A telecommunications system (100) includes network access devices (104)
that couple user devices (102) to a telecommunications network (106). The
user devices (102) include at least voice and preferably text display and
text generation capability. A voicemail server (114) is coupled to the
telecommunications network. The voicemail server (114) is also coupled to
an application server (116). Selectively, speech traveling through the
telecommunications network (100) from user devices (102) is converted
into text, stored, and forwarded to a user device as a text message. The
text message is for example a facsimile transmission, an e-mail, or a SMS
message. The selectivity is based on a stored attribute, current status
of the user device, attributes of the sending device and the like. Text
can even be converted into speech as an option. Or, stored speech
associated with a text message can be retrieved based on the text
message.