Where to Use VICIdial Phone-Recorded Prompts

Once you have recorded an audio prompt through VICIdial's extension 8168 and written down the filename (starting from 85100001), the next question is where to paste that number. VICIdial has six distinct locations across the Campaigns and In-Groups screens that accept a phone-recorded prompt filename. This post covers each one: where it sits in admin, what it plays, and when you would use it.

Fields in the Campaigns screen

flowchart TD
  A[Phone-recorded prompt filename] --> B[Campaigns screen]
  A --> C[In-Groups screen]
  B --> D[Answering Machine Message]
  B --> E[Safe Harbor Exten]
  B --> F[Campaign Survey options]
  C --> G[Drop Exten]
  C --> H[After-hours message]
  C --> I[Agent alert message]

The Campaigns screen in VICIdial admin (/vicidial/admin.php, then Campaigns) has two primary prompt fields. The first is the Answering Machine Message field. This controls what VICIdial plays when the answering machine detection system AMD (answering machine detection) identifies that a call has landed in voicemail. Instead of silence or a hang-up, VICIdial plays your recorded message to the voicemail system. You enter the numeric filename of your phone-recorded prompt — for example 85100001 — into this field and save the campaign. That message then plays on every detected voicemail for that campaign.

The second campaign field is Safe Harbor Exten, which is the FTC-required message for calls that exceed the allowable abandonment rate Safe Harbor message. When the dialer has used up its legal quota of abandoned calls Abandoned call and an additional call would be abandoned, it plays this recording instead of hanging up silently. The Safe Harbor Exten field accepts the same numeric prompt filename. The message must identify who is calling and provide an opt-out mechanism — your compliance team should script what you record here.

Fields in the In-Groups screen

In-Groups (inbound groups Ingroup) have three places that accept a phone-recorded prompt filename. The first is the Drop Exten field. When a call sits in queue too long and VICIdial drops it rather than continuing to hold the caller, it plays the Drop Exten recording before disconnecting. This is typically a message like "we're sorry, all agents are busy" with a callback number.

The second In-Group field is the after-hours message. When your In-Group is configured with call times Call times and a call arrives outside those hours, VICIdial plays this recording and disconnects. A good after-hours message tells the caller your business hours and invites them to call back. You set this under the In-Group's After Hours settings section, not in the main In-Group form.

The third In-Group field is the agent alert message. This recording plays to the agent when a call from this In-Group is delivered to them. It can be used to tell the agent which product line the caller contacted, which script to use, or any other context that changes based on the inbound number. The agent hears this before the caller is connected to them. Enter your prompt filename in the Agent Alert Extension field in the In-Group form.

Campaign Survey options

When a campaign is set up to run a survey (a recorded audio interaction that collects DTMF key presses from the person who answers), several of the survey option fields accept a phone-recorded prompt filename. These include the initial survey message, the response-confirmation prompts, and the branch messages for each DTMF choice. Survey configuration lives in the Campaign Survey section of the campaign edit form in the admin panel. Each prompt field in that section works the same way as the fields above — enter the numeric filename, save, and the recording plays at the relevant point in the survey flow.

Practical tips for managing multiple prompts

Because all six fields accept the same numeric format and the numbers look identical (85100001, 85100002, etc.), it is easy to mix them up. Keep a log of what each number contains — at minimum, write down the number, a description of the message, and which field it belongs in. If you record a replacement for an existing prompt, the replacement gets a new higher number — you cannot re-use the old number from within the phone interface. You will need to go back into each admin field and update the number to the new recording.

For a step-by-step guide to recording the prompt in the first place, see How to Record a VICIdial Audio Prompt by Phone. For the full overview of phone-based dialer functions available in VICIdial, see the VICIdial phone-based functions guide.

If you want a VICIdial server where these fields are ready to use from the first day — all dialplan contexts configured, sounds directory writable — every VICIfast plan ships a fully provisioned box in under 40 seconds.