The San Jose Mercury News reported that with the prevalence of mobile phones, texting, chat apps and email, voicemail just isn't what it used to be. Voicemail is now viewed as inefficient. And for many, that feeling extends to phone conversations in general: these days, a phone call often requires advance scheduling. The frantic pace of life and work is pushing out phone-based voice communication in favor of text, chat, email and other options seen as more efficient.
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When we used a Teletype for timesharing in high school, we thought it would be neat if we could each own one, and leave each other written messages. The unit with the built-in controller allowed automatic unattended answer. (But later we got cheaper units without the built-in unit.) Of course, in those days, renting a teletype was too expensive for a kid at $100/month.
Ironically, this was the communications situation Western Union sought to have back in the 1960s--everyone owning a teleprinter to send and receive messages, carried by WU. Unfortunately, it took 50 years for the technology to evolve to become affordable, too late for WU to survive.
In 1956, Bell introduced its answering machine:
(side note: on pg 90 of the above magazine, there is an ad for Howard Johnson's roadside family restaurants. Despite being a casual place, note all the customers are in suits or dresses. Also, the full service gasoline station on pg 11.)