With instant messaging all the rage at workplaces and college dorms nationwide, two Silicon Alley start-ups are partnering to add a voice wrinkle to the popular chat application.

The two firms - Odigo, Inc. and Audium - announced the launch of "Voice Instant Messaging," a voice-enabled service that lets users send IM messages from a regular telephone.

For Odigo, which makes money from selling IM technology to landline and wireless carriers, ISPs and portals, the deal adds more bells and whistles to its platform.

The "Voice Instant Messaging" allows users to access members of their IM buddy lists from a regular telephone. A user can call in to the Audium server and use voice commands to find out if an IM buddy is online.

The user can also send a voice message to a single buddy, or an entire buddy list that is distributed to IM pop-ups in the form of a URL hyperlink. Once the user clicks on the hyperlink, a .WAV file delivers the voice message.

It would work the other way around too. Users can type text messages into the IM window, which convers them to speech and delivers them back to the telephone user. It can also deliver IMs to text-messaging enabled cell phones.

Odigo, which claims 5 million users of its showcase software, believes the voice-enabled service would help it snag big-name corporate clients for its technology.

The company currently counts StarMedia, British Telecom, Austria Telecom, Hungary Telecom, Prodigy, Netease, DreamNet (of NTT DoCoMo) and Univision among its customers.

For Audium, which employs 30 at Manhattan headquarters, the deal puts its voice applications and hosting capabilities before a host of new clients.

"The advanced technologies that this Audium-Odigo partnership provides will help our mobile operators and other providers attract many new customers, as well as diversify their current products and services," said Odigo CEO Micha Macover.