How to record an audio prompt over the phone (dial 8168)

Most people think the only way to add audio to VICIdial is to record a file on a laptop, convert it, and upload it. There is a faster path that needs nothing but a phone. Dial 8168 from any Extension — the phone number you log into on a softphone or hardphone — and the system records your voice straight into a usable prompt file. No editor, no file transfer, no Recording format (WAV/MP3) conversion to worry about. This is the quickest way to get a greeting, a menu intro, or a quick announcement into the dialer.

The exact key sequence

The whole thing is a short menu you drive with the keypad. Follow it in order and you will have a saved prompt in under a minute:

1. Dial 8168 from a phone connected to your VICIdial server.
2. When asked for an ID, enter the PIN followed by the pound (hash) key.
3. Listen to the recording instructions, then wait for the beep.
4. Speak your message clearly after the beep.
5. Press the pound (hash) key when you are done recording.
6. Choose from the menu: press 1 to save, 2 to listen back, or 3 to re-record.
7. Once you accept the recording, the system reads the filename back to you. Write it down.

What the flow looks like

sequenceDiagram
    participant You
    participant Phone
    participant Recorder as 8168 Recorder
    You->>Phone: Dial 8168
    Phone->>Recorder: Connect
    Recorder->>You: Ask for PIN
    You->>Recorder: Enter PIN then pound
    Recorder->>You: Instructions then beep
    You->>Recorder: Speak message then press pound
    Recorder->>You: Press 1 save 2 listen 3 redo
    You->>Recorder: Press 1 save
    Recorder->>You: Reads back filename

When phone recording is the right tool

Recording by phone is great for getting something live fast — a quick greeting, a placeholder menu intro, or a draft you will polish later. It is not the best path when you need studio-quality audio, multiple takes spliced together, or a Welcome message that has to sound exactly right. For those, record the file properly and bring it in another way. We cover the upload route in uploading an audio prompt to VICIdial, which lands the file in the same place the dialer reads from.

Phone-recorded prompts can drop into a lot of fields — answering-machine messages, Safe Harbor message greetings on a Campaign, and drop messages on an Ingroup. The key idea is that the recorder just produces a file; where you use it is up to you. For the wider picture of how every audio surface fits together, read our guide to VICIdial audio prompts, voicemail, and TTS.

Get the recording right the first time

A couple of habits make phone recording far less painful. First, write your script down before you dial — reading is steadier than improvising, and pauses or filler words are baked in once you save. Second, always use option 2 to listen back before you commit with option 1. The recorder will happily save a half-second of silence followed by your message if you started speaking late, and you will not notice until a caller hears it.

Third, record one message per call. The system increments the filename every time you save a new file, so batching several greetings into a single session is fine, but keep your own log of which spoken message got which number. There is no rename step on the phone — the only way to tell two files apart later is to play them back.

If you are setting up a brand-new server, every part of this — the dialer, the audio store, and the phone recorder — is already wired and waiting. VICIfast provisions a fully configured VICIdial box in under 40 seconds, so you can dial 8168 and record your first prompt the moment you log in. See /pricing for plans.