Voicemail (or voice mail, voice-mail,
vmail or VMS, sometimes called messagebank) is a centralized
system of managing telephone messages for a large group of people.
In its simplest form it mimics the functions of an answering machine, uses
a standard telephone handset for the user interface, and uses a centralized,
computerized system rather than equipment at the individual telephone. Voicemail
systems are much more sophisticated than answering machines in that they
can:
answer many phones at the same time
store incoming voice messages in personalized
mailboxes associated with the user’s phone number
enable users to forward received messages
to another voice mailbox
send messages to one or more other user
voice mailboxes
add a voice introduction to a forwarded
message
store voice messages for future delivery
make calls to a telephone or paging
service to notify the user a message has arrived in his/her mailbox
transfer callers to another phone number
for personal assistance
play different message greetings to
different callers.
