I have been using voice mail transcription from Simulscribe/PhoneTag for over two years and couldn’t image life without it. The premise is simple: Instead of listening to lengthy voice messages, having to jot down phone numbers etc., I quickly scan through a SMS or email and get the information I need, or simply hit delete on things I don’t.  PhoneTag’s transcription works very well, but can cost up to $30/month if you get a lot of voice mails.

The lure of  “free” made me check out Google Voice and its built-in transcription.

For comparison, I used a recent PA message from my daughter’s school that seems pretty typical in terms of voice quality.

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Here are both transcriptions.

Google

Good afternoon, this is Doctor, Diane thing was just giving you an update on the Russell Street School Construction Project. Yes, I will be. You know further with water service interruption to the Russell Street School regular water service is going. All construction on the installation of fight. I’m calling to with has been put on hold and stop until we can hook up of certified water tanker to the existing water pipes for the school hydrant protection is currently available and the Board of Health, the fire department and the L. A. T. N, O, W D had approved this plan. Once again, there was about an hour and a half of interrupted water service today at the Russell Street School. We will be home for the interruption of service give his plan put in place today to provide continue water throughout the construction price your project. I apologize for any inconvenience and I thank you for your patience. Thank you. Goodbye.

PhoneTag

Good afternoon. This is (Dr. Diane Dimos?) giving you an update on the (Russel?) Streets School Construction Project. There will be no further water service interruption to the (Russel?) Streets School that (??) water service is on. All construction on the installation of pipes in condos has been put on hold and stop until we can hook up a certified water tanker to the existing water pipes for the school. Hydrant protection is currently available and the Board of Health, the Fire Departments and the LELWD have approved this plan. Once again, there was about an hour and a half of interrupting water service today at the (Russel?) Streets School. There will be no further interruption of service due to the plan put in place today to provide continued water throughout the construction project.

While neither one is perfect, the Google transcript reads like the stuff you get from their translation service. You get the gist of it, but it’s so horribly mangled in some places that the context gets lost. There is definitely much room for improvement and I’ll happily pay for PhoneTag to get the better transcription. Unfortunately, as with many things these days Google will improve their service over time and most likely displace the smaller vendor.

Update: Here’s a gallery of funny voice mail transcriptions.