Robo-dialing

Robo-dialing is the practice of automatically dialing phone numbers and playing a recorded message, with little or no live person on the line. The system does everything — picks the number, places the call, plays the audio — and a human may never be involved. It's the most automated and most scrutinized way to use a dialer.

In VICIdial this overlaps with broadcast dialing, where a recording goes out to a whole list, and with press 1 campaigns, where a recording asks the person to press a key to reach an agent. The common thread is that a machine, not a person, starts the conversation. That's what makes it "robo."

Why it matters: this is the category regulators care about most. Calling rules treat recorded, auto-placed calls very differently from a live agent dialing one number at a time, and the penalties for getting it wrong are real. You must honor your dnc (Do Not Call) list, you may owe a safe harbor message, and consent rules are strict.

If you only need to keep agents busy, normal predictive dialing still has a live person on every connected call and avoids most of this risk. Reserve robo-style campaign modes for cases where you've checked the legal ground carefully — they are not a default setting to switch on casually.