Voice Mail Preview FAQ (Part 1)

Voice Mail Preview is one of the Exchange 2010 features that’s received a lot of attention. Over the past few months, I’ve received many messages from users who have questions about it. A few questions appeared much more often than others, so I found it, err, convenient to put together a frequently-asked-questions list for Voice Mail Preview. In my next few blog postings, I’d like to share these questions (and my answers) with you.

 

What is Voice Mail Preview?

Voice Mail Preview is a feature of Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging. If you receive your voice mail through Exchange Unified Messaging, you may see that voice mails contain text when they arrive. The text is produced by passing the voice recording through Microsoft automatic speech recognition technology.

clip_image002

Figure 1. Voice Mail Preview in Microsoft Outlook 2010

Does Voice Mail Preview mean that my Voice Mail is Searchable?

Yes. The words and phrases in the Voice Mail Preview are automatically indexed, so your Voice Mails can appear in searches. You can also use Outlook (2007 or later) or Outlook Web App (Exchange 2010) to add text in the Notes field if you need to add additional keywords for search.

Do I need to use Outlook or OWA to receive Voice Mail Previews?

No. The preview will be provided, as body text, in any e-mail client capable of reading messages from Exchange 2010. This includes mobile mail clients. However, Outlook and Outlook Web App will provide a richer rendering of the voice message and preview. In Outlook 2010, for example, the clicking on the preview text will cause audio playback to begin at about that position. This is useful, for example, when checking a telephone number that was spoken by the caller, before calling back.