You know you've done it. C'mon, it's OK, you're not alone. G'head and admit it. You've called someone secretly hoping to get their voice mail so you didn't have to talk to them. Feel better now that that's off your chest? The good news for you is, Slydial lets you skip the risk of that person actually answering the phone and instead calls straight into their voice mail. Voila! Confrontation avoided.Let's face it. Some people just hate confrontation. Whether that means turning down a sale or breaking up with a psycho, calling someone to give them bad news can be unpleasant. That leaves the weak of constitution with few options. One is to call that person and leave them a voice mail with the bad news. Wimpy, but it gets the job done. The problem is, there's always a risk of catching that person on the phone when you don't want them to answer.

Enter Slydial.

Just dial Slydial (267 SLY DIAL) from any cell or landline. The auto-attendant will ask you to enter the number you want to call. After listening to a short advertisement, Slydial will patch you directly into the person's voice mail, sans call. They will get your voice mail, with no risk to you that they may actually pick up the phone. If you're a chronic coward, you can choose to subscribe to the service in order to avoid the advertisements, or you can choose to pay 15 cents per call made.

Slydial is the brain child of Gavin Macomber, who works for MobileSphere, Slydial's parent organization. He thinks the service is for more than just today's dating scene. He thinks it can be pretty handy for business users, too, according to the Associated Press. He told the AP, "Everybody has gone through the scenario where they've called somebody and just hoped their got their voice mail so they didn't have to have a conversation."

He's right. It can be a total time saver when you just need to deliver a simple message and don't want to be trapped into a long conversation with someone you know will talk your ear off.

So go ahead, be sly, use Slydial to avoid them and jump straight into their voice mail instead.