Send a Voice Alert to a List of Recipients Without Adding a Tag to the Email Content

Send a Voice Alert to a List of Recipients Without Adding a Tag to the Email Content

+++ Updated May 30, 2023 +++

Users of EmailToVoice.Net are not always able to add a special Tag to the content of the email before the content is converted to voice and used as a voice phone call. That restriction is now solved through a special feature of EmailToVoice.Net.

Multiple Ways To Send To Multiple Recipients

EmailToVoice.Net can send a message to a phone using email and have the email content read to the recipient with a nice-sounding voice using Text-To-Speech. The destination used in the email is simply to have the TO field look something like 2145551234@tts.message-service.org.

To send the message to multiple recipients, the sender can merely send the message multiple times to different recipients. However, there are three other ways to send a message from EmailToVoice.Net to multiple recipients.

Multiple Destinations in the TO Field

Multiple destinations can be specified in the TO field by separating them with a “#”. IE;:
2145551234#2145551235#2145551236@tts.message-service.org
OR, multiple destinations can be entered as multiple full email addresses:
“2145551234@tts.message-service.org, 2145551235@tts.message-service.org”

NOTE: When stringing destinations in the TO field of the Email, there is standard general length restriction of about 64 characters for the TO field.

Multiple Destinations in the Email Content

Multiple Destinations can be In the body of the message in the following format:
<Numbers>
2145551234
2145551235
2145551236
</Numbers>

NOTE: The destination phone numbers are included in the body of the message. So, the TO field should be: msg@tts.message-service.org

Multiple Destinations Using a Pre-Loaded List

Multiple Destinations can be through pre-setup lists by using the format:
<Lists>
My First List Name
My Second List Name
</Lists>

NOTE: The destination phone numbers are included in the body of the message. So, the TO field should be: msg@tts.message-service.org

Creating Lists

EmailToVoice.Net continues to grow in features and functionality. On March 16th of 2020, we launched our new Customer Portal. The customer can see real time status of their jobs submitted through EmailToVoice.Net, change details in their Profile settings, create distribution lists, and much more.

Manage Personal Lists: The customer can set up distribution lists, which are then referenced by the LISTS tag in the content of the email for sending TTS or SMS messages to a group of recipients.

No Need for LIST Tag in Content

The List name can be designated in the TO field. For example, if a List has been created with the name nightshift, then the TO field would look like this:

list-nightshift@tts.message-service.org.

When the email is sent to our service, we will look for the List name nightshift in the Customer Portal profile of My Personal Lists. Our service will then use that List of recipients.

 

Considerations when creating the list in the Customer Portal:

  • The name of the list must be in lower case
  • The name of the list cannot have spaces or any special characters, like a dash or a plus sign or anything other than alphanumeric characters. Keep the name of the list short.
  • The reference field for each entry must be unique.
  • The reference field is sorted alphabetically when you designate the list as an ‘escalation’ list, so name the references something like ‘reference1, reference2, etc.’.

Escalation Lists Work, Too

Escalation Lists in EmailToVoice.Net are used to sequentially send a text-to-speech (TTS) message to a list of phone recipients from any business application. An alert notification needs action immediately. This may require the alert to be sent to more than one person to assure action is taken on the critical issue. EmailToVoice.Net provides the ability to send to a sequential list of people until one is reached. The feature of EmailToVoice.Net is called an Escalation List.

This feature will work with Lists setup as an Escalation List.

Works for all Communications

The examples above are using TTS. However, these multiple destination options are applicable for all of the communication methods available in EmailToVoice.Net. The exception is that escalation lists are only for TTS (Text to Speech). For instance, the tts can be replaced with sms, fax or voice, since EmailToVoice.Net can also send to SMS, FAX and send a pre-recorded voice message via an attached WAV file.

You can learn more at our Features Page. If you have any questions regarding these optional methods to specify recipients in EmailToVoice./Net, please Contact Us

 

Author

Director at EmailToVoice.Net: CISSP – Solutions Architect for Industrial IoT Alerts and Business Communications. LinkedIn
Use the Opt Out List to Stop Calls To a Phone Number in EmailToVoice.Net

Use the Opt Out List to Stop Calls To a Phone Number in EmailToVoice.Net

Customers of EmailToVoice.Net send alert phone calls or text messages to their employees. Sometimes, those employees leave the company or go on vacation. In these cases, the messages should be stopped permanently or temporarily. The most preferred method to stop calls from going to a specific phone number is to remove them from all lists. But, adding their number to the Opt Out List may be faster and more efficient.

The most expedient way to stop messages from being sent is to add the phone number to the account’s Opt Out List. The administrator can even set a time period.

Opt Out List

The Opt Out List is managed through the Customer Portal.

 

Opt Out a Phone Numebr

 

The administrator is provided with a list of message types on the OptOut Lists Management page. The choice should be made based upon what type of messages were being sent. The following can be used as a reference:

  • Choose Phone if the message was sent to PhoneNumber@tts.message-service.org
  • Choose Mobile if the message was sent to PhoneNumber@sms.message-service.org or PhoneNumber@linkinsms.message-service.org
  • Chose FAX if the message was sent to PhoneNumber@fax.message-service.org

The OptOut List will work if you are sending messages individually or if you are using the different methods available in EmailToVoice.Net for multiple destinations. There are many ways to send to multiple users in a single message.

