A method for manipulating a message received by a user using a telephone user interface and stored in a unified messaging system, the method comprising: rendering the message to the user as a voice message by the telephone user interface; receiving from the user during the rendering a mark begin segment command from a telephonic device through a voice modality, the mark begin segment command comprising a voice command and a first spoken word and indicating a beginning point for a voice message segment in the voice message; saving a segment begin index when the mark begin segment command is received; receiving from the user during the rendering a mark end segment command from the telephonic device through the voice modality, the mark end segment command comprising a voice command and a second spoken word, and indicating an ending point for the voice message segment in the voice message; saving a segment end index when the mark end segment command is received; receiving from the user an action command from the telephonic device; and performing an action based on the action command for the voice message segment, the voice message segment being a portion of the voice message determined based on the indicated beginning point of the voice message segment and the indicated ending point of the voice message segment in the voice message; the method further comprising: using speech recognition to determine a first point where the first spoken word is in the voice message, the first point being the beginning point of the voice message segment; and using speech recognition to determine a second point where the second spoken word is in the voice message, the second point being the ending point of the voice message segment in the voice message. rendering the message to the user as a voice message by the telephone user interface; receiving from the user during the rendering a mark begin segment command from a telephonic device through a voice modality, the mark begin segment command comprising a voice command and a first spoken word and indicating a beginning point for a voice message segment in the voice message; saving a segment begin index when the mark begin segment command is received; receiving from the user during the rendering a mark end segment command from the telephonic device through the voice modality, the mark end segment command comprising a voice command and a second spoken word, and indicating an ending point for the voice message segment in the voice message; saving a segment end index when the mark end segment command is received; receiving from the user an action command from the telephonic device; and performing an action based on the action command for the voice message segment, the voice message segment being a portion of the voice message determined based on the indicated beginning point of the voice message segment and the indicated ending point of the voice message segment in the voice message; the method further comprising: using speech recognition to determine a first point where the first spoken word is in the voice message, the first point being the beginning point of the voice message segment; and using speech recognition to determine a second point where the second spoken word is in the voice message, the second point being the ending point of the voice message segment in the voice message.