In an age of instant messaging and e-mail, some people still prefer to pick up a phone and leave a voicemail. But for the growing number of consumers who are voicemail-averse, Apple is testing out a new voice-text hybrid.

Business Insider reports that employees of the tech giant are already experimenting with iCloud Voicemail, which uses Siri to answer, transcribe and send users a text of voice messages.

The new system – which could be released next year if all things go well – aims not only to tap into consumers’ love of text messages, but also level the playing field for older consumers who continue to prefer voice messages.

The voicemail-to-text network works when someone using iCloud Voicemail is unable to take a call. At that point Siri will answer instead of letting the call go to a standard digital audio recorder, Business Insider reports.

iCould Voicemail then relays standard information – who you are, where you are, why you can’t answer – to the caller. Once the message has been left, Siri will transcribe the content into a text message for you to read.

If a lot of this sounds familiar, it’s because Google Voice has been trying to do voice-to-text transcription for years, but with little luck. Between callers’ accents, speech patterns and phone connections, it’s not always easy for a computer to figure out exactly what’s being said.

Apple is preparing to launch a voicemail service that will use Siri to transcribe your messages [Business Insider]

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