How to Switch On AMD for an Outbound VICIdial Campaign

Switching on answering machine detection (AMD (answering machine detection)) for an outbound campaign (Campaign) is a short job once you know where to click. The work splits into two parts: making sure your server can run AMD at all, then flipping one setting on the campaign. Here is the full sequence.

Step 1: Confirm AMD is available on the server

AMD relies on the optional Asterisk AMD application being loaded. On a default VICIdial install or a VICIBox Server ISO build, this is already in place, so you can usually skip ahead. If you built your own environment, confirm the application is loaded or the feature will silently do nothing.

Next, check that the AMD-enabled processor exists in your dialplan (Dialplan). You are looking for the extension 8369 block and the 8320 block in extensions.conf. The 8369 entry plays a short silence, logs the call, runs the Asterisk AMD analysis, runs the VD_amd.agi script, then hands the call to the outbound routing AGI. The 8320 entry handles playing a message to a detected machine. On a default or VICIBox install these are already present.

• If you had to add either block, reload the dialplan: restart Asterisk, run dialplan reload on the CLI, or open Admin then Servers and click submit to trigger a reload.

Step 2: Point the campaign at the AMD processor

Open the VICIdial admin site and go to the Campaign Detail modification page for the campaign you want to change. Find the Campaign VDAD exten field and change it to 8369. That single change routes every dialed call through the AMD-enabled call processor instead of the standard one. Save the campaign.

flowchart LR
  A[Campaign VDAD exten 8369] --> B[Play short silence]
  B --> C[Log the call]
  C --> D[Run Asterisk AMD]
  D --> E[Run VD_amd.agi]
  E --> F{Human or machine}
  F -->|Human| G[Send to agent]
  F -->|Machine| H[Divert or drop message]

One important guardrail: this only works with auto-dial methods such as ratio dialing (Ratio dialing) or adaptive dialing (Adaptive dialing). If your campaign dial method (Dial method) is MANUAL or INBOUND_MAN, AMD will not run no matter how the field is set.

Step 3 (optional): Leave a message on machines

If you want to drop a recorded message on calls flagged as machines, set the AMD send to vm exten field to Y and put a pre-recorded prompt filename in the Answering Machine Message field. You can pick a built-in prompt from the audio chooser, or record your own.

1. Dial 8168 from a registered phone and follow the prompts. The PIN it asks for is 4321.
2. Write down the prompt ID it reads back. Prompt IDs start at 85100001.
3. Paste that prompt ID into the Answering Machine Message field, or pick it from the audio chooser.

Record the message twice back to back if it is short. A clipped start is common when a machine is still settling, and recording it twice means the listener catches the whole thing at least once. Use GSM 8k 8-bit mono or WAV PCM 8k 16-bit mono. This same approach powers voicemail drop (Voicemail drop) on machine answers.

Before you commit AMD to a live campaign, it helps to know what it is doing under the hood. Read how VICIdial AMD detects machines, and for the full overview see the AMD and CPD complete guide.

Want it set up for you

Editing dialplans and tuning AMD is exactly the kind of work a managed host should handle. On VICIfast the AMD processor is already in place and we tune detection against your real leads. To get started, see VICIfast pricing.