Listen – A Smart Phone Number with Auto-response and Mute Features
Listen is a new mobile application that will make phone numbers smarter by giving you more control over who is texting and calling. It aims to do that with the help of a variety of features like whitelists, reminders, auto-responders, mute buttons etc.
The Aim of Listen
Listen is founded by Lauren Leto, who has created a website called Texts from Last Night and an app called Banters. The team includes two other people- Cam Hunt and Austen Ito. The company’s plan is to offer one inbox for everything that comes in via your phone number. As an end result, you get a number you can safely share publicly, like your Twitter or Instagram handle.
The aim of creating a secondary line for use in public is not something totally new. Google Voice has been offering a similar service for years, with a few mobile apps, and allows you to create one-use phone numbers or secondary lines that you can keep as long as you are a paying customer. But Google’s focus has shifted from to other communication platforms such as Hangouts, Duo, and Allo.
What can you do with it?
Listen lets you manage your conversations with smart actions like remind, whitelist, and mute. No need to solve inbox clutter by giving out different numbers to different contacts. You can get one Listen to phone number that can handle them all.
A Listen phone number is a free phone number for calls and texts that let you control when and how you are contacted. Using Listen, you can set auto-responses to let the contacts know when you are away from your phone. You can also disable voice mail and send ‘call me later’ messages. Listen allows you to mute a contact so you still receive messages and calls from them without having to see them in your inbox.
Using Listen, you can treat your important conversations with respect. You can easily set reminders, schedule, and store texts to a contact’s profile. The features like auto-responses, mute, and whitelist work together to give you a better control over your conversations with others.
Easy to Setup and Easy to Use
In order to get started with Listen, you first enter your current phone number that will be used for your account validation, the way it is done in other apps. You are then free to pick a new number with your area code. You can use this number in addition to your private, career-provided number. You can also opt to forward your calls to your Listen number.
Once the set up is done, you can do things like setting a reminder with a simple swipe, or you can swipe to the other direction to save a particular text. To not let spams or other people bother you, you can mute those contacts, and disable voicemails.
You can use a Listen phone number just as you would use a regular phone number. The thing about Listen is that it aims at keeping the basic features like phone calls and texts free. In the future, they only plan to charge services for international users.
Android and Web Support Possible in the Future
Listen is currently available on Apple App Store for free. The company is planning to have Android and web support in the near future, with other features like group texting, self-deleting texts, and end-to-end encryption.
Keval Padia is the founder & CEO of Nimblechapps, a fast-growing mobile app development company. The current innovation and updates of the field lures him to express his views and thoughts on certain topics.