Android M Will Have Visual Voicemail Feature

If you've used Google Voice at any point, you're aware of how wonderful voicemail could be. The controls make it a lot easier to handle voicemails than dialing in and using the dial pad to toggle between messages. Odds are you've accidentally deleted a message you wanted to archive at least once. Android M, the yet-unnamed version of Android that currently sits as a developer preview, will be bringing that kind of voicemail control, eliminating the need for third-party apps, it has been revealed.

Information about the feature surfaced on the Android Developer Preview project site, with someone submitting a ticket in the issue tracker and a Project Member detailing the feature. There's a new visual voicemail feature in Android M, and though it is basic at this point it does make the process of sifting through messages considerably easier.

As shown above, the visual voicemail shows the caller and call details, an audio slider with the duration of the message, a pause button, a delete button, and options to message or call the person who left the message. Transcriptions aren't shown, and according to the project member such functionality would be dependent on carrier support.

Support for visual voicemail is also limited at this time, with Google planning to support Orange in France and T-Mobile in the US. As shown above, it seems some T-Mobile users, at least, are already seeing the feature. Whether voicemail transcriptions will ever become a common thing is yet to be seen.

SOURCE: Android Police

Image via Danny Hollis