Keeping abreast of voicemail isn’t exactly a walk in the park — especially when it’s in another language. If you’re saddled with a carrier that doesn’t offer voice-to-text transcription, dialing in and listening to each successive message can become a painfully repetitive exercise. Luckily, Japanese software company Sourcenext wants to make that arduous process a thing of the past with iGotcha, a voicemail assistant that records, transcribes, and delivers every voicemail that hits your inbox.
“Voicemail is a critical communication channel in business, but it’s limited and ill-suited for today’s globalized workforce that’s always on the go — and often outside of the reach of their mobile carrier service,” Noriyuki Matsuda, CEO and founder of Sourcenext, said in a press release. “iGotcha was born out of real pain points we have faced as an organization, and personally, working with partners around the globe. That’s exactly who iGotcha was designed for, so they can keep up with their voicemail at the speed of business, without disruption of stopping to listen to voice messages.”
It works relatively simply. Once configured, iGotcha records and transcribes incoming voicemail messages, and supports 11 different supported languages, including English, Spanish, Mandarin, French, German, Korean, Cantonese, and Japanese. It sends the resulting audio and transcription to one of several “channels” such as Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp, phone numbers, or even email addresses.
Sourcenext, a Japan-based company founded in 1996 that has published more than 100 products and shipped more than 40 million units, is positioning iGotcha as an enterprise solution for busy travelers. Audio recordings and transcriptions are available for offline perusal, it notes — a boon for travelers who frequently travel overseas. And transcriptions are more discreet than dialing your inbox to check for new messages. “[iGotcha] offers unprecedented access to voicemail on long flights, and messages at a glance during meetings,” a company spokesperson said.
Moreover, iGotcha boasts unlimited voicemail storage and “consolidates your numbers in one” — if you so choose, you can funnel all of your incoming messages into a unified inbox.
The accuracy of transcriptions remains to be seen, of course. But if iGotcha manages to take down even a semblance of messages, it’ll have achieved more than most of its competition.
The iGotcha app is available for iOS and Android starting today. Subscriptions start at $3 a month after a free trial period, and require a phone plan that supports call forwarding.
