I was telling a friend of mine about “talk and send” SMS messages and his not-too-interested reply was “yeah, it’s called voicemail.”

The incremental ease of spoken SMS messages wasn’t something he was going to be writing home about. But he likes to idle away weekends fiddling with his network so he can turn on the living room TV from his computer, too. Added steps and complexity, if anything, stack up as positives on his value scale.

However, despite my friend’s dim view of it, VoIP and cell convergence via “talk and send” SMS seems to be picking up steam and uReach isn’t the only player out there. Last week San Jose, CA-based Pinger unveiled a public beta version of its instant voice messaging for cell phones.

The company was founded in late 2005 by former Handspring execs Greg Woock and Joe Sipher.

“There are synchronous ways to communicate with both your voice and text with voice phone or Skype calls and text instant messaging,” says Sipher. “Then there’s asynchronous text communication through e-mail. But there hadn’t been innovation in asynchronous voice communication. Sure, there’s voicemail, but it’s clunky and missing basic features like simply replying to a voice message without calling. We kept thinking, ‘Is there another way?’ That’s what we’re doing with Pinger. We’re making voice messages fast and easy, and we’re filling this gap for voice that was already filled with text.”

Pinger marries spoken messages with email. You get messages on your phone and in your email, letting you easily save - and forward - the new location of the softball game or the grandchildren’s first words. Another feature of the service is Web-based account management that can import contact lists from Outlook and other programs, although - alas - not Apple Mail.

Pinger’s service is carrier- and device-independent, which gives it an edge on uReach which is delivered through a service provider. Sign up on the website, create a contact list, add the Pinger number to your phone (put this on speed dial) and you’re in business.

To send a message, call the Pinger number, say the name of the person or group (which works like email groups) you want to send a message to - a real help when you’re driving - and say your message. Voila - it’s sent.

Pinger lets you send a message to anyone with an email address, although only other Pinger members can receive messages on their phones. Retrieval is flexible. Messages can be picked up by phone, email and the Pinger website. In addition, Pinger has an application for the Palm Treo that further simplifies use for that PDA.

Messages are announced on your cell phone with a text message. You call the number and the message plays - no menu, no prompts. To reply, simply press ‘1,’ speak your message and hang up. The message is sent.

Because Pinger also sends your messages to email, you can save them. If you pick up the messages on the website, you can annotate them - “Mark Foley drinks invite” - for future reference, say, when you’re called before the grand jury for a deposition.

Pricing for the service hasn’t been nailed down. The company says it will continue to offer a free service with a limited number of messages. Beta users who signed up before Oct. 1 get six months of free use. However, I signed up today and wasn’t asked for a credit card. Maybe they meant Nov. 1.

Text messaging sounds great. Just type in a quick message - “get milk” or “at mall” - and send. What could be easier? But in practice, trying to type on a 10-digit telephone keypad is an exercise in frustration.

“When you think about it, it’s surprising how non-mobile text messaging ends up being,” says Richard Stern, VP Marketing at Holmdel, NJ-based uReach. “You have to stop and type out the message.”

Making text messaging truly quick and mobile is the logic behind uReach’s SayText(tm) messaging service. It allows users to just ’say it on the go.’ The spoken message is then delivered just like SMS messages - something that is especially useful if you’re driving or you speak a language that doesn’t easily lend itself to a 10-digit keypad. Messages are received as SMS messages. Simply click to listen.

Saskatchewan telecom SaskTel recently chose SayText for its new Say and Send(tm) text messaging service. It’s part of the carrier’s strategy to stay ahead of the innovation curve for its 400,000 customers.

“We are continuously looking for the next new technology,” says SaskTel Director of Corporate Communications Michelle Englott. “This seemed like a convenient alternative to text messaging that our customers would be interested in.”

The beauty of the uReach approach is that unlike MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) SayText uses the existing SMS infrastructure. That means service providers don’t have to invest in new infrastructure and consumers don’t have to buy new handsets. Instead, the service works seamlessly with existing mobile handsets.

Not quite 10 years old, uReach offers a SIP-based converged communications platform as both a managed service and licensed software. The company’s products include Enhanced Voice Messaging, Audio-SMS, Multimedia Messaging, Single Number Service which are available to both service providers and consumers.

uReach handles voice messaging for about 10 million customers worldwide, including SaskTel, SunRocket and about one third of Verizon’s customers. The company’s technology also underlies Bell Canada’s “Single Number Reach.” SayTalk has also been implemented by Singapore-based BubbleMotion in its BubbleTalk SMS service in Asia.

But SaskTel’s service is the first of its kind in North America. Other carriers likely to follow, though, and uReach’s Stern expects to be “making some announcements in 2007.”