voicemail

Also known as voice mail, voicemail system, voice mail system, voice message, voice bank, voice-mail, answering machine, telephone answer machine

A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows callers to leave a recorded message when the recipient has been unable (or unwilling) to answer the phone. Calls may be directed to voicemail manually or automatically. The caller is prompted to leave a message that the recipient can retrieve at a later time.

In the Vinony graph

Vinony's link graph records 392 inbound references to voicemail, and connects out to Voice over IP, instant messaging and business telephone system.

It sits within the topics American inventions, Calling features and Computer-mediated communication.

Vinony links it to 20 Wikipedia language editions.

Wikidata facts

Subclass of: e-service
Named after: mail

Sources (1)

wikidata.org

via Wikidata · CC0

~31 min read

Encyclopedic overview

21 sections

Contents

Features
History
Message centers
Invention
Inventor controversy
Early applications
IBM Audio Distribution System
Delta 1
AT&T
VMX
IVR Voice Recognition
PC-based Voicemail
International Voicemail Association
Public telephone services
Unified messaging
Virtual telephony
Instant messaging in voice
Unified messaging with VoIP
See also
References
Further reading

Voicemail can be used for personal calls, but more complex systems exist for companies and services to handle the volume of customer requests. The term is also used more broadly to denote any system of conveying stored telecommunications voice messages, including using older technology like answering machines.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “voicemail” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.