Using Lists in EmailToVoice.Net

To learn more about sending to multiple destinations, read our Blog Post “Three Ways to Send to Multiple Recipients Through EmailToVoice.Net“.

Multiple Destinations in the TO Field

Multiple destinations can be specified in the TO field by separating them with a “#”. IE;:
2145551234#2145551235#2145551236@tts.message-service.org
OR, multiple destinations can be entered as multiple full email addresses:
“2145551234@tts.message-service.org, 2145551235@tts.message-service.org

NOTE: When stringing destinations in the TO field of the Email, there is a standard general length restriction of about 64 characters for the TO field.

Multiple Destinations in the Email Content

Multiple Destinations can be In the body of the message in the following format:
<Numbers>
2145551234
2145551235
2145551236
</Numbers>

NOTE: The destination phone numbers are included in the body of the message. So, the TO field should be: msg@tts.message-service.org

Multiple Destinations Using a Pre-Loaded List

Multiple Destinations can be through pre-setup lists by using the format:
<Lists>
My First List Name
My Second List Name
</Lists>

Business Communications using EmailToVoice.Net

EmailToVoice.Net is rich in features and capabilities for your Business Communications needs.

Make a voice phone call from any email interface

We convert your email content to voice so the recipient of your choice receives an easy-to-understand voice message on their phone – plus many more valuable features. We do not require that the receiving phone number be registered with us. You can send a phone call from your email to any landline or cell phone. No software to install. No expensive complicated Apps. Nothing new to learn.

Send Rich content SMS messages from any email interface

EmailToVoice.Net provides the ability to send a large amount of formatted data (16MB) using LinkInSMS to a cell phone as an SMS from monitoring software or business applications. Messages with the formatting requirements of an HTML Web Page can be automatically sent to just about any cell phone in the world as easily as sending an email using simple SMS, which is available everywhere in the world.

Contact Us if you would like to learn more.

Author

Director at EmailToVoice.Net: CISSP – Solutions Architect for Industrial IoT Alerts and Business Communications. LinkedIn
How to Modify an Active List that is Locked in EmailToVoice.Net

How to Modify an Active List that is Locked in EmailToVoice.Net

Changes to distribution lists used for alerts and business communications are necessary when employees leave the company or change positions. However, sometimes an administrator of EmailToVoice.Net will get the following error message when trying to make a change to a List in EmailToVoice.Net.

Sorry, this list is currently locked and cannot get modified as it is in use for job nnnnnnnn

Updating a list that is currently in use by messaging jobs is easy. It merely entails

  • downloading the list,
  • making the changes,
  • uploading the list under a new unique name,
  • renaming the production list to something new,
  • renaming the new list to the name of the production list.

Following are the steps in more detail

Login into the Customer Portal. Choose Manage Personal Lists in the menu on the left. Download the production list that needs to be updated

The downloaded file will be a comma-delimited file that can be updated in Microsoft Excel. Make the required changes to the downloaded file.

In the Customer Portal / Manage Personal Lists, click on Add List… Make the name of the list unique. Remember to click on the “This List is an escalation list” box if the recipients in the list are to be called in sequence until one answers. Learn more about our escalation list feature in our Blog Post “Escalation Lists Support Sequential Calling for Alerts in EmailToVoice.Net

 

Import the updated comma-delimited file into the new list

Select Modify List Details and rename the old production list to something unique. Then click on the Modify List Details for the new list and name it the exact same name as the old production list.

New TTS List Portal 4

Now, the updated list is the current production list.

You can learn more about List Management and the use of the Customer Portal in articles published in our Blog.

TIP: Alternative to Modifying the List

As an alternative to making a change to the list, you can in EmailToVoice.Net put the employee’s number that has left the company in the Opt-Out List. Then that number will never be called even though it is in distribution lists.

 

Opt out list No Call List

Business Communications is Critical to Effective Business Processes

EmailToVoice.Net makes it easy to implement mission-critical solutions for business communications. Sending a message from monitoring software or directly from an IoT device to a phone requires a specialized hardware and software solution to be installed in the client’s central data center. Connections to smart devices, CRM, PCS or ERP systems need to go through complex API’s or propriety software gateways. EmailToVoice.Net makes this all as easy as sending an email. The EmailToVoice.Net service does the hard stuff. It converts the text of the email message into a genuine-sounding voice (Text to Speech), then dials the phone, handles voice mail, and much more. All of this is done without the need to install hardware or use APIs. We also can facilitate the delivery of rich communications SMS messages with the need of RCS. Learn more in our article “Comparing Enterprise SMS using LinkInSMS to RCS and MMS

There are many more features in EmailToVoice.Net. Let us know if you would like to learn more. Contact us. We love to share our experience in workflow processes, industrial communications, and alerts.

 

Author

Director at EmailToVoice.Net: CISSP – Solutions Architect for Industrial IoT Alerts and Business Communications. LinkedIn