Voicemail is great but there’s a catch—your message and the voicemail could be out of sync, causing the start of your message to get chopped off. PastorsLine now has an algorithm that can detect voicemail machines. This is called "Machine Detection." Machine Detection helps determine when the voicemail is more than likely finished "speaking" so we start playing your message when the device is actually recording.
Let's talk first about the two options.
Then let's discuss the pricing.
TWO OPTIONS TO CHECK FOR MACHINES INSTEAD OF PEOPLE
Machine detection
This is the PastorsLine default. We check for machines instead of people for each number called. However, if you turn on 'Call screening' (see just below), it decreases the chances that machine detection will be used. The reason is that if the person presses '1' (for example), then PastorsLine knows that the receiver is a real person and not a machine.
Call screening
On Step 3, just before you send your message, at the top of the screen, toggle on "Call Screening Greeting".
PRICING
Sending a voice message (Voice Broadcast) will cost 2 credits per minutes plus machine detection if used. The costs of machine detection is an additional flat rate of 0.5 credits per number called.
To reduce the cost of machine detection...
You can turn on call screening. The reason this can happen: since call screening will be on, machine detection is likely to be used less frequently.
However, it DOES add additional seconds to the call, so that might bump your call price into the next minute and double the credit cost. This is something for you to look at and monitor.
Here are two examples:
Your voice recording is 30 seconds long.
Without call screening: the length remains 30 seconds. So, the broadcast would cost 2.5 credits per person (per number called) because of the machine detection cost of 0.5 credits per call.
With call screening: the length will be around 45 seconds. This is still under 1 minute, so the broadcast would cost 2 credits per person (per number called).
Your voice recording is 50 seconds long.
Without call screening: the length remains 50 seconds (under a minute). So, the broadcast would cost 2.5 credits per person (per number called) because of the machine detection cost of 0.5 credits per call.
With call screening: the length will be around 65 seconds (1 minute, 5 seconds). This is now OVER 1 min, so the broadcast would cost 4 credits per person (per number called).
CONCLUSION?
If adding the call screening bumps your voice recording length to more than 1 minute, it will be cheaper to use machine detection.
If adding the call screening keeps your voice recording length to 1 minute or less, it will likely be cheaper to turn on call screening.