How to Save a Treasured Voice Mail Message, the Easy Way
Voicemail is fast, easy and convenient to use – until your cell or phone company decides that saved message of yours has been sitting on their server long enough. And if you're not careful – sometimes even if you are – that message will suddenly disappear. Not a big deal for people who don't mind a little electronic housekeeping.
But it's a HUGE deal for people who want or need to keep a treasured message. Like the news of a baby's birth, a long awaited job, or the final message of a much loved spouse, friend or relative. In fact a friend of ours kept her husband's cell phone account active, so her grown children could hear his voice any time they wanted, after he unexpectedly passed away. Problem is, trying to keep a message on voice mail for posterity is nearly impossible. So is finding a way to save it as an MP3 or voice file on most phones. Until now, that is.
Technology has come a long way towards helping all of us secure the things that are important to us, whether that is our photos, our music or our voicemail messages.
Whether you have an answering machine or voicemail, here are the best ways to save your treasured messages.
- If the message is on an answering machine that uses a cassette tape , simply save the tape. But be sure to back up the recording to another cassette or MP3 so you'll have another copy if it breaks.
- If the message is on an answering machine with a digital chip , play the message and record it onto a digital recorder, cassette or onto your computer, using Sound Recorder (Windows / PC) or SimpleSound (Mac), to make it into an MP3 that you can keep for posterity.
- If the message is on voice mail , here's a great new solution. Until now, recording a message from voice mail was nearly impossible. But with a device called a MiCorder, you can record any kind of audio from any device like a cell phone or a cassette player and turn it into an MP3.
The next time someone leaves you a message that you never want to lose, do yourself a favor, take a moment and back it up.
Coming soon, more articles on Getting Your Stuff Together, like How To Preserve Your Old Photos and How To Keep Your Address Book Up To Date, The Easy Way.