Windows Live Mail Adds Voicemail Playback
Kandarp reports that he received a voicemail in Windows Live Mail, and, instead of requiring you to download it as an attachment, Live Mail had a cool new Windows Media Player powered audio control. Google added a similar feature when they started accepting voicemail through Google Talk, powered by the Google Video player, and I could see this becoming a standard webmail feature. People just don’t like downloading attachments.
The only question I have: Can it (or will it in the future) be used to listen to all sorts of audio attachments? That would be very convenient.
I just tested it out by emailing my wife’s Windows Live Mail account a 4.5 megabyte MP3, and it worked perfectly, streaming the song faster that I could have downloaded it. God, I love the Windows Live Mail team. Perfectly implemented feature, and even Gmail doesn’t do it yet.
UPDATE: Whoops. As Pharod points out in the comments below, Gmail did add this functionality at some point. I’d noticed the voicemail player feature, which didn’t play audio attachments at the time, but it looks like they added it eventually.
Nathan, not sure exactly what you meant, but from what I know, Gmail does stream any mp3. I have used it for a while. After scanning for virus, you can select a link that says Play, and it will stream the file.
Comment by Pharod | January 5, 2007
[…] Nathan Weinberg discusses Windows Live Mail’s ability to natively play audio files within the service instead of having to download the audio attachment and play it separately on your PC. Very cool. Nathan highlights the use of this feature being prominent for those who have voicemails sent to their email account and are using Windows Live Mail. […]
Pingback by Windows Live Mail Adds Audio Playback at MSTechToday | January 5, 2007
It is not a voicemail playback. It plays audio attachment.
Comment by kandarp | January 5, 2007
[…] Nathan Weinberg posted on InsideMicrosoft Blog about Voicemail and Audio support in Windows Live Mail. WL Mail user have this ability to listen their voice mail and attached song. The audio control is powered by Windows Media Player. Weinberg also pointed that user can send and play MP3 song, streaming is also faster than download. I guess the audio control will support all audio file type that have native support by Windows Media Player. This feature remind me about Photomail. Same feature that available across Windows Live service. Also noted, my friend already complained me over reduced size of photos in PhotoMail. Weinberg have a screenshot if you are not WL Mail user. […]
Pingback by Windows Live Mail with Audio Player support at Lorgor | January 6, 2007