Does anyone know how to setup Answering Machine Detect so that when a call is placed through the system and an answering machine picks up that the logs show the call as some special type like voice mail or something insted of ANSWERED so we can tell the difference?
Most of my calls are forwarded so inbound route -> ring group -> external number
and all the proper statuses are shown in the logs however I would like to be able to tell when an answering machine has picked up the call in the logs.
This is a tough question. First of all, to asterisk, what is different from the way an answering machine answers a call than the way a human answers the call. There’s really none either electrically or aurally. So there’s nothing FreePBX can key on to tell the difference.
Now the next question is:
How are you planning to use the feature you’re planning to set up?
If this is going to employees who are working from home, you might be able to use the “Follow Me” feature with confirmation.
With confirmation turned on, the called party must press 1 to receive the call. This feature is specifically recommended for determining whether the call was answered by an answering machine or a live body.
Bill/W5WAF
Since Asterisk 1.4 we’ve had the AMD Answering Machine Detect function. http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/index.php?page=Asterisk+cmd+AMD
As that list points out there are some key differences between an answering machine greeting and me answering the phone live with “This is Lyle…”.
As for integrating this into FreePBX I don’t know where to guide you, but that function is the key to solving the OP’s problem.
–Lyle E. Dodge
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