My family has two iPads – one being my original first generation iPad which my wife now uses and the other being my iPad2.

 

My family doesn't include an iPhone – yet… I'm working on her, oops I mean the "issue" (being cost versus the fact there's nothing wrong with our existing Nokia phones in terms of making cellphohne calls…)

 

Anyhow – the point I was leading to is that iPhone owners have a far greater "availability" in terms of communications than iPad users.  An iPhone is  with it's owner for a much greater period of time over each day therefore when they are Skype'd or Facetime'd etc they are actually there to answer the call and communicate.

 

My wife and I, both being (needing to be!) working people, don't cart our iPads around with us all the time.  While it's true that each of us do take them to work on occasion… (my wife in particular, being in the early childhood sector, has a number of Apps for children which she makes use of in group time but apart from that half hour or so session over the day it's in her locker) …for the most part they remain at home while we are out.

 

Weekends especially seems to be a particularly popular time when others (especially overseas family) have a want to be able to catch up with us – and of course we are often busy doing general stuff and are not around.

 

This has led to some disgruntled relatives, and family members no longer at home (especially the iPhone owners it would seem), who have the perception that we should be available and online when they wish to communicate with us!

 

Actually if I am completely honest and putting all comedy aside (as in the bit above about me "working on my wife" to let me have an iPhone) the main reason I have thus far made the conscious decision NOT to purchase an iPhone is that I have a concern relating to the expectation of availability and I fear being pestered day in day out by the darned thing…

 

I think this is an issue for another posting however… better move on!

 

While there are a number of solutions to the "problem" (which is an issue up for current debate as to whether it IS actually a problem) – the one that has been working well for us has been the use of an App called Heytell.

 

http://www.heytell.com

 

Heytell is FREE for the basic features with additional in-App purchases for some other enhanced features if desired.  I personally haven't bothered with any of those extra purchases – the basic App does what I want from it.

 

The App is, in a nutshell, an instant voice-messaging client.  You simply select one of your contacts and tap and hold down a "push to record" button and record a voice message and it gets sent to the other person.

 

Obviously if both parties are available at the same time Skype (which is great on the iPad 2 with video) or Facetime (again awesome on iPad2) are a far better solution – but Heytell is neat and tidy for leaving each other little recorded messages over a day.

 

The App has notifications so you can instantly see if anyone has left a message over the day.

It's mainly used to leave messages indicating when it would be a good time to catch up on Skype or Facetime – although I do have to admit to using it for "call screening" purposes when I simply cannot be bothered having a call at that particular time!

 

Heytell, in my opinion, nicely fits the bill as a basic "answerphone" / "voicemail" messenger client and well worth the look if this is the sort of thing you have been looking for!