Leave a Voicemail on the Sly With Slydial

We've all wanted to dodge the chit-chat. We just want to leave a voicemail without risking an actual conversation. On the sly. Now we have slydial.

The new, free service links to the voicemail systems of wireless carriers, allowing you to slip a voice message into someone's mailbox without ringing their phone. Many carriers will let you send a voicemail back to someone who has left you one, but slydial is the first service I've seen for unilaterally dropping in a voice message.

Slydial is fast, easy, and claims to work with all major U.S. carriers. I was able to leave messages on Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T phones.

Slydial plans to pay its way through short ads at the start of the call. The ads I heard today were just a few seconds long. But they were only plugging other services from the service's parent, MobileSphere. We'll have to wait to see if paid ads run longer.

A free MYslydial account lets you set up contacts with four-number PINs that enable faster dialing. Or, click an icon next to their name on the MYslydial site for even faster calls. A premium version cuts out the ads.

The biggest downside is that the service doesn't work with landline voicemail. You need to know the recipient's mobile number, and slydial can't leave messages on prepaid cell phones.

Try it yourself by dialing 1-267-slydial (1-267-759-3425).

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