Verizon today corrected its false start and today officially launched Visual Voice Mail, its own response to a similar feature for the iPhone 3G at AT&T. The feature lets supporting phones access messages out of order but provides advantages not present with the rival system, including the ability to add an unknown caller as a contact, forward messages, or store permanent copies to the phone itself rather than rely on a remote server.

The system also improves the capacity of Verizon's normal voicemail service with as much as 40 messages stored on the server for 40 days. Users can also have upt to 10 custom greetings at the same time and create as many as 20 distribution lists for mass phone calls, with each group holding 50 members.

Verizon makes clear its intention with the launch and indicates the plan will be available first for the LG Voyager, one of its most popular and iPhone-like touchscreen devices; new models have the necessary software preloaded, while existing users can bring their phones to a retail shop for a software patch. The service costs $3 per month but also charges data fees for customers that don't have bundled data plans.

The software responds both to touch input and to directional pads, and is expected for other devices soon.