Getting voicemails automatically sent to email (in Canada)

March 30, 2016 3:40 PM

For years I used Google Voice to have all my voicemail forwarded to my email inbox. It was great. Then I moved to Canada, and Google Voice will not connect to Canadian numbers. I have spent many hours trying to figure out a workable solution that will do the same thing (forward voicemails to email as .mp3s) in Canada and have not yet found anything.

I still have my Google Voice number (a US number) and I suppose I could just give that out as my "phone number"...but then everyone I know in Canada would have to place an international call to call me. My phone carrier (Wind) will forward calls to other numbers, but not to phone numbers outside Canada, so I can't forward my phone to my Google Voice number. Voxox's Cloud Phone service will apparently send voicemails to email...but when I tried to set it up, it would only give me the option to sign for a US number. It looks as if Bell and Rogers might have a voicemail-to-email option, but then I'd have to sign up for an expensive contract, and I've managed to avoid a contract thus far. I'm also not sure how well their services work. If this turns out to be the only possibility then it's probably worth the $30-50 a month it would cost me to switch from Wind to Bell, and possibly the inconvenience of a contract, because when I get very busy, I forget to check voicemail frequently enough. But I'd rather find a cheaper or lower commitment option. Does anyone have ideas? Thanks a million!

posted by lotf629 to Technology (8 answers total)

Best answer: Youmail will do this. I had it working for my Canadian phone (Rogers) with a Canadian number. It can be a hassle to get them to do the full forwarding thing (Youmail has instructions) but a call to customer service and explaining it in excrutiating detail did it for me. I think I had to call Youmail for a Canadian number, too, (They gave me a US one automatically) but they did it for me.

Youmail is excellent, and I was waiting for AGES for it to work in Canada and I used it for the last two years.
posted by Brockles at 4:05 PM on March 30, 2016

If you wanted to roll your own voicemail system, maybe look at voip.ms? They are a Canadian company and there is a page on their wiki all about their Voicemail, which indicates their system can send voicemails to email.
posted by thepdm at 4:13 PM on March 30, 2016 [2 favorites]

Seconding voip.ms. We use it for a home and business line and it forwards voicemail to email. Not free but not expensive and no contracts.
posted by samhyland at 4:22 PM on March 30, 2016

Response by poster: Great. Thank you very much for these really helpful suggestions.
posted by lotf629 at 4:30 PM on March 30, 2016

Burner would work for this. It works with Canadian numbers, and you can save the voicemail to Soundcloud or Dropbox, or, if you want email specifically, you can connect it to Zapier to have it email you the voicemails if you use Gmail or another webmail provider that works with Zapier.

Plus it's only $4.99/month for an unlimited subscription.
posted by lovetragedy at 9:43 PM on March 30, 2016

I've been using a free Android app called Better YouMail that forwards your calls to a local number, then takes the message and puts it in the cloud and you download it to your phone. Not sure if it works in Canada (or on iPhones) but I like it a lot better than native voicemail, and if you pay a fee they will add in visual voicemail too.
posted by hungrytiger at 12:11 AM on March 31, 2016 [1 favorite]

Telus also now offers this to their customers as a $5/month option. We just signed up for it and it seems to be fine. We're on a contract, as you note however.
posted by bonehead at 6:13 AM on March 31, 2016

Response by poster: Thanks again, everyone! This problem is now (mostly) fixed, and my life is much more organized.
posted by lotf629 at 9:57 AM on May 31, 2016