Answer Phone Detection for Voice

When using the Voice (VoiceCast and Text-to-Speech) tools, "Answer Phone Detection" can be enabled.

What is Answer Phone Detection

Answer Phones (also known as Answering Machines or Voicemail) allow callers to leave recorded messages when calls are not answered.

With TNZ's Voice Messaging (VoiceCast and Text-to-Speech) automated calling service, the system can detect whether the call is answered by a Human or an Answer Phone.

If an Answer Phone answers the call, different actions can occur:

1. A customized message can be played, such as "Sorry we missed you..."

2. The call can be automatically retried (especially useful for emergency alert calls where it is essential to reach the recipient).

How do I enable Answer Phone Detection?

Dashboard

When using the Dashboard, you can toggle the 'Enable Answer Phone Detection' option.

API

When using the API, you must specify the 'MessageToAnswerphones' parameter. This will set the customized Answer Phones message, and will set the Answer Phone Mode to 'Play Message - Number Success'.

You can override the default Answer Phone Mode with the following parameters:
AFMODE=NDAS (sets Play Message - Number Success)
AFMODE=NDAF (sets Play Message - Number Failed)
AFMODE=DAS (sets Drop Call - Number Success)
AFMODE=DAF (sets Drop Call - Number Failed)

What are the Answer Phone Mode options?

When using the Dashboard, you can select the Answer Phone Mode.

Play Message - Number Success

This is the default option.

This tells the engine to play the 'Message to Answer Phones' (if not set, the 'Message to People' is used).

When the Message is played, the system will mark the call as a success.

Play Message - Number Failed

This tells the engine to play the 'Message to Answer Phones' (if not set, the 'Message to People' is used).

When the Message is played, the system will mark the call as a failure. The call is then eligible for automated retrying.

Drop Call - Number Success

This tells the engine to end the call immediately when an answerphone is detected ('drop the call').

When the call is dropped, the system will mark the call as a success.

Drop Call - Number Failed

This tells the engine to end the call immediately when an answerphone is detected ('drop the call').

When the call is dropped, the system will mark the call as a failure. The call is then eligible for automated retrying.