Voicemail transcription
Understand how a recorded voicemail becomes text and how to handle pending or failed processing.
Recording and transcription
A voicemail stores the caller’s recording. Transcription processes that recording into text for review. A saved recording can exist before its transcript is ready, and transcription can fail without deleting the original audio.
How Message.com processes it
After a voicemail recording is finalized, Message.com creates its voicemail record and starts transcription asynchronously. The API exposes recordingDurationMs, recordingUrl, transcription and transcriptionStatus. It does not expose a universal transcriptConfidence field or word-level segments on every voicemail.
Check important details
Background noise, names, numbers, accents and unclear speech can affect recognition. Listen to the recording before acting on an uncertain address, account number or request. A transcript is an aid, not proof that the request is authorized.
Review and follow up
Open Phones → Voicemail to review messages you are allowed to access. Mark a message listened when reviewed and done when handled. Reopen it if further work is needed. Department and extension access also apply to retrying transcription.
Retry a failed transcription
POST /api/v1/voicemails/:id/transcribe returns HTTP 202 when processing starts. This is not a completed transcript. Refresh the voicemail list to read the resulting status. A missing or inaccessible voicemail must not be retried from another agent’s mailbox.