Voice mail is on the way out.

Internet phone company Vonage reported that the volume of voice mail users left was down 8% from the same period in 2011, and the number of voice mail messages users retrieved fell 14%. A Vonage spokesperson told USA Today that users “hate the whole voice mail introduction, prompts, having to listen to them in chronological order.” And then there’s text messaging, data messaging and services like Google Voice that transcribe voice mail messages into text and deliver them to your phone via text message or to your email.

On the other hand, voice mail be be poised for a comeback.

If it is, it won’t be your grandfather’s voice mail. It will be more like Hallo, a nifty free app for iOS and Android that is billed as “voice messaging for our generation.”

Let’s face it. The biggest downside to texting is texting, tapping the keys to spell out a message. The longer the message, the more laborious the task, especially if you’re on the move as so many of us are when we’re using our smartphones. And don’t get me started on the fun you can have with the autocorrect feature.

Hallo gives you 30 seconds to verbalize your message. The recipient gets a notification on his or her phone, taps and listens. This proved to be incredibly useful when I was in Brazil recently, four hours ahead of my wife. When I got up—around 2 a.m. at home—a greeting from Michele awaited me on Hallo (she recorded it for me before she went to bed), and I left one in return for her to hear when she awoke, by which time I was already fully engaged in my client activities.

The ability to create groups on Hallo is its real strength, though. While the app’s website displays demonstration groups like sorority sisters and fantasy football, its potential for the enterprise is what leapt to my mind. A supervisor can maintain a group for his employees and record a quick message: “The line is back up so the shift will start on time today, guys. See you all at 8!” And the entire team will get the message.

Hallo’s greatest strength—besides the fact that it works as advertised—is its simplicity. There are no bells or whistles. The home screen displays your contacts and groups. Tap one to see the thread of messages back and forth; tap to listen to any one of them. Tap the “tap to record” button and the countdown clock begins. When you’re done—or your 30 seconds are up—just tap anywhere and the message zooms off to the recipient.

You can also share Hallo messages socially on Facebook and Twitter, but I’m not sure how big a deal that will be. It’s the drop-dead-easy creation and distribution of messages I would normally send by SMS, but without the fumbling on the keyboard, that appeals to me. And if you’re worried about having to listen to more of those rambling voice mail messages where the caller Just. Can’t. Get. To. The. Point…the 30-second limit resolves that problem. Thirty seconds, it turns out, is enough time to get across pretty much anything you’d want to say in a text message, but not enough to inspire the caller to meander.

Hallo’s seamless marriage of text messaging and voice mail is a winner. I find I’m using it more and more with those folks I can convince to install it.