Topic

Bypassing voicemail detection in Everbridge Suite.

Description

Sometimes your contacts may receive voicemail messages from Everbridge when they should be receiving the notification message.How can you ensure that your contacts will hear the notification message instead of the voicemail message when they pick up the phone?

The Everbridge system performs an audio analysis when determining whether to deliver the notification message to an actual contact or the voicemail message to a voicemail service or answering machine. This audio analysis can take up to five and a half seconds and begins when the call is answered. 

Due to factors out of our control, there is no way to develop a solution that will accurately detect voicemail 100% of the time. However, there are some ways to mitigate this issue.

If you have contacts receiving voicemail messages when they should be receiving notification messages, have them try the following:

• During the audio analysis phase, contacts can press any key on their mobile or landline phone to trigger the notification message, or
• The manner in which a user records his/her greeting may also impact the accurate detection of machine versus live. Recipients should answer the phone with a short greeting, like "Hello".  If silence is detected for 1.5 seconds, our system will say "Hello" in an attempt to prompt the recipient to say "Hello" back. Our system is looking for a pause and if noise is detected for longer than three seconds, we assume we have reached a voicemail.

For more information on voicemail detection see knowledge article EBS: How to Bypass Voicemail Detection in Everbridge Suite.