Slydial: Sneaky Voicemail for the Seinfeld Generation

Sartre said “hell is other people” - now that’s why there’s Slydial.Slydial is a free voice message service that directly connects you to someone else’s mobile voicemail. Their phone never rings, and you get to leave a message without actually speaking with them. (Wait for the legal angle; it’s coming.)

Their wonderfully written weasely website spells it right out. There are people you must phone: bosses, significant others, or your aunt for example. And while you might not want to talk to them at the moment, you still want the credit of calling. Now you can Slydial them.

Yep, it’s still in beta and already the product name is a verb.

This free service is supported by subjecting each user to a brief advertisement. I dialed 267-759-3425, listened to a ten-second McDonald’s ad, then entered the number I wanted to call. And yes, it worked. And when I entered the number I was calling from, the service asked if I hadn’t any friends and admonished me for Slydialing myself.

OK, here’s the legal angle, such as it is:
The company and its publicity seem to have omitted the most lucrative paying marketing for such a service that I can think of: telephone marketers. Though you already know all about technology, many people have no idea how to skip through a message in their voicemail. Imagine if telemarketers could simply directly deposit a message to voicemail: many people who’d otherwise hang up might have to listen to a caller’s full pitch.

This could be a new wrinkle in how outbound call centers work. Slymail could be a new variation of spam, slyly directed to your phone’s inbox. This could cause the hysterical members of the media, and wouldbe regulators, to turn their attention from the Internet and puff up this otherwise fun feature as a terrifying next-generation evil permutation of technology.

Give it a try. It’s fun, free, and sneaky. Just remember: don’t Slydial yourself.

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