Show HN: Record voicemail messages of your late loved ones

sjs382 · on Feb 23, 2015

I don't understand how this works.

I get this part: I enter my number. Your website calls my phone. I let it go to voicemail.

But how does it get the message off my voicemail? Presumably, it only records my "Hi, you've reached.. Please leave a message." voicemail message, rather than the ones stored in my voicemail box.

What am I missing?

zrail · on Feb 23, 2015

You're not missing anything. It's just recording the outgoing message. It can't get the messages left in the voicemail box.

sjs382 · on Feb 24, 2015

I thought the value proposition was the ability to save voicemails that others have left for me?

What's the benefit of saving my own voicemail "Please leave a message" message?

Or am I supposed to use it to call someone else's voicemail, to capture their "please leave a message" recording?

zrail · on Feb 24, 2015

The latter. I suppose if you haven't had someone close to you pass away this is hard to understand, but often the last scrap of someone's voice is their outgoing "please leave a message" recording.

sjs382 · on Feb 25, 2015

Gotcha. I understand--I have a .mp3 of a voicemail saved for that same reason.

A bit of feedback re: why this was unclear:

> Eventually, you need to record over that message

This led me to believe that you were talking about my voicemail. I can't record over someone else's.

> Make sure no one will answer the phone, other than your voicemail or answering machine.

"Your voicemail or answering machine" seemed to confirm that it was supposed to call my number, but now I know I was wrong.

zrail · on Feb 25, 2015

You're absolutely right. I'll clean up the language.

toomuchtodo · on Feb 23, 2015

Although it could if it sent what touch tones were necessary to advance through messages (since you can spoof caller ID for inbound voicemail auth).

zrail · on Feb 23, 2015

Sure, I suppose that's possible. Bit more complicated, though, since the steps from "new visitor" to "satisfied caller" are a tiny bit complicated, and there's a vast array of voicemail systems out there and there's only a loosely-followed convention as to what buttons mean what.

In any case, this went from idea to shipped in 22 hours, including sleeping. Maybe version 2 :)