Launch of AMD Feature on Telnyx | Telnyx Release Notes

We’re delighted to announce the launch of Telnyx Answering Machine Detection, now available with the programmable voice API — Call Control. Using Answering Machine Detection, you can deliver a better calling experience, at the same time gathering valuable data about how often your outbound calls are picked up by humans or machines.

Outbound calling is a critical communication channel for many businesses, whether you’re following up on potential sales leads, providing customers with important updates, or collecting customer data via voice surveys.

The first step in delivering a great experience is understanding who’s answering the call. Telnyx Answering Machine Detection will tell you in real-time whether your call has been answered by a human or machine, so you can tailor your experience accordingly.

What Is Answering Machine Detection?

Answering Machine Detection (AMD) is a feature that determines whether a machine or a human answered a call. It can be applied to any automated outbound call, including outbound IVRs, text-to-speech, pre-recorded calls and click-to-call.

How Answering Machine Detection Works

When initiating a call using the Telnyx voice API, simply choose an answering machine detection configuration. Then, once the call is answered our AMD algorithm will automatically detect in real-time if a human or machine has picked up the call. Telnyx will automatically send you webhooks when:

• A human or machine is detected, so you can use call progress analysis to determine the next step in your call flow.
• If a machine is detected, we’ll let you know when the machine greeting ends, so you can leave a complete message rather than frustrating customers with half-messages left on their voicemail.

Choose one of our out of the box configurations, or build your own configuration using our flexible parameters.

What types of businesses use Answering Machine Detection?

AMD can be used by any business using automated outbound calling. Answering Machine Detection adds value to these channels by differentiating messages when they’re picked up by an answering machine or voicemail. Some of the most common use cases include:

• Outbound IVRs_: engage customers with a personalized experience, driving high-value inbound calls or deflecting avoidable calls by proactively providing important information.
• Text-to-speech: dynamically merge fields into a voice broadcast message i.e. appointment reminders.
• Click-to-call: create an easy way to connect customers with sales or support teams, directly from your website.

What are the benefits of using Answering Machine Detection?

Did you know that 80% of phone calls go straight to voicemail? And, sales reps spend an average of 25 hours a month leaving voicemail messages. Answering Machine Detection brings with it a host of benefits, boosting agent productivity, increasing agent talktime, and driving sales conversions— all by ensuring agent time is spent on live calls with prospective customers.

Answering Machine Detection also enables businesses to improve their customer experiences (CX), automating the proactive distribution of critical information, and automating callbacks, so customers are guaranteed to receive the call they’ve requested.

How much does Answering Machine Detection cost?

Telnyx Answering Machine Detection is free of charge with the Telnyx Programmable Voice API - Call Control, so you only pay for the call cost, starting at just $0.002 per minute. Twilio’s equivalent is charged at $0.0075 per call, on top of a minimum of $0.004 per minute for the call. So, Telnyx is a far more cost-effective option if you want to use this feature.

You can view detailed Telnyx pricing information here.

How do I get starting using Answering Machine Detection?

To get started using Telnyx Answering Machine Detection, the first step is to sign up for a free portal account. Then, follow the steps in the quickstart guide to get set up to make outbound calls. Finally, check out the Answering Machine Detection API docs for specific information about how to configure AMD with your application.

Answering Machine Detection enhances an extensive suite of features already available on the Telnyx programmable voice API. Other available features include the ability to record and conference calls, play audio, fork call media, capture caller inputs and more.

Questions? Join our 24/7 developer slack channel or get in touch with our team of experts.