Since visual voicemail first became an option on our phones in early 2007 it has evolved to increase productivity for a multitude of users around the world. Being able to read your texts and respond without listening to voicemail has become second nature to individuals and business owners looking to prioritize their time. Although most carriers offer visual voicemail now, many of them lack the features that users need to properly manage their messages. There are several 3rd party mobile apps that offer both paid and free options to upgrade your voicemail service causing users to drop their carrier voicemail for something better.
Mobile apps like Hullomail have recently changed their free voicemail services to offer a Lite and Pro package with new features for their premium users. Services like call blocker, voicemail to text, custom greetings and voicemail to email have taken visual voicemail to the next level.
Free service providers are learning that it takes a strong company to service the market. We’re seeing that these are the free services that people want most: free robocall blocker, free second number, free visual voicemail, and free voice to text transcriptions.
So, what are the top free visual voicemail alternatives now?
Don’t worry, we’re here to help. We’ve compiled a list of the best free visual voicemail apps for you (if you’re in the US or Canada). We researched their descriptions, websites, app store reviews, and even installed them ourselves to provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision. Take a look to find your 3rd party app replacement for HulloMail or PhoneFusion:
| YouMail | Voxist | InstaVoice | |
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| Cost | Free | Free | Free |
| Available on Android |  |
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| Available on iPhone | |
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| Uses Your Own/Current Phone # | |
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| Automatic Voice to Text Transcriptions | |
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| Personalized Greetings | |
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| Community Greetings | |
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| Conference Calling | |
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| Robocall Blocking | |
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| “# Out of Service” Message to Stop Robocalls For Good | |
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| Web-Browser Access | |
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With YouMail, you can manage your voicemail from your phone or your computer. You can also read your voicemails with the automatic transcriptions and organize them into folders, as well as download, forward, and share them. YouMail’s personalized greetings are a fan favorite: you can choose different greetings for your girlfriend, neighbor, boss, clients, etc., or the Smart Greeting feature can greet each caller by name. Last but not least, YouMail’s free robocall blocker lets you block spam calls from ringing your phone and leaving a message and the “Number Out of Service” greeting stops them from calling back. YouMail offers paid plans which include a second number, more transcriptions, larger storage, an auto-attendant Live Connect, and more. YouMail has 4.3 stars in the Play Store with nearly 80,000 reviews and 4.6 stars in the App Store with 42,200 ratings.
This app markets themselves as “your virtual personal assistant” and offers essentially only 2 features: voicemail to text transcriptions and personalized greetings. The app is fairly easy to navigate and straightforward and they are slowly improving. With paid plans at $4.99 a month and $9.99 a month for more transcriptions and greetings, their products are geared toward consumers who manage a large volume of calls. Voxist has 4.0 stars in the Play Store with a mere 468 reviews and 4.7 stars in the App Store with only 10 ratings.
While they do offer a visual voicemail, InstaVoice’s free features are limited. Features include “free SMS” which actually costs you money once you use up the free credits InstaVoice provides you with. The same goes for their transcriptions; the transcriptions don’t happen automatically and you have to have purchased credits to use this feature. Their “withdraw sent texts and voicemails” feature is intriguing, but after investigation, it only work if you text and leave voicemails through the app. If you’re willing to pay, however, this app is handy for chatting and reaching friends. InstaVoice has 3.3 stars in the Play Store with nearly 5,000 reviews and 3.9 stars in the App Store with only 29 ratings.
The good news is, there are plenty of great free options still available for visual voicemail on iOS and Android.
How to Get Free Visual Voicemail
How to Get a Free Phone Number
You Might Also Like:
- Empowering Communication: The Essential Guide to Professional Voicemail Setup
- How to Transform Your Smartphone into a Powerful Call Management Tool
- Live Voicemail not working? Try The Voicemail App That Does It All: Virtual, Forwarding, Text, and Email
- Visual Voicemail vs Live Voicemail – Verdicts Out: See What People are Saying
Is there a visual voicemail app that will work when the TruConnect carrier does not support it?
We’re not aware of any solutions. We try to support every carrier, but some carriers just don’t allow us.
Was Youmail updated to remove voice to text transcription from the free version since this post was made? As far as I can tell no transcriptions are available for free through Youmail.
There are quite a few transcriptions included in our free versions full – usually enough to cover most personal use. Business level of transcriptions will need to pay.