development of voice recognition quality as a result. A rising tide…