In a disclosure which is an indication that death-knell has apparently been sounded for voicemail, a new report released by USA Today and VoIP firm Vonage has revealed that an increasing number of people would rather send a text message to someone they are trying to reach than to leave a voicemail for the person.

According to the data which Vonage prepared for release in USA Today newspaper, the month of July witnessed an 8 percent plunge in the number of voicemail messages which had been left on user accounts, as compared to the same month last year figures.

The Vonage report chiefly underscores that voicemail is dying, and speculates that the voicemail fatality is essentially an outcome of the increased use of texting, instant messaging, and transcription apps. By and large, it is the younger users who are leading the shift away from the use of voicemail, thanks to their widespread adoption of other time-saving options like texting, Google voice, and ‘chat apps’ like WhatsApp.

In addition to revealing the fall in voicemail messages in July, the Vonage data also showed that people seemingly consider checking their voicemail to be quite a hassle; with the result that the retrieved messages during the month dropped 14 percent among the users of the Vonage service.

About the supposedly irksome procedure of checking of voicemails, Michael Tempora – Vonage’s SVP of product management - told USA Today people apparently “hate the whole voice-mail introduction, prompts, having to listen to them in chronological order.”