page_title: Answering machine
hierarchical_section_title: Answering machine
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Panasonic Anrufbeantworter mit 2 Kassetten (Ansage- und Aufzeichnungskassette English: Panasonic answering machine with 2 tapes
context_page_description: The answering machine, answerphone or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone, or telephone answering device, is used for answering telephones and recording callers' messages. If a phone rings a predetermined number of times by the phone's owner, and nobody is present to answer the incoming call, the answering machine will activate and play either a generic announcement or the voice of the person being called announcing that nobody is able to come to the phone at the moment. Following the announcement is a beeping tone which enables the caller to record his or her message after the tone concludes.
  Unlike voicemail, which can be a centralized or networked system that covers, and mostly extends, similar functions, an answering machine is set up in the user's premises alongside—or incorporated within—the user's land-line telephone. Unlike operator messaging the caller does not talk to a human.
  As landlines become less important, due to the shift to cell phone technology, and as unified communications matures, the installed base of TADs is shrinking.
context_section_description: The answering machine, answerphone or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), is used for answering telephones and recording callers' messages. If a phone rings a predetermined number of times by the phone's owner, and nobody is present to answer the incoming call,  the answering machine will activate and play either a generic announcement or the voice of the person being called announcing that nobody is able to come to the phone at the moment.  Following the announcement is a beeping tone which enables the caller to record his or her message after the tone concludes.
  Unlike voicemail, which can be a centralized or networked system that covers, and mostly extends, similar functions, an answering machine is set up in the user's premises alongside—or incorporated within—the user's land-line telephone. Unlike operator messaging the caller does not talk to a human.
  As landlines become less important, due to the shift to cell phone technology, and as unified communications matures, the installed base of TADs is shrinking.
caption: A Panasonic answering machine with a dual compact cassette tape drive to record and replay messages
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