Skype’s New Visual Voicemail Definitively Proves That Talk is Not Cheap

Leading VoIP provider Skype announced today that it's working with SpinVox to launch a voice-to-SMS messaging service. But if you’ve got chatty friends and family (Hi, Mom and Dad!), be prepared to pay up: Lengthy voicemails come in up to three separate texts, at 25 cents a pop, and standard Skype text-message rates still apply. Also, if the sound quality is poor or the message is garbled--which, as any cell-phone user can attest, happens all the time--you'll still get charged for the conversion, even though it's riddled with question marks and spaces (Skype's substitute for inaudible words).

The service will support four languges: English, Spanish, French, and German. And if you're wary of costs, you can limit the number of daily conversions you receive, and leave certain (read: long-winded) contacts off your "OK to convert" list. You could also skip this service altogether, and just...check your voicemail.