Voice-to-Text Translation for Visual Voicemail

A method comprising:

• storing a first database to associate voicemail message information with a voicemail mailbox and a user device;
• storing a second database to associate a plurality of user devices with a voice-to-text transcription service;
• receiving an indication from the user device to associate the user device with the voice-to-text transcription service;
• updating the second database according to the received indication;
• receiving a new voicemail message associated with the voicemail mailbox;
• querying the second database to determine whether to request a voice-to-text transcription of an audio file associated with the new voicemail message;
• and
• transmitting the voice-to-text transcription of the audio file associated with the new voicemail message.

A network device comprising:

• a memory to store a first database to store voicemail message information associated with a voicemail mailbox and a user device, and a second database to associate a plurality of user devices with a voice-to-text transcription service;
• a receiver to receive a new voicemail message associated with the voicemail mailbox;
• a processor to query to the second database to determine whether to request a voice-to-text transcription of an audio file associated with the new voicemail message;
• wherein the receiver receives an indication from the user device to associate the user device with the voice-to-text transcription service for the determination of whether to request a voice-to-text transcription;
• and
• wherein the processor is configured to request updating of the second database according to the received indication.

A method, comprising:

• receiving a new voicemail message in a mailbox, the mailbox being associated with a user device;
• receiving a transcription of an audio file associated with the voicemail message;
• sending the transcription of the audio file to the user device;
• storing the transcription of the audio file in a database, wherein the database stores a plurality of transcriptions of audio files of voicemail messages;
• receiving a query including search criterion;
• searching the database for transcriptions that meet the search criterion to generate search results.