Voicemail
Hear what callers left when nobody could answer, read the transcript, and see which messages are still new.
Open Settings → Voicemail to work the practice's voicemail inbox. Anyone who can take calls can open it and play every message — front desk and telesales included. The inbox is part of SmileLine Voice; without the add-on the page points you to Settings → Billing instead of listing messages.
A voicemail is created whenever a call ends with a message: nobody answered in time, routing sent the caller to voicemail, all lines were busy, or the number is parked because Voice is switched off.
How a message ends
There is no time limit on a message. After the greeting and the tone the caller talks for as long as they need — a four-minute message is stored whole. The message ends in one of three ways:
- The caller hangs up. The recording is saved as it stands.
- The caller stops talking. After about ten seconds of silence the recording is saved, the caller hears "Thank you, your message has been saved. Goodbye." and the call ends — nobody is left on an open line.
- The carrier's own ceiling (four hours) is reached, which ends the recording the same way.
A caller who hangs up within a couple of seconds of the tone left no message. Nothing appears in this inbox for them; the call shows as an ordinary missed call with the usual missed-call alert, so you can still ring them back.
When every voicemail line is busy — a burst of callers all reaching voicemail at once — a further caller hears a busy tone instead of the greeting. That call is logged as missed and the practice gets the missed-call alert for it, exactly as for a call nobody answered.
Work the inbox
Messages are listed newest first, 50 at a time — click Load older under the list for the next page. Each row shows who called — the patient's name when SmileLine recognises the number, otherwise the number itself — plus when it arrived and how long it is. The card label counts what is still new across the whole inbox, not just the messages on screen.
Click Play to listen. A green dot on the left means nobody has played it yet; it clears once the audio has actually loaded, so a message whose recording could not be fetched stays new for everyone.
Click a patient's name to open their record and carry on from the timeline.
Click Hide to collapse the player again.
New messages appear while the page is open — you do not need to refresh.
Transcripts
Anyone who can take calls can read the message's transcript — press Transcript on the row, with or without playing the audio. SmileLine transcribes voicemails and recorded calls automatically after the audio is stored, so a long message can be read in seconds instead of listened to.
Every role that can take calls can play a voicemail here. Call recordings Listening stays with the media permission, so a front-desk member without it can read the transcript but not play the audio.
Transcription is automatic and needs no setting. A message that arrives while transcription is still catching up shows the audio first; the transcript appears once it is ready.
When a message could not be recorded
If the carrier fails to record a message, nothing is listed here — there is no audio to play — but the call is never lost. The practice still receives the missed-call notification, which says the voicemail could not be recorded, and the call stays in call history without a playback control. Nothing is retried in the background: ring the caller back.
Expired audio
Voicemail audio follows the practice's call-recording retention window. When that window passes, the audio is deleted and the row shows Audio expired. The transcript is deleted with the audio: nothing of the message outlives the retention window.
The row itself stays: who called, when, and how long they spoke remain as history, and so does the transcript. Retention removes the recording, not the record that the call happened.
Next steps
Call routing
Decide who rings when a number is called, what happens outside opening hours, and how a keypad menu sends callers to the right team.
AI receptionist
Let the practice's AI voice agent answer calls in natural conversation — book appointments, capture new enquiries, transfer to the team, and cover the hours nobody is at the desk.