Simulring with Voicemails

I've got a basic twilio setup using studio for a simple IVR (like less than 20 minute setup kind of simple).

One thing I'm doing is using simulring to hit multiple parties and whoever answers. The issue I'm having is that if there is a voicemail to be hit, it appears to be ok with that and then plays the endpoints custom voicemail.

That's not really good with our setup.

Do you guys know how I can trigger the calls to multiple phones, detect a real person and then transfer the call, otherwise trigger a voicemail?

I can't imagine this is unique.

1 Answer

Twilio developer evangelist here.

There are two options you can use here, either call screening/human detection, in which you ask the person answering the phone to, for example, dial 1. A voicemail won't do this and you can leave a message or hang up, a human will dial the number and you can then take them on to the rest of the call. Or there is answering machine detection (AMD). When making an outbound call with AMD, once detected Twilio will make the webhook callback with a parameter that describes whether the call was answered by a human or a machine.

I recommend reading this article on both options, which should help you to understand what will work best for your use-case.

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James H. Sterling

James H. Sterling

Environmental Science & Climate Journalist

James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.

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