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Voicemail Reference Guide

Here is a guide on how to access your messages, upload or remove greetings, and more.

What is the Voicemail Manager?

The Voicemail Manager can be used to listen to voicemail and manage mailbox messages. The extensions or phone numbers assigned to the Voicemail Manager can be found under PBX Settings then Voicemail Manager. By default, the Voicemail Manager gets extension '*98' and can be dialed directly or through any attendant menu that has enabled extension dialing.

1. HIPPA Compliant

Voicemails that are sitting in the voice mailbox and not sent as an attachment to an email, are stored in AWS S3, and is handled in a manner consistent with your HIPAA obligations.  Voicemail that is sent as an email attachment from our voicemail system arrives encrypted (TLS).

    with TLS (see "security" field):

     no TLS (there's no "security" field as seen above):

2. Accessing Voicemail Manager

To access the voicemail manager, dial *98 on your OnSIP registered phone or device. Next, enter your mailbox number, followed by your mailbox password. (Tip: Press # after your mailbox number and password to speed up the process.)

If you do not know your voicemail password, please contact your OnSIP Account Administrator. If you are using the OnSIP app, your credentials are located in My Dashboard > the Settings button next to Voicemail on the right side of the dashboard. Your Mailbox Number and Password will be listed in the popup box. Otherwise, your OnSIP Account Administrator can provide this same information found in the Inbound Call Settings, Voicemail.

You will be directed to the main menu:

  • Press 1 to listen to messages
  • Press 2 to change folders
  • Press 0 for mailbox options
  • Press * to repeat the main menu options
  • Press # to exit (end the call)

3. Change voicemail PIN / password

To change your voicemail password, press 4 from the mailbox options menu. You will be prompted to enter your new password (we recommend at least 4-digits). You will then be prompted to re-enter the new password a second time. You will then be automatically redirected to the mailbox options menu.

The voicemail PIN/password can be a max of 7 digits, so long as they are not all 0 and can be as short as 1 digit, so long as it's not 0.  The best practice is to use at least 4 digits in your PIN/Password.

4. Listen to messages

To listen to messages, press 1 from the main menu. By default, you will be in the New messages folder. The first message will start playing automatically. Once the message has finished, you will be presented with the following options:

  • Press 4 to listen to the previous message
  • Press 5 to replay the message
  • Press 6 to listen to the next message
  • Press 7 to delete the message
  • Press 8 to forward the message to another user
  • Press 9 to save the message to a folder
  • Press 3 for advanced options
  • Press * to go back to the main menu

5. Forward the message to another user

To forward a voicemail message to another user, press 8 after hearing the message. You will be prompted to enter the voice mailbox number of the user to whom you wish to forward the message. You will then be presented with three options:

  • Press 1 to prepend the message
  • Press 2 to send the message as is
  • Press * to go back to the messages menu

If you wish to prepend the voicemail with a message, press 1 to start recording. Once you are finished, press #. Your voicemail message will then be sent to the other user.

6. Save the message to a folder

To save the message to a folder, press 9 after hearing the message. You will then be presented with five folder options:

  • Press 0 for New
  • Press 1 for Old
  • Press 2 for Work
  • Press 3 for Family
  • Press 4 for Friends
  • Press * to return to the messages menu

You will then be redirected to the messages menu.

7. Advanced options

To hear advanced options, press 3 after hearing the message. You can then press 1 to hear envelope information, which includes caller ID, message date and time, and message duration. Once you are finished, press * to return to the messages menu.

8. Change mailbox folders

To access voicemail messages in a different folder, press 2 from the main menu. You will then be presented with five folder options:

  • Press 0 for New
  • Press 1 for Old
  • Press 2 for Work
  • Press 3 for Family
  • Press 4 for Friends
  • Press * to go back to the main menu

Select the folder you wish to access. You will then be directed back to the main menu. To listen to messages in the folder, press 1. Press * to cancel.

