A smartphone app that downloads voice messages from the carrier into the phone. Instead of dialing a voicemail phone number and entering a passcode as has been done for decades with cellphones, users open their app and see a list of messages with phone numbers and times. Also unlike dialed-up messages that are played sequentially, visual voicemails can be listened to in any order, and the messages are always available because they are already in the phone. Apple popularized visual voicemail with the iPhone, but the "visual" only refers to the list of messages, "not" viewable text. However, "truly visual" voicemail, wherein messages are converted to readable text, is available from several sources for most smartphones (see
YouMail). See
virtual voicemail.