Maybe it’s the cool-factor, maybe it’s the novelty, maybe it’s the crazy little “SpinVox Mobsters” pictured above or maybe it’s the sheer convenience; whatever the case may be, SpinVox is growing by leaps and bounds. Just last month the company announced the completion of a new funding round in excess of $100 million, bringing SpinVox’s current valuation to over $500 million. What’s all the fuss about? Until you take a few minutes to sample the SpinVox service for yourself, you simply just won’t get it. The backbone of SpinVox’s portfolio is speech-to-text but hey, that’s nothing new. The efficiency, accuracy and implementation are among factors that separate SpinVox from the pack. Ok ok, so what do they do?
SpinVox provides a variety of voice to text services allowing you to place a phone call (from any phone), speak and have your spoken words converted into text. And then? The SpinVox portfolio currently consists of five main offerings, four of which are offered completely free of charge. A quick run-through:
- SpinVox’s Memo service gives you a dedicated number to call and record notes to yourself that will automatically be converted to text and delivered to your email address.
- SpinVox Blast lets you create a list of SMS contacts on the SpinVox site. Dial a dedicated number, speak your message and the converted text is automatically broadcast as an SMS to all active contacts on your list at once.
- The Social Networks service provides dedicated numbers to call and speak your status updates, which will then be published to your profile. The service currently supports Facebook, Twitter and Jaiku.
- The SpinVox blog service lets you publish posts on your personal blog using your voice.
- SpinVox Voicemail – the bread and butter…
SpinVox Voicemail is our favorite offering by far and it brings new meaning to “visual voicemail”. Yes there is a fee associated with it, but it’s a small price to pay for the convenience. The service essentially replaces your existing carrier voicemail system and automatically converts each voicemail left for you into text. The message is then delivered to you via SMS and / or email according to your account settings. That’s right, you never have to check your voicemail again. What’s more; if you choose SMS delivery, the incoming converted message is delivered with the calling party as the sender. Want to reply by SMS? Just hit the reply button.
No, you don’t have to talk like a robot when using any of the services mentioned above and neither do callers leaving you a voicemail. SpinVox conversions are surprisingly accurate in fact, especially compared to a few competitive offerings. As far as voicemail goes, it’s availability varies according to region. Here in the US you can get it through your carrier if you’re on Alltel or Cincinnati Bell, or through SpinVox partners uReach and Line1. Feel like testing it right now for free? Dial (888) 592-7162 from your mobile phone and start talking. Within about a minute you’ll have a new SMS with a text conversion of your spoken message. So how did it do?
