The main purpose of the 168 is for mass storage. They use 2 hours of CPU time per month. Users access the system by dialing in from any touch-tone phone. Boise gave a demo of the actual system. All control for the system is by touch-tone.
Audio input is used only for message content.
The system automatically eliminates any long pauses from messages. Users don't have to worry about pausing when deciding what to say. The system also uses some other tricks to speed up playback without altering voice quality. Another unintended result is that recordings sound much more as if the person knows what he is talking about. You can record a message, and specify it to be delivered at some future time.