how many times have been expecting a call, and waited for it before going out of mobile reception area (e.g. onto the underground/metro, into a meeting) ? probably none.

however, if you have, wouldn't it be nice if you could record a message for a specific person (e.g. your boss) or for a specific time (e.g. I'm sorry I can't get to the phone I'm on the train), you could even pre-record a selection // end of original message

I can see how you might do this for a landline, but it makes more sense for mobiles..

and...I'm not suggesting you'd want to do this all the time at all, just that when you do want to do this it would be handy..

and...good point about just phone them and leave a message, but I'm thinking you might want to do this when you're having difficulty contacting them
-- neilp, May 27 2003

Caller ID Answering Machine http://www.halfbake...Answering_20Machine
The idea is actually about something else, but see note by supercat. No link, though. [DrCurry, Oct 05 2004]

Software http://www.softcab.com/apserver/index.asp
[DrCurry, Oct 05 2004]

activity vs. person specific http://www.halfbake...related_20voicemail
you could just have specifics for each activity which is nice too. [neilp, Oct 05 2004]

Actually that's pretty clever, that is if the phone can recognize who's calling before it delivers your boss' message to your wife or vice versa.
But then, if you have a specific message for one person wouldn't it be the message you had already left on their voice mail when you asked them to call you? In other words, why not call and give them the message you need them to know as opposed to leaving it on your voicemail?
-- k_sra, May 27 2003


Good idea but I think we did this one before, and someone linked to some possible solutions.
-- DrCurry, May 27 2003


Some answering machines offer the "specific person" feature. My U.S. Robotics modem came with software that lets me do this, as well.

For a P.C.-based answering system, I imagine one could swap out the answer message programatically, but I don't know of any that offer this feature. I'm sure it would be of limited value anyway. Who really cares where you are (or where you expect yourself to be)? Who would take the time to keep changing the messages?
-- phoenix, May 27 2003


There are caller ID answering machines that can do this.
-- waugsqueke, May 27 2003


this was specifically intended as a cellular phone add-on, would be easy enough to implement on a land line
-- neilp, Jul 25 2003


I got the answering machine of a colleague in Finland once, and some time after leaving my message and hanging up, a little light went on in my head. I realized suddenly that his outgoing message was in English, not Finnish. It took me a while to realize it must have been a caller ID-type system like waugs mentions.
-- beauxeault, Jul 25 2003


thanks [beaux] - but now everyone uses mobiles, surely it needs to be re-baked on this platform?
-- neilp, Jul 26 2003



random, halfbakery