9. Mailbox options

To access mailbox options, press 0 from the main menu. You will then be presented with the following options:

  • Press 1 to record an unavailable greeting.
  • Press 2 to record your name.
  • Press 3 to record a temporary greeting.
  • Press 4 to change your password.
  • Press * to go back to the main menu.

10. Voicemail Notification in the OnSIP app

If you have enabled Message Waiting Indicator (MWI) for your VM box in the OnSIP admin portal and have it pointing to your user, the OnSIP Voicemail System will send a  SIP NOTIFY message in real-time to the OnSIP app notifying the user that they have a new voicemail.  The voicemail counter will increase by one on your icon and the voicemail itself will show up in your list.

However, if you do not have MWI enabled, you must do a refresh of the OnSIP app to see your new voicemail in the list and for the counter to increase by one.  Just because it's "your" voice mailbox doesn't mean that OnSIP knows who to notify.  Remember, voicemailboxes are stand-alone entities.

As always, we can only notify (via MWI) one user.  E-mail is only one e-mail address, but that address can be a group on the customer's side.  That is the solution if a customer would like multiple people to receive voicemails and notification e-mails. 

11. Record an Unavailable Greeting, Name, or Temporary Greeting

Select the recording you wish to edit from the mailbox options menu. You will then be presented with one of the following scenarios:

If you do not have an existing recording, you will be prompted to start the recording. When you are done, press #. Next, you will be presented with the following options:

  • Press 1 to confirm your recording.
  • Press 2 to listen to your recording.
  • Press 3 to re-record your recording.
  • Press * to go back to the mailbox options menu. 

If you have an existing recording, you will hear these options:

  • Press 1 to record your greeting.
  • Press 2 to delete your recording.
  • Press * to return to the mailbox options.  

12. What is a Temporary Greeting?

From the voicemail box options, you can create a Temporary Greeting to put in place instead of your normal Unavailable Greeting (see above).  A Temporary Greeting would be something like "I will be out of the office until Friday", etc.   When created, the Temporary Greeting will override the original normal Unavailable Greeting until the User logs back into the voicemail box settings and removes the Temporary Greeting.  Once removed their original Unavailable Greeting will automatically be back in place. 

Steps to record a Temporary Greeting:

* Press *98 to reach the voicemail manager, enter the Voicemail box number / then PIN.
* From the prompts press 0 for Mailbox options.
* Then press 3 to record a temporary greeting.

 

Steps to remove/delete the Temporary Greeting:

* Press *98 to reach the voicemail manager, enter the Voicemail box number / then PIN.
* From the prompts press 0 for Mailbox options.

* Then press 3 for the temporary greeting.

* Then press 2 to delete your temporary recording.

 

 

13. Not Sure What to Record?

Check out some of our voicemail greeting script blogs to craft the right message for your callers:

14. Uploading WAV files to Voicemail

You can now upload an unavailable greeting using either the OnSIP softphone app or through ‘Resources’ in the Admin Portal.

The OnSIP App

Log into app.onsip.com or open the desktop app. In the Voicemail section of My Dashboard, click on the Manage Voicemail button. Toggle the Custom Greeting switch to ON. Then, click on the record greeting microphone to record a greeting from the app directly or the Upload Greeting to choose a file to upload.  Then Save at the bottom right to save your changes. 

The OnSIP App as Administrator

What if you have a voice mailbox for a Group that doesn't belong to any one User.  Not a problem.  Log into the OnSIP App as Admin, click Administrators, then Inbound Call Settings, Voicemail and locate the voice mailbox and click to expand boxes, in the Custom Greeting tab, click “Add a Greeting” and either record or upload a greeting here and “Save Changes”.


***Uploaded files must be a WAV file (PCM, 8,000hz and 16-bit stereo) and cannot exceed 1 minute (60-seconds) in length and the file must not exceed 30MB.  We have had success using WavePad to convert files to the above file type.

