Call Alerts and Handling

Help: User Guide

Call Alerts

A Call Alert is a window that appears on your computer screen when a call comes in. It shows you the name, number, city, and state of the calling party (where Caller ID is available). It also gives you several ways to handle the call:

Answer

Allows you to answer an incoming call.

Note: Using an AOL dial-up connection? If you choose to answer the call on your registered phone, AOL® Voicemail automatically ends your AOL session so you can take the call. Be sure to wait for the phone to ring once you choose Answer. When your call is done, you can go back online.

Take Call On...

Allows you to answer an incoming call by transferring it. When you receive a Call Alert and choose Take Call On, you can select where you would like the call to be transferred. You can send the call to one of three preset phone numbers, like your cell phone. Learn more about Transfer Numbers.

Send to Voicemail

The caller is prompted to leave a voicemail message for you. You can listen to a message as it is being left and interrupt to take the call if you want.

Tell Caller...

You have several options for replying to your caller. You can play one of four pre-recorded greetings for the caller: "I'll call you back," "Please call later," "Try my cell," or "Don't know you."

The "Don't Know You" greeting plays a special tone before telling callers that their phone number is not recognized. If the call happens to be a telemarketer using a computer controlled dialing system, this tone tells the computer that it has reached an invalid phone number.

Note: You will have two rings to choose a call handling option. If you do not choose one within the allotted time, the caller will be prompted to leave a message, which can be up to three minutes in length.

To change how incoming calls are handled:

Go to your Dashboard.
Click "Settings" and then click "Call Alerts".
Choose how you'd like incoming calls handled.

Sharing Alerts

Share your call alerts with other screen names. Set up other family members to monitor calls on your home phone line. Or, if you use a different screen name at the office, set it up so you can see who's calling your house while you're at work. Remember to monitor calls you need to have either the AOL 9.0 or higher software running, or AIM 6.0 or higher. When you set up a screen name you can also choose to give it the ability to screen messages while the caller records them. When you set up a screen name, we'll send a confirmation e-mail to its owner to confirm they agree before we send them alerts.

Answering Calls on Your Computer

If you choose to answer a call on your computer, your caller will hear that you want to take the call and to please hold while it is transferred. You will see an AIM Talk window appear on screen and an "Establishing Connection" message. Once your call is established you will be able to speak with your caller, at no additional cost. Your AIM Talk control options include:

End: ends your Talk session and the phone call.
Mute: mutes you so that your caller cannot hear your voice, but still allows you to hear your caller.

Transfer Numbers

Once you've set up Transfer Numbers, you will see them listed when you click "Take Call On..." in a Call Alert. When you choose one of your transfer numbers, the caller will hear a recording asking them to hold while the call is transferred. The call is then sent to the number of your choosing so you can speak to the caller. Callers can only be transferred to phone numbers within the United States (some territories excluded).

You can add up to transfer numbers. Here's how:

Go to your Dashboard.
Click "Settings" and then click "Transfer Numbers".
Enter a number and a short description (e.g. John's Cell).
Click "Save".

Note: Numbers must be in the United States (some territories excluded).

Get Notified of Calls While You're Talking on the Phone

AOL Voicemail can let you know of calls that you didn't receive because you were talking on the phone and your line was busy. This includes calls where the caller didn't leave a message. You'll get the details about the call by e-mail the next time you log on to AOL. To turn this feature on for additional email addresses, go to the "E-mail Settings" section of your Dashboard.

Note: if you subscribe to Call Waiting from your telephone company, it will notify you of incoming calls while you're talking on the phone - AOL Voicemail will not send call details for those calls.

Call Blocking and Privacy Feature

The call blocking and privacy feature allows you to control whether callers without caller information can reach you while you're online. When Caller ID information is transmitted, callers sometime block their caller information so it's listed as "Private" (many telemarketers do this as well). When the caller information is not available it's listed as "Unknown".

You can set up call handling preferences for unknown callers and private callers. Your choices for either type of caller are:

Allow call
Prompt caller to enter his or phone number, then allow the call
Block call

Just click "Call Blocking & Privacy" from your Settings page and make your selections.

Note: If your call blocking and privacy selections instruct AOL Voicemail to ask unknown or private callers to enter their phone numbers, we underline the phone number and mark it with an asterisk because we're unable to validate the accuracy of the number.

Blocked Numbers

When AOL Voicemail receives an incoming call, we check the caller's phone number against your block list. If the phone number matches one of the numbers you would like blocked, we inform the caller that you are not accepting calls from their phone number.

You can add up to 25 phone numbers to your Blocked Numbers list.

Go to your Dashboard.
Click "Settings" and then click "Blocked Numbers".
Enter a phone number and the owner's name.
Click "Add".

Tip: Use the "Edit" and "Remove" buttons on the page to manage numbers once they've been added to your Blocked Numbers list.