Fusion Voicemail Plus

The ease and organization that visual voicemail provides have changed the way smartphone users receive their messages. Android users can get in on the goodness with Fusion Voicemail Plus, a free app for Android. To set it up, just upload a personal greeting and you're ready to receive messages. After voicemail messages arrive, you can pull up each one with a display that shows when the call came in, what number it came from, and how long the message is. You can replay the message, delete it, mark it as unread, or forward it (an option that I wish the iPhone offered) to other FVP users or to an e-mail address. If you like, you can return the call, send an SMS message directly from the application, or add the contact.

One of Fusion Voicemail Plus's most useful features is its ability to put multiple voicemail boxes in one location. FVP can also receive faxes, and it lets you set caller-ID-based greetings. The app includes a feature for schedule-based greetings, voice-to-text transcription, and a homescreen widget for new messages. One drawback: It sends an SMS notification for every voicemail, which can get a bit irksome. But I can learn to live with that imperfection in return for this intuitive app's many useful features.