• WHAT: An easy way to leave a voicemail on someone's cell phone without actually calling
• WHY: Sometimes want to just leave a message for, and not talk to, someone
• COST: Totally free (carrier text messaging rates apply)
  

I enjoy talking to my friends, my fiancee, my Mom and my business associates - most of the time.  There are times, however, that I just want to get a message to someone and not necessarily speak with them.  Oh sure, there's email and text messaging, but that requires some level of typing and can't get across the emotion, urgency, affection or nuance that your voice can deliver.  Voice is still the killer app for phones but it can be downright off-putting - or even intimidating at times - to connect with someone live instead of just leaving a message for them on their voicemail.

You might be as guilty as I am, in fact, of doing what was unthinkable just a few years ago - calling someone's number when you know darn well that they're either busy, sleeping, away from the phone or otherwise unable to answer the call - just so you can leave a message instead.  And, more innocently, there's the matter of safety and convenience when sending messages.  I'm constantly amazed (and mildly terrified) when I see people behind the wheel or a two-ton vehicle in bumper-to-bumper traffic (or worse, at 70 MPH) tapping out a text message or email on their Blackberry/iPhone/Treo.  So if you're like me you're probably thinking that there's a middle ground here that combines the brevity of text and it's inherent "no answer needed" mode with the speed, convenience, safety and flexibility of voice.  And now there is.  I've been testing it for a few weeks and am hooked - and so are the people I've messaged with it. 

Imagine a simple system that allows you to call a phone number and tell the system who you want to send your message to; you've already uploaded your contact list and the system is remarkably accurate in matching the names in that list with the ones you speak.  Then, after you've designated one or more people to send a message to, you're presented with a tone that's the worldwide indicator for "leave your message now."  So you speak your message and within moments of hanging up the intended recipient gets a text message telling them that you've sent them a voice message.  They simply click the phone number in the text message and they're listening to you.  They can then reply to your message by voice, reversing the process (i.e., delivering a text to your phone telling you that there's a message from them), delete the message, forward it, etc., just like any other voicemail.  

That system exists today and it's called "Pinger."   I'll confess that when I first heard about it several months I kind of shrugged my shoulders thinking "big deal," but I decided to follow it for a while and see what happened.  And, in fact, the system has become more robust - now offering a full replacement to your cell phone's voicemail system in addition to becoming a talk-store-notify-retrieve messaging system - and more appealing.  Now, while driving or doing something that prevents me from safely sending a text, or wanting to avoid sending one that would just take too long to enter, I find myself reaching for the Pinger selection in my "favorites" (the iPhone's version of speed dial numbers) and just talking. 

At first I felt a little silly doing it but after a while I noticed that it became intoxicating - I started thinking of other things that I could do with Pinger and have had some ideas (such as a post-dated message option so that you can record, for example, yourself singing "Happy birthday" to your Mom whenever it's convenient and then designating that it be delivered on her birthday at a predetermined time) that I'd like to see implemented.  But the basic function of Pinger is so simple, so elegant and so easy that I've begun to use it to leave messages for my business associates and family when I could have sent them an email or a text. 

The messages get stored (forever, actually) on Pinger's servers, so they don't interfere with your cell phone voice mail.  There's no clogging of your voice mail box or "your mailbox is full" messages as a result of the messages you send.  And sending one requires only a call to a local number... in hundreds of areas around the U.S. and now in international locations.  Think about that - you can send a Pinger message to someone in, say, Australia, by calling a local number in Los Angeles.  They get a text message that you've sent a message, call a local number in Australia to retrieve the message and then reply to it using the same process in reverse.  You both get to listen to each other's messages in different parts of the globe and neither of you have paid a nickel for the calls (except local calling rates, of course, but who doesn't have a ton of local anytime minutes to use these days?).  

And while the service is completely free, there are certainly plans to monetize it in the future.  You might find a short ad preceding the alert in the text message you get telling you there's a Pinger message for you, but so far that's about it.  The company will, in all likelihood, develop some premium services that they'll charge for, but at least for now it's totally devoid of ads and pitches.   

One other nice thing about Pinger is that it helps keep your email box and text messaging clear of "OK," "See you there" or "be home later" messages that you wind up having to view, store, filter and so on.  It's a quick, easy and incredibly effective way of getting a message across to someone - or to a group of people - virtually anywhere in the world safely and with a level of specificity that you couldn't achieve through written text.  I encourage you to try it but issue this warning: You'll soon be hooked on Pinger.