What is voicemail? – Dstny explains!
Whether you can’t or don’t want to answer your phone you can use a voicemail, that will receive the calls the you don’t answer. It records messages from the caller that you can listen to after and call back.
The voicemail receives the calls that the phone owner can’t or don’t want to answer. There is often a pre-recorded message that the caller will hear, before they can leave a voicemail to inform the recipient of their errand.
When the voicemail is activated you can often decide yourself if it should be enabled automatically after five signals (so that the phone doesn’t keep calling forever) or a after a longer period. This of course depends on how much time you want to have before answering.
- The voicemail was invented in 1898, but it wasn’t really working.
- A voicemail that worked was invented in the 1930s.The inventor was a Danish man named Valdemar Poulsen.
- The voicemail can be a separate part of the phone or built-in.
- The purpose of voicemail is that it answers with a pre-recorded message.
- On some voicemails you can hear the message, that is recorded, in real time.
- Mobile phones have their own equivalent of voicemail.
The history of voicemail
Valdemar Poulsen made a first attempt at inventing the voicemail in the 1800s. His method consisted of recording signals with a metal wire and a magnet, so they could be played over and over. The quality of the recording was however wasn’t up to par.
Approximately 30 years after his first attempt at voicemail he succeeded with one that worked much better. This has since launch been developed into recording messages on electronic memory currents. The voicemail signals when a new message arrives with blinking or show numbers for how many messages have arrived.
If a voicemail has listening-in, the person who receives the call can stand next to the voicemail and listen to the messages that are recorder, directly when they appear. If it’s something important the person can choose to answer, before the caller has hung up.
Mobile phones use voicemail
Today’s mobile phones have voicemail functions, where all messages are collected in a voicemail which the phone owner later can access. You can either record a message that the caller will be met by, or you can choose a standard message that is prepared by the telephony supplier.
Voicemail is often included when you sign a subscription, and the service itself is usually free. It does however sometimes cost to call a voicemail, so it may be a small sum to listen to your messages. In the voicemail you can then choose to save or delete the messages.
Since messages can be saved in the voicemail you can easily go back and listen to the old ones, maybe write down something important that was said or double check something. The sender doesn’t know if you’ve listened or not, and you can choose to call back later whenever you want.