answering machines
Automated telephone secretaries
Answering machines are devices that automatically answer telephone calls and record messages from callers when no one picks up.
The technology dominated home communication from the 1980s through the early 2000s: I'll check the answering machine when I get home.
Voicemail has largely replaced physical answering machines, though the term persists in phrases like leave a message on my answering machine.
- greetingExpression of welcome
- messagesSent pieces of communication
- microcassetteMiniaturized audio tape format
- recordingCaptured audio or video
- playbackReproducing recorded media
leave a message · answerphones · inbox · full mailbox · blinking · missed call · phone tag · call back · stop · ring · call · telephone · home phone · machines · screening · tape · rewind · busy
- obsolete techfloppy disk, VHS, dial-up modem, cassette tape, floppy disks
- dying industriesprint newspapers, landlines, payphones, cassette tapes, VCRs
- VTech productselectronic toys
answering machineslive operator
picking up the phone · live chat · direct line · hotline · switchboard operator
answer, machine, answers, mechanism, answering, answered, unanswered, answerers, answerer