One of the features I’d like to have on my iPhone is Visual Voicemail. Unfortunately, Vodafone are the only carrier that support it in Australia, so I’m out of luck for the moment. Hopefully the 3/Vodafone merger will remedy the situation in the future, but in the mean time, I’m still left wanting.

If you’re a three user like myself, you may know that when you sign up, you’re assigned an @three.com.au email address. This is a regular email address you can use on any device to send and receive emails. What you may not know is that three’s voicemail system emails you voicemail messages to that address, with the voicemails attached as .WAV files. The service is free (except for the data it uses) and a good alternative to calling up the voicemail number and working through the voice prompts..

For the last year or so, I’ve had my three email account set up on my iPhone. I haven’t minded using it, but it’s a little inconvenient, particularly because it only works reliably whilst on 3’s data network (ie: not on Wifi).

So, for the last couple of months, I’ve been developing a web app aimed at making listening to your voicemail on 3 a little easier. It’s called 3 Voicemail (original, I know) and it looks like this:

I’ve had a few beta testers playing with it over the last few weeks, and it’s still not 100% complete, but I’m happy enough with it’s state at the moment to release it to a wider audience. For the moment it only retrieves and plays back the messages, but more features will be added whenever I have the time.

If you’d like to use it, follow the instructions below. If you are using it, and have any feedback at all, whether it be “something’s broken” or “I’d like to be able to do X” please let me know.

Get Ready

Before you start, you’ll need your 3 email address [usually firstname.lastnameX@three.com.au] and your voicemail PIN. (Your 3 email address can be found by logging into My3 and going to My Details -> Service Details.)

NOTE: Your voicemail PIN is [probably] different to your account PIN [the account PIN is the one you use to login to my3] so make sure you’ve got the correct one.

Obviously you’ll need some voicemails to listen to, so get a friend/coworker/loved one to call you up an leave a message.

Please also be aware that:

1. Disclaimer: This is in beta, so I can’t guarantee this won’t destroy your iPhone. It shouldn’t, in fact I’m pretty sure it can’t, as it’s just a web app, so it’s like going to any other web page. It hasn’t destroyed mine yet, so I think you should be fine. Anyway, I take no responsibility for anything that happens with your phone as a result of using this app. As a result of my crappy PHP skills, I also can’t guarantee that your information is 100% safe using this app. As far as I can tell, it’s reasonably safe, but If you are at all concerned, don’t use it.

2. Privacy: Usernames and passwords are stored as local cookies on your iPhone, so I don’t see either of those. Your voicemail messages are downloaded as .wav files to my server. I will eventually set up a function to delete them automatically from my server [but not the email server] once the’ve been listened to, but at the moment they stay on my server until I actively delete them. Obviously they take up a lot of room on the server, so I’m deleting them at least twice a week. You have my word that I won’t listen to them, but if you have any privacy concerns, probably don’t use this app.

Instructions

1. Grab your iPhone, open safari, and go to http://andrew.harrison.org/3mail. You can use Wifi or 3G, 3 Voicemail will work with both.
2. You’ll be prompted to add it as a home screen app, so hit the + button on the Safari toolbar, and then “Add to Home Screen”
3. Tap the new icon on the home screen, and the app will launch. Type in your 3 email address and your voicemail PIN, and hit “Onward”. You’ll be taken to the voicemail list.
4. From that list, tap on a message to listen to it. It will take a few seconds to download the message to my web server, and then it will take you to the Quicktime player, where it will download the message to your phone. This can take time, depending on how fast your connection is, and how big the message is. I don’t have any control over it once the Quicktime player appears, so be patient.
5. Once the message has been played back, it will automatically log you back in and show the list of messages again.

When you’re done, you can just quit the app and it will automatically log you in the next time you launch it. If you don’t want that to happen, just hit the logout button before you quit the app, and it will prompt you for your password next time you launch it.

That’s all there is to it at the moment. I have some features planned for the future, and am actively developing it whenever I have spare time. If you have a feature you’d like to see included, feel free to contact me and let me know. If it’s feasible and I think it’s a good idea, I’ll put it on the drawing board.

Once again, any feedback at all is appreciated and encouraged. I’d love to hear what you think of the app, and definitely want to know if you encounter any problems. I’m maintaining a bug list below, so check if the problem you’re having is a known issue.

Known issues

• Non-voicemail messages won’t show, however the messagelist will be blank (rather than showing the “no messages” notice on the login screen) if there are no voicemail messages, but some non-voicemail messages in the inbox.