AudioID - Skype voice caller ID

Back in the day, and I mean WAY back in the day when ICQ was the only instant messaging platform around, I remember setting up voice recordings of all of my contact's names so that when I received messages from a contact, rather than hearing the ubiquitous "uh-oh" sound (admit it, you remember the "uh-oh"!), I would hear the person's name announced that was trying to get my attention. This was so that I wouldn't be consumed with curiosity if I was sitting across the room when I heard the message arrive - I could know exactly who's trying to get my attention. You know, a poor-man's caller ID. And it actually worked quite well. By the way, if you're looking for a way to make voice files of each of your contact's names, this AT&T demo site works wonderfully.

If you're a heavy user of Skype, you may find that there are times that you need to leave Skype running, but that you can't be sitting at your computer all the time. Or maybe you are at your computer, but you're consumed in some important work and don't want to have to be pulled out of your concentration to see who's trying to call you all the time. If this describes you, you might want to check out AudioID for Skype.

AudioID allows you to set up exactly the same scenario that I described having done above with ICQ. As callers call you, their names are announced so you know whether you want to interrupt whatever it is you're doing to take the call. The cool thing here is that rather than having to create audio files for each contact, AudioID will actually simply use a text-to-speech engine to read the name to you. This can result in some funny pronunciations, but is still totally usable. To me this actually seems like a feature all instant-messaging clients (be them audio or old-fashioned text) should have built in.

Tags: audio caller ID, audio ID, AudioCallerId, AudioId, caller ID, CallerId, freeware, ICQ, IM, IM clients, ImClients, Instant Messengers, InstantMessengers, skype