Introduction to Microsoft Exchange Unified Messaging

When your Microsoft Exchange Server account is enabled for Unified Messaging (UM), you can receive e-mail, voice, and fax messages in your Inbox. Additional features are available for Exchange Server 2010 accounts, including Voice Mail Preview which delivers a transcription of voice mail messages to your Inbox.

Note: Unified Messaging requires that you use a Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 or Exchange Server 2007 account. Your Exchange Server administrator must enable the Unified Messaging feature for these commands to be available.

Unified Messaging features

Note: Some features are available only with an Exchange Server 2010 account. For more information on Exchange account versions, see Determine the version of Microsoft Exchange Server my account connects to.

• Access to Exchange information    You can access a full set of voice mail features from Internet-capable mobile phones, Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Outlook 2010, and Outlook Web App (OWA). These features include many voice mail configuration options and the ability to play a voice message from either the Reading Pane, using an integrated Windows Media Player, or the message list, using computer speakers.

• Play on Phone    The Play on Phone feature lets you play voice messages on a telephone. If you work in an office cubicle, use a public computer or a computer that isn't enabled for multimedia, or listen to a voice message that's confidential, you might not want to or be able to listen to a voice message through computer speakers. Play the voice message using any telephone, including a home, office, or mobile telephone.

For more information, see Configure the Unified Messaging Play on Phone number option.

• Voice mail form    The Outlook 2007, Outlook Web App, and Outlook 2010 voice mail form resembles the default e-mail message window. It includes the controls for actions such as playing, stopping, or pausing voice messages, playing voice messages on a telephone, and adding and editing notes.

The voice mail form includes the embedded Windows Media Player and an Audio notes field. The embedded Windows Media Player and notes field appear in either the Reading Pane when you preview a voice message or in a separate window when a voice message is opened.

• User configuration    You can configure several voice mail options for Unified Messaging using Outlook Web App (Exchange 2010 accounts only) or within Outlook 2010 (Exchange 2007 accounts only). For example, you can configure telephone access numbers and the voice mail Play on Phone number, and can then reset a voice mail access PIN.

For more information, see Configure the Unified Messaging Play on Phone number option or Reset your Unified Messaging voice mail PIN.

• Call answering    Call answering includes answering incoming calls when you are not available, playing one of your personal greetings, recording messages, and sending voice mail messages to your Inbox as an e-mail message.

For more information, see Record Unified Messaging voice mail greetings and Choose a Unified Messaging voice mail greeting.

• Call Answering Rules    Call Answering Rules is a new feature available with an Exchange 2010 account. Using this feature, you can decide how incoming calls are answered. The way call answering rules are applied to incoming calls is similar to the way Inbox rules are applied to incoming e-mail messages. By default, no call answering rules are configured. If an incoming call is answered by a Unified Messaging (UM) server, the caller is prompted to leave a voice message for the called party. Using call answering rules, a caller can:

  • Leave a voice message.

  • Transfer to an alternate contact.

  • Transfer to the alternate contact's voice mail.

  • Transfer to other phone numbers that you have designated.

  • Use the Find-Me feature or locate you via a supervised transfer.

• Voice Mail Preview    In Exchange 2010, the Unified Messaging server role uses automatic speech recognition (ASR) on newly created voice mail messages. When you receive voice messages in your Inbox, the messages contain both a recording and text that's been created from the voice recording. For more information, see Turn on or off Unified Messaging Voice Mail Preview.

• Missed call and voice mail notifications using SMS text messages    You can configure your voice mail settings you're your mobile phone number and configure call forwarding. You will receive notifications about missed calls and new voice messages on your mobile phone in as a Short Messaging Service (SMS) text message. For more information, see Turn on or off Unified Messaging notifications.

• Protected Voice Mail    Protected Voice Mail is Unified Messaging functionality that enables you to send private mail. This mail is protected by Active Directory Rights Management Services (AD RMS), and restricts forwarding, copying, or extracting the voice file from e-mail message. Protected Voice Mail increases the confidentiality of Unified Messaging, and lets you rely on Unified Messaging if you want to limit the audience for voice messages.

• Outlook Voice Access    There are two Unified Messaging user interfaces available to Unified Messaging-enabled users — the telephone user interface (TUI) and the voice user interface (VUI). These two interfaces together are called Outlook Voice Access. Outlook Voice Access is used to access the Unified Messaging system from a telephone. When you dial in to the Unified Messaging system, you can access your Exchange mailbox using Outlook Voice Access and do the following:

  • Access voice mail

  • Listen to, forward, or reply to e-mail messages

  • Listen to calendar information

  • Access or dial contacts who are stored in the Global Address List (GAL) or a group in your Contacts

  • Accept or cancel meeting requests

  • Set a voice mail message to let callers know you are not available

  • Set security preferences and personal options

• Group addressing using Outlook Voice Access    With an Exchange 2007 account, you can use either the telephone user interface (TUI) or voice user interface (VUI) in Outlook Voice Access to send e-mail and voice messages. You can only send a single e-mail message to a single user in your personal Contacts, to multiple recipients from the directory by adding each recipient individually, or by adding the name of a distribution list from the global address list. With an Exchange 2010 account, you can also send e-mail and voice messages to users in a group stored in your personal Contacts.

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