You know how your Mom leaves those long-winded phone messages that clog up your voice mail? Or what about that lousy date who keeps calling, calling – unable to take the hint of a week’s worth of unreturned messages?

A new service called YouMail comes to the rescue, dusting off the stale voice-mail format that somehow has gotten lost in the technological shuffle of ring tones and text capabilities.

The free service enables cell users to personalize outgoing greetings to specific callers, based on their phone numbers. That means, instead of the tired old, “I can’t answer the phone right now,” your mother might hear, “Hi Mom. You know I love ya, but please keep it short and sweet.”

And that date gone awry? You can seamlessly, if spinelessly, cut the cord with so-called DitchMail. Imagine: “Thanks, but no thanks. Please stop calling me.” And then, an abrupt hang-up with no chance for the caller to leave a message.

“One girl in one of our focus groups said breaking up via text message is so yesterday,” says Ken Brickly, vice president of marketing for the Irvine, Calif., company, that launched about six months ago.

“Not a lot has been done with voice mail. It’s really been a stale application for decades, and we’re excited to bring some life back to it,” Brickly says. The service, he says, “lets you express yourself and have a bit of fun with those close to you.”

Now in beta and about to relaunch on a larger platform later this spring, the service will remain free, supported by online advertising, says Brickly. It covers all major cell phone carriers except Sprint. Users can sign up at YouMail.com, where they also can manage all of their incoming and outgoing messages and upload audio files to use in their recordings.

A favorite for the DitchMail users? “I’m sorry. This number has been disconnected.”

Click.

But it’s not all mean-spirited fun and games. Brickly said users like to personalize greetings to all of the people in their phone book – a swooning message for their spouse, a sweet greeting for their kids, a buttoned-up message for their clients.