I discussed YouMail in my Top 10 Apps for Blackberry article a few weeks back, and after playing with it a bit more, I thought I’d share my full review of the software especially after the release of version 2.0. But first, let’s talk a little bit about visual voicemail.

One of the most touted features of the iPhone when it was introduced was visual voicemail. With visual voicemail, you no longer had to dial your voicemail and waste time going through message after message. Instead, each message was displayed in your voicemail inbox just as you’d view your e-mail or a list of texts. From there, you could just tap on a message to hear it. Every phone I’ve used since the iPhone failed to offer the feature I had come to love, but luckily, I found YouMail for Blackberry.

The software is completely free to download and use. Once you have it installed on your device, you’ll have to follow the onscreen prompts in order to set everything up. The process is pretty painless and involves creating a PIN and setting up some of the notification options. You can choose to have YouMail notify you of new voicemail messages via SMS, e-mail, or simply through push notifications on the app itself. This feature is especially useful if you’ve misplaced your phone so you can still access your messages. Optionally, you can get transcripts of your voicemail for future reference. I’ve actually set up a GMail filter to automatically sort my voicemails depending on who it’s from.

Speaking of personalization, YouMail offers some great options. You can always choose the default smart greeting which will inform incoming callers of your unavailability (with your name in the message), or you may record your own greeting if you want. YouMail does offer the option of selecting different greetings depending on the type of call though, so that someone in your phone book may get a friendly greeting, while a blocked call may direct the caller to a busy message, and yes, you can completely block voicemail from unwanted callers. If you want further customization, the app does offer the ability to upload your contacts into the app so that each person will receive a personalized greeting by name. I’ve had friends who loved this so much that they would call me just to hear my greetings.

I have absolutely fallen in love with YouMail. While I was simply after a visual voicemail service for my Blackberry, I found an app which is leaps and bounds better than what’s found on the iPhone. Please note that this will completely replace your provider’s voicemail service, but any messages already on your voicemail will not show up inside of YouMail. I will also recommend to make sure you have an unlimited text plan if you want to take full advantage of the software.