Consumer mobile voicemail service YouMail Inc. has debuted Visual Voicemail Plus, a free visual voicemail application for BlackBerry phones, including the Pearl, Curve, Bold and Storm.

This application provides BlackBerry users with access to visual voicemail that works in conjunction with YouMail's desktop visual voicemail service on their mobile phone or online. YouMail's Visual Voicemail Plus gives BlackBerry clients access to a voicemail inbox on their mobile phone.

"One of YouMail's key value propositions is giving people a visual voicemail that's optimized for whatever device they happen to have," said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, Irvine, CA. "So far, we have the Web site optimized for PC and a mobile Web site, which is quite good for people, especially those with a good mobile browser and a reliable high-speed data connection, but is not as good as an application that rides directly on the device.

"Since the BlackBerry is the most popular smartphone family, we've provided an optimized visual voicemail experience for those devices first," he said.

Consumers can access Visual Voicemail Plus at the mobile site http://m.youmail.com/ota.

Customers that currently use YouMail's free and premium transcription services will be able to read their voicemails directly from the new application.

Features include the ability for consumers to scroll through incoming voicemail messages to see relevant caller information including caller name, time of call and length of message.

Consumers can play voicemails by clicking on them, as well as share and forward voicemails as an email or post to a blog or social networking sites using a cut-and-paste feature.

Also, consumers can delete, archive or save voicemails indefinitely.

The feature lets consumers have access to voicemail at any time, even in situations where playing or listening to a voicemail is not an option, such as when in a meeting.

BlackBerry customers also have access to additional YouMail features, including access to their voicemail online when they are near a desktop computer, personalized greetings for every caller, the YouMail greetings community and community-based or personalized voicemail filtering.

What is the target demographic for the Visual Voicemail app?

"It's the smart phone user who gets a lot of voicemail, like the sole proprietor running their own business, or the soccer Mom trying to keep up her social life and scheduling for the kids while she's on the run," Mr. Quilici said.

YouMail is trying to keep its marketing budget to a minimum.

"YouMail tends to spread virally," Mr. Quilici said. "One of the cool features on our app is the ability to easily forward a voicemail.

"Another is our premium services that transcribe voicemails, which allow the user to choose in the app to read or listen to a voicemail," he said. "So, imagine a real estate agent who has a client call about seeing a house.

"They can forward that voicemail request directly to the agent who would show the house, and ask what hours it is available."

When that action calls back with the hours, they can forward that to the client with a confirmation note.

"Now, our one real estate agent has exposed two other people to YouMail, both of whom have seen its power," Mr. Quilici said. "If either of them has a BlackBerry, they can simply click on 'sign up,' and be on YouMail in minutes themselves.

YouMail will make the application available through as many mobile download sites as possible.

Mobile advertising is definitely on YouMail's radar screen as part of its monetization strategy.

"While in beta, the mobile application is ad-free," Mr. Quilici said. "Over time, we plan to include standard mobile banner ads in the application -- and we fully expect to start seeing the same companies that are advertising in the mobile Web experience now to start advertising there too."

YouMail's Visual Voicemail Plus application for Research In Motion's BlackBerry phones will initially be available to customers running BlackBerry O/S version 4.3 or later on T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless phones.

BlackBerry users who are not existing YouMail customers can sign up using their mobile device and activate YouMail directly from the Visual Voicemail application.

YouMail's BlackBerry application was built entirely on top of its open API, which lets developers write their own applications that extend YouMail's offerings to handset applications, browser plug-ins and widgets.

"We can't do everything, and we don't have a monopoly on good ideas," Mr. Quilici said. "For example, there's no way, as a startup company, we can provide applications for every handset, or plug-ins for every browser, or integration with every piece of contact management software.

"We think by opening up the platform, the community of YouMail users who happen to be developers will build exciting new applications and help make the YouMail experience stronger, while we can focus on the core experience that's shared by all YouMail users," he said.

"We've been literally hounded by developers to do this, so we're confident we'll see some interesting applications and extensions to YouMail come out very quickly."