Voice email
As early as 2001, the term "voice email" came into use to refer (1) email messages that contained voice, (2) products that can send email messages that contain voice, (3) products that provide an interactive voice response system for reviewing and/or creating email.
The defining trait of a voice email message is that the message itself is addressed to an email address at the time of creation, and the message contains audio content consisting of someone's voice. The voice is usually that of the sender or originator of the message. Such messages may consist of an email message that contains an audio file attachment, a hyperlink to an audio file, or even a phone number that the Recipient can call to hear the audio message.
In the case of products that can send email messages that contain voice, this capability has been present in PCs for a long time. On a Windows PC one can record audio using the "Sound Recorder" application that has been included on PCs running Microsoft Windows at least as far back as Windows 95. One can then attach the resulting wav file to an email and send it. However, people don't usually do this because they don't like to switch back and forth between multiple applications during the course of an email session. A company called NCH Swift Sound in Australia introduced a software product called Voice Email for Windows PCs that automates this process by letting one simply hit a function key to record the audio while using Microsoft Outlook. The resulting message is a text email with a wav audio attachment. This product overcomes the inconvenience of switching applications to create audio files.
A company called Voice Genesis (R) was the first to introduce a product for mobile phones called Voice Genesis (R) Vemail (tm) VoiceEmail that allows one to visually review messages and respond or create new messages by speaking. Such spoken voice email messages consist, in this case, of a text email that contains a link, an attachment, and a phone number. This approach makes it possible for the recipient of the voice email message to hear the sender by opening the audio attachment, or via link if their device lacks attachment support, and via a phone call if their device lacks an audio player or speakers. Such a product makes creating messages with a phone easy, because one need not type text on the phone, and the process of reviewing messages by reading them is fairly straight forward.
As for products that provide an interactive voice response system for listening to email and responding or creating new messages by speaking, early entrants into this field include AOL by Phone (R) and Yahoo by Phone (R). To use these services one uses a phone and dials a phone number, and then hears a series of choices and can respond by speaking or key press. The user can listen to their email, read out loud over the phone by a computer generated voice. Users can also create voice email messages through the voice interface, with the resulting voice email message consisting of a text email containing a wav audio attachment. Such products make creating messages with a phone easy, because one need not type text on the phone, but the process of reviewing a large number of messages via a voice interface can be time consuming.