The system has a built-in feature to play audio notifications for recorded conversations. The announcement capability is currently available for Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Skype of Business and Cisco environments. The announcement is available for certain call scenarios only.
| Call Scenario | Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Skype for Business Announcement | Cisco Announcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal call | Yes | No | No |
| Incoming PSTN call | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Outgoing PSTN call | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Incoming federated call | Yes | Yes | N/A |
| Outgoing federated call | Yes | Yes | N/A |
| Conference call | No | Yes | No |
The announcement can be enabled and disabled on a user level where administrators can specify the audio prompt file for each type of call scenario. Active Directory synchronization allows configuring the announcement parameters through the synchronization profiles without the need to configure users one by one. In multi-tenant environments, tenant administrators can configure announcement audio prompts specific for a tenant. The available announcement audio prompts that can be set for a user are the files specified in the environment configuration. If no announcements are specified in the environment configuration, the system defaults are available to be configured for the user. See Configuring multi-tenant recording announcements for more information.
The announcement audit log provides a log for tracking and searching announcements played by the system (or not). The system stores the audit log entries in the database and provides search and listing for the records. The audit log is turned off by default. The announcement white list allows excluding phone numbers and SIP URIs from an announcement. If a phone number is added to the whitelist, the system will not play the recording announcement for that number. Multiple whitelists can be added and maintained through the user interface as a global configuration in a Verba instance. For more information, refer to:
The audit log and whitelist features are not available for all integrations:
| Integration | Announcement Audit Log | Announcement Whitelist |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Teams | Yes | No |
| Microsoft Skype for Business | Yes | Yes |
| Cisco | Yes | Yes |
Microsoft Teams announcement
AVAILABLE IN VERSION 9.7.7 OR LATER
The Verba Microsoft Teams Bot Service is able to notify the participants that the call will be recorded. The Microsoft Teams Bot Service will use the configuration to determine when and what audio prompt has to be played for the calls to which the bot gets invited.
The recording bot is playing back the announcement at the beginning of the call. As the bot is a standard participant in the call, the audio is simultaneously played with other participants' audio, which can result in cross-talk with the users.
The custom audio announcement is available for the following call scenarios:
- Peer to peer internal calls
- Peer to peer PSTN calls
- Peer to peer federated calls
The custom audio announcement is NOT available for:
- Meetings with internal users (no audio prompt is played)
- Meetings with PSTN participants (the built-in audio notice is played in the Teams user's default language)
- Meetings with federated users (no audio prompt is played)
The notification banner cannot be customized at the moment and it is displayed regardless if custom audio prompts are configured for the following Teams endpoints:
- Desktop/web
- Mobile (iOS/Android)
- Teams phones
- Teams rooms
The bot, depending on the configuration, can play the audio prompt in the following scenarios:
| Call Scenario | Operation |
|---|---|
| Incoming PSTN calls | Once the call has been established with the bot, the bot plays the audio into the call. The audio prompt will be heard by both participants. The audio prompt will not be recorded by the bot, because the bot only records the audio received from the call. |
| Outgoing PSTN calls | Once the call has been established with the bot, the bot plays the audio into the call. The audio prompt will be heard by both participants. The audio prompt will not be recorded by the bot, because the bot only records the audio received from the call. |
| Incoming Federated calls | Once the call has been established with the bot, the bot plays the audio into the call. The audio prompt will be heard by both participants. The audio prompt will not be recorded by the bot, because the bot only records the audio received from the call. |
| Outgoing Federated calls | Once the call has been established with the bot, the bot plays the audio into the call. The audio prompt will be heard by both participants. The audio prompt will not be recorded by the bot, because the bot only records the audio received from the call. |
| Internal calls | Once the call has been established with the bot, the bot plays the audio into the call. The audio prompt will be heard by both participants. The audio prompt will not be recorded by the bot, because the bot only records the audio received from the call. When two recorded users are calling each other and both users have a custom announcement configured, the bot plays the announcement of the called party only. In this case, the audio prompt will be recorded for the caller party. |
For information on how to install and configure custom announcements, refer to the Installing and configuring Microsoft Teams custom announcement article.
Microsoft Skype for Business announcement
The Verba Lync/SfB Announcement Service is able to notify the participants that the call will be recorded. The service can be used for meetings, incoming/outgoing PSTN and federated calls. To configure it you will need a Trusted Application Pool/Server in your Lync topology. It supports Lync 2010, Lync 2013 and Skype for Business 2015 environments. The Verba Lync/SfB Announcement Service is transparent, which means that the endpoints receiving the call don't see that the call was actually transferred by the announcement service and the transfers are not visible in the call records either. It has five different ways of operating depending on the call scenarios it's used in:
| Call Scenario | Operation |
|---|---|
| Incoming PSTN calls | The incoming PSTN calls are forwarded to the Verba announcement service, which notifies the caller that the call will be recorded, then the service transfers the call to the original called party. |
| Outgoing PSTN calls | The outgoing PSTN calls are forwarded to the Verba announcement service, which notifies the caller that the call is on hold and the call will be connected. In the meanwhile, the announcement service initiates an outgoing call to the original callee and notifies him/her about the recording and connects the two call legs. |
| Incoming Federated calls | The incoming federated calls are forwarded to the Verba announcement service, which notifies the caller that the call will be recorded, then the service transfers the call to the original called party. |
| Outgoing Federated calls | The outgoing federated calls are forwarded to the Verba announcement service, which notifies the caller that the call is on hold and the call will be connected. In the meanwhile, the announcement service initiates an outgoing call to the original callee and notifies him/her about the recording and connects the two call legs. |
| Meetings / Conference calls | The Announcement service automatically joins the meeting when the recording is started and plays the announcement to the participants as well as sending an IM message to the conversation window. When new participants join the conference, the announcement service notifies them privately, without disturbing the meeting. |
For information on how to install and configure this service, refer to the Installing and configuring the Verba SfB - Lync Announcement service article.
Cisco announcement
The Verba Cisco Announcement Service is able to notify the participants that the call will be recorded. The service can be used for incoming/outgoing PSTN calls. The feature relies on the External Call Control (ECC) capability of the Cisco UCM. The solution works with any type of endpoints, it does not require Cisco phones. As long as the call is routed through a CUCM and an ECC profile can be triggered, the announcement can be played. It has 3 different ways of operation depending on the call scenarios it's used in:
| Call Scenario | Operation |
|---|---|
| Incoming PSTN calls | The system supports 2 configurations for inbound announcements:
|
| Outgoing PSTN calls | The outgoing PSTN calls are forwarded to the Verba announcement service, which provides a ringback to the caller. In the meanwhile, the announcement service initiates an outgoing call to the original callee and notifies him/her about the recording, and connects the two call legs. |
For information on how to install and configure this service, refer to: