Of all of the things that frustrate me with cell phones, voicemail has to be the worst.

Let’s look at how my current voicemail works:

1. I call my voicemail. (I’ve turned off the password prompt)
2. I get a message stating whether I have new messages, how many there are, and if there aren’t any how many saved messages there are.

Now, things can go two ways here. If I have new messages:

1. The monotone voice proceeds to the first message.
2. I am given information about the time, the phone number of the caller and the message itself.
3. I am given options to save or delete the message.
4. The voice proceeds until the new messages are finished.

If there are old messages after the new ones or no new messages the following occurs:

1. The monotone voice starts at the beginning of the “saved” (we’ll get to why that’s in quotes in a bit) messages
2. I received the same information about the message and the message itself.
3. I am given options to save or delete the message.
4. The voice proceeds to the next message.
3. I am then told there are no new messages and the personal options menu is read.

Three or four years ago this system was fine. The number of people with cell phones was lower and the amount of calls people received on their cell phones was definitely less. Now, cell phones are some people’s main form of communication and the phone companies need to do something.

1. Give me a text message like structure.

   I should not have to listen to a voice telling me what a message’s associated number is and when it was received. I should be able to see the phone number and the date/time when the message was received. I should then be able to choose whether or not I listen to the message. This point blends with the next one…

2. Messages should be saved on my phone.

   There are some technology and space issues to work out with this one but I think it’s a necessity. Right now messages are saved on my provider’s network, yet, somehow, even though my messages are saved, they disappear after a certain amount of time. That’s not right and is unexpected behavior. If I save a message, I saved it for a reason and it should have a permanent space on my phone until I decide I do not need it anymore.

   If messages are saved on my phone, it would facilitate the first point and allow easier browsing of messages and would take out the hassle of having to listen to every message, or in my case, counting the number of times I hit the save button so that I can get to the message I want to hear.

I really do not think I am the only person with this as a pet peeve. If the phone companies can put music players in their phones, I am pretty sure they can give me enough memory to hold a few voicemails.