 

15. Maximum Voicemail Length / Number of Stored Messages

The maximum voicemail length, the length for which a caller can leave a message, is limited to 5-minutes.  We do test for dead air.  If there is no audio for 10-seconds, we will stop recording.

The maximum number of messages in a single mailbox (old and/or new) is 100.  If a voice mailbox has reached this limit, calls that are sent/reach voicemail will be given an error message and disconnected.  It is very important to monitor the number of messages kept in a single voice mailbox.

OnSIP recommends that your Users choose to send the voicemail as a WAV file and that the messages are deleted after sending (setting available as part of voice mailbox setup), from the phone.  If you do not want to automatically delete messages from the phone, be sure to monitor your voice mailbox and consistently delete unwanted messages to ensure that it does not get full.

***NOTE: You will NOT get any form of notification if your voice mailbox is full.

16. Options for Voicemail Notification

There are 3 options for voicemail:

a. Default (virtual voice mailbox) - keeps all messages in the virtual voice mailbox.  Access messages would be by dialing *98>mailbox number >PIN/password and following the prompts.  If your virtual mailbox fills up with 99 messages old and/or new, your callers can not leave a message and are disconnected.  You will NOT get any form of notification if your voice mailbox is full.

b. Default (virtual voice mailbox) and Email attached .WAV file - keeps all messages in the virtual voice mailbox AND sends you an email notification.  Accessing messages is both via the email configured AND by dialing *98 >mailbox number>PIN/Password and follow prompts to delete.  These are independent actions.  Just because you deleted the voicemail from your email does *NOT* delete it from the virtual voice mailbox.  If your virtual mailbox fills up with 99 messages old and/or new, your callers can not leave a message and are disconnected.  You will NOT get any form of notification if your voice mailbox is full.

c. Email-only/Delete After Sending - All voicemails are sent directly to the email address on file and no messages are kept within the OnSIP system.  Your OnSIP voice mailbox will never fill since the messages are no longer stored virtually.

17. How to Delete Messages from a Full Voice Mailbox

There is not a way to see how many voicemails are in a voicemail box from the admin portal.  You can see this, however, using the OnSIP app.

There are two ways you can delete a full voice mailbox.

  • From your phone dial *98 >mailbox number >PIN >follow prompts to listen to a message >7 to delete.  To move to the next message, and not listen to it, press 6 > press 7 to delete >6 to next message >press 7 to delete >etc. ># when done or simply hang up.  This will take a few minutes to complete.
  • A quicker way is by logging into your OnSIP app. Once logged in, go to the Voicemail section in My Dashboard > click on the checkbox next to the specific voicemail itself > scroll down to the bottom of the Voicemail section > click on the Trash Bin icon > in the popup box, click on the ‘Delete Selected’ button to delete the specific message.

18. How to Delete Messages from a Full Voice Mailbox Not Assigned to a User (i.e. Group, Attendant Menu, Announcement failover, etc.)

Quickest Way:
From your phone dial *98 >mailbox number >PIN >follow prompts to listen to a message >7 to delete.  To move to the next message, and not listen to it, press 6 > press 7 to delete >6 to next message >press 7 to delete >etc. ># when done or simply hang up.  This will take a few minutes to complete.

A Bit More Work:
You can temporarily change your failover within the OnSIP App as the Admin (Select Users> Call Settings) FROM your own voice mailbox TO the voice mailbox you need to access: User >click on your name to expand boxes >Call Settings >locate the voice mailbox and set it as your failover >save then:
Log into the OnSIP app > go to the Voicemail section in My Dashboard > click on the checkbox next to the specific voicemail itself, or click on the checkboxes of all of the voicemails that you want to delete > scroll down to the bottom of the Voicemail section > click on the Trash Bin icon > in the popup box, click on the ‘Delete Selected’ button to delete the specific message(s).

 

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