VICIdial AMD send to Action: What It Decides on a Machine

Once answering machine detection (AMD (answering machine detection)) flags a call as a machine, something has to happen to that call. The AMD send to Action setting is the switch that decides what. It is a small field with a big effect, because it controls whether you spend airtime leaving a message or cut the call instantly. This post walks through both outcomes and the field that drives them.

The two outcomes

AMD send to Action has a default of N. With N, a call is hung up the instant detection decides it is a machine. Nothing is played, no agent is involved, and the call ends. This is the lean choice when you only want live conversations and have no interest in dropping a recorded message.

Turn the setting on and the detected machine is sent onward instead of dropped. From there the call goes to either the Answering Machine Message defined for the campaign or to the CPD AMD Action, depending on how the rest of your detection is configured. That is the path you take when you want a voicemail drop (Voicemail drop) to land on machines rather than throwing those answers away.

Decision flow

flowchart TD
  A[Call answered] --> B{AMD result}
  B -->|Human| C[Route to agent]
  B -->|Machine| D{AMD send to Action}
  D -->|N default| E[Hang up immediately]
  D -->|Enabled| F{Next destination}
  F --> G[Answering Machine Message]
  F --> H[CPD AMD Action]

Pairing it with the message fields

If you want a message played, the action setting alone is not enough. You also enable the AMD send to vm exten field and put a recorded prompt filename into the Answering Machine Message field. That prompt has to exist in your audio store in GSM 8k 8-bit mono or WAV PCM 8k 16-bit mono format. A common practice is recording the message twice end to end, so a clipped start still gets heard once. Without a valid prompt in place, enabling the action just sends the call somewhere with nothing to say.

Whichever way you set it, the call status (Status (lead status)) recorded for that lead reflects the outcome, so your reporting stays honest about how many machines you hung up on versus messaged. If you do leave messages, the Voicemail Message Daily Limit caps how often a single lead hears one in a day, after which those calls are hung up instead. That keeps you from dropping the same recording onto the same voicemail box again and again.

Why the default is N

The setting ships at N because the simplest behavior is the safest one. Hanging up the moment a machine is detected costs no airtime, ties up no agent, and leaves no recording to maintain or worry about. Detection itself is never perfect, so the default keeps you from leaving messages based on a verdict that might be wrong on the margins. You opt into the message path deliberately, once you have a clean recording and a reason to use it.

Keep in mind that detection only runs at all on auto-dial campaigns. If you are dialing through a manual method, the engine never inspects the call, so AMD send to Action has nothing to act on. Confirm your campaign uses an auto-dial method before you expect this field to do anything.

Which value should you pick

• Use N when you only want live answers and machines should drop instantly.
• Enable it when a recorded message or CPD action adds value on machines.
• Remember it only fires on auto-dial campaigns, not manual dialing (Manual dialing (click to dial)).

For the wider context on routing detected calls, read our AMD and CPD complete guide, and to compare the two outcomes in depth see hang up the machine or leave a message.

On a managed VICIfast cluster the message extension, audio store, and detection processor are already in place, so flipping AMD send to Action is a one-field decision rather than a build project. See VICIfast pricing to start with the plumbing handled.