After-hours Voicemail and Notification

Handle calls outside business hours by collecting a message, transcribing it, and notifying the team.

Overview

This use case demonstrates:

• Time-of-day routing (business hours vs. after hours)
• Pre-answer connect during business hours
• AI voicemail recording and transcription
• Database storage of voicemails
• Team notification via Slack/webhook

State flow (business hours): PENDING -> CONNECTED -> DISCONNECTED

State flow (after hours): PENDING -> ANSWERED -> DISCONNECTED

Example

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@client.on(events.INCOMING_CALL)
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async def after_hours_handler(call: ActiveCall):
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    current_hour = datetime.now().hour
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    is_business_hours = 9 <= current_hour < 17
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    if is_business_hours:
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        # During business hours: connect to the original callee and leave
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        await call.connect()
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        await call.close()
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        return
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    # After hours: AI takes a message
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    await call.answer()
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    await call.send_audio(
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        await tts.synthesize(
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            "Thank you for calling. Our office is currently closed. "
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            "Please leave a message and we'll get back to you "
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            "on the next business day."
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        )
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    )
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    # Record the caller's message
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    audio_chunks = []
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    async for chunk in call.audio_stream():
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        audio_chunks.append(chunk)
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        # Detect end of message (silence detection via AI)
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        if await ai_model.detect_end_of_message(chunk):
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            break
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    # Transcribe and store the message
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    full_audio = b"".join(audio_chunks)
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    transcript = await stt.transcribe(full_audio)
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    await db.save_voicemail(
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        caller=call.caller_number,
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        audio=full_audio,
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        transcript=transcript,
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    )
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    # Notify the team
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    await slack.send_message(
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        channel="#incoming-calls",
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        text=f"Voicemail from {call.caller_number}:\n{transcript}",
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    )
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    await call.send_audio(
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        await tts.synthesize("Thank you. Your message has been recorded. Goodbye.")
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    )
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    await call.disconnect()

How It Works

1. When a call arrives, the handler checks the current time
2. During business hours: the call is connected to the original callee using connect() without answering, and the agent leaves with close(). The caller goes straight to ringing the callee.
3. After hours: the AI answers, plays a voicemail prompt, and records the caller’s message
4. The AI detects when the caller has finished speaking (silence detection)
5. The recorded audio is transcribed using a speech-to-text service
6. Both the raw audio and transcript are saved to the database
7. A notification is sent to a Slack channel (or any webhook) with the caller’s number and transcript
8. The AI confirms the message was recorded and ends the call

Key Commands Used

• connect() - Route to the original callee during business hours (pre-answer)
• close() - Leave the call after connecting the caller to the callee
• answer() - Answer for voicemail after hours
• audio_stream() - Record the caller’s message
• send_audio() - Play the voicemail prompt
• disconnect() - End the voicemail call after the goodbye prompt

Related

• AI Receptionist with Database Lookup - Answering with CRM context
• Interactive Notifications - Following up on recorded messages