Review: Verizon's iobi Home

Last week I signed up for Verizon's iobi Home service.  I knew it existed because, well, I teach for Verizon¹, and they've been talking a lot about it internally. In fact, I'm currently developing some courseware about the Enterprise version.

So what is it?  I'm so glad you asked.  It's wicked cool, and I'll tell you more below the fold...

First, I'll let Verizon tell you a bit:

This is the tool that lets your calls and messages find you, not the other way around. With iobi Home, you can email voicemail. You can have your PC hold your calls. You can schedule call forwarding to any phone. Now all your devices answer to you.

iobi is all about communication integration, and even though Home is less-sophisticated than Enterprise, it's still pretty damn slick.

I've always had trouble with voice mail at home.  The phone in Stef's office has a "message waiting" light, and of course there's the usual stutter tone that lets you know there are messages when you pick up your phone.  My problem has been that if Stef retrieves her messages, there's no indication I had messages unless Stef tells me.  What's more, when I'm on the road I have no clue if somebody's left a message.

What's cool about iobi is that I have set it up so I get a text message sent to my cell and an e-mail sent to me over the Internet that lets me know there's a voice mail waiting.  Not only that, but I can listen to the message over the web, and even e-mail it as an attachment (.WAV file) to anybody I want.  Now I will never miss a voice mail for 3 weeks as I have done in the past.  For me, that's worth the price of admission.

There are other nifty features, too.  There's a calendar function that will send out reminders via e-mail and/or mobile text message about appointments and such. I can schedule call forwarding to turn on and off at specific times--handy if I know Stef and I both will be out of town over a weekend or something.  Even if you get calls from folks who don't leave messages, the system can be configured to alert you, either for all received calls or depending on the number.  I can also access iobi via my cell or any other phone I choose.

I have two big nits to pick:

1. The price is steep at $7.95/month.  Fortunately Verizon is offering a free month to try it out, so I'll see how useful it is and whether it's truly worth the cost
2. You can only set up voice mail indicators for the main mailbox.  That means while I will be informed of new messages, voice mail left for Stef will not trigger alerts.  Really stupid, given that Verizon allows you to set up 9 mailboxes total (I should note that voice mail is a separate service).

Definitely not for everybody, but all-in-all I recommend people try the service out during the current promotion.  I'm honestly not sure if I'll keep iobi Home after my free month is over, but it does look like it will be a good application for me. 

ntodd

PS--iobi doesn't mean anything.  Seriously.

[Update: forgot to mention that I can do all of the above via the web.  There's also some client software you can download that has a Manage Calls feature.  Gives you a pop-up alert on your desktop with each new incoming call, with the option to Answer, Forward or Block the call, or send it to Voice Mail.  Sweet!]

1 - Disclosure: Verizon has been literally the only customer I've taught for since November, 2002.  Even now that I'm part-time at my training company, I still anticipate exclusively doing Verizon gigs, both online and in the classroom.  In other words, Verizon for all intents and purposes pays my salary.  I was NOT paid for this review, though I very much would like to be.