How to Record a Voice Note on a Call
Voice note writes down what you say as a note in a call's Details document. It is on the Details toolbar of the call screen, beside Note, on every call, new or saved. Use it to write up a phone call or a site visit while it is fresh, without typing.
How do I record a voice note on a call?
Select Voice note on the toolbar of the call's Details document, say what happened, and select Done on the recording bar. A moment later the words appear at the end of the Details under a dated note line, and the bar says ✓ Note added.
- Open the call, or start a new one, and stay on its Details section.
- Select Voice note, beside Note on the toolbar of the Details document. Its tooltip reads "Voice note: say it, press Done, and it is typed in as a note".
- Speak your note. The button reads Recording… and a recording bar floats at the foot of the Details.
- Select Done on the recording bar.
- Check the note in the Details, then select Save call (or Save on a saved call).
The first time, before your browser has been asked about the microphone, Voice note shows a card titled Voice notes need your microphone instead of recording: select Allow microphone, then choose Allow in the box your browser shows. Recording starts as soon as you allow it. In the ABM Service desktop app the microphone is allowed for you and recording starts at once.
Choose the customer before you record if you can: the names your system administrator has listed for your company and for that customer go with the recording, so names and places come out spelt right.
What does the voice note's recording bar show while I talk?
While you record, a recording bar floats at the foot of the Details document. It shows a recording dot, a moving line that follows your voice, the time recorded so far, and two buttons: Cancel and Done.
- The time counts up in minutes and seconds. A voice note can be up to three minutes long, and your company's set-up may give you a shorter limit. The time turns amber in the last fifteen seconds, when pointing at it says "The note sends itself at" and the limit; at the limit the note is sent by itself, as if you had selected Done.
- "I can’t hear anything: check the microphone" appears after five seconds with no sound. The recording carries on, so if you were only pausing, keep talking.
- Done stops the recording and sends it to be written down. The bar then reads "Sending" with the length of the audio, then Writing it down….
- Cancel, or pressing the Escape key (Esc), sets the recording aside.
You can go on working on the call's Details page while you record, typing included. The note is written at the end of the Details, wherever your cursor is.
How do I throw away or take back a voice note?
Select Cancel on the recording bar, or press Esc, to throw a recording away. The bar shows Recording discarded with the time recorded and Undo for six seconds: select Undo to carry on recording from where you stopped. After six seconds the recording is gone for good.
After a note lands, the bar shows ✓ Note added and Undo for six seconds. Select Undo to take the whole note out of the Details again, its dated line included. If you have already typed inside the note, Undo leaves it where it is and says "The note has been typed into since it landed, so it stays: it is yours now."; delete it by hand if you do not want it.
Once the six seconds are over, the note is ordinary text in the Details. Change it, add to it or delete it as you would anything you typed, before you save the call.
Where does a voice note go in the call?
A voice note is added at the end of the call's Details document, under the same dated line that Note writes: two asterisks, "New Note, Entered by", your name, the time and the date. The words you said follow on the next line. It is written in the same lettering as the last paragraph of the Details.
The Details scroll to show the note; your cursor stays where you left it, so you can go on typing elsewhere. A voice note never goes into the Resolution document, and it never changes anything already in the Details.
On a new call the note is saved with the call when you select Save call. On a saved call, the note makes the call unsaved, and the save bar at the bottom of the screen offers Save, just as when you type into the Details. If the saved call has scheduled visits, the Scheduled visits card also shows Details changed and offers to give the engineers' visits the new words when you save (How to Update Scheduled Visits When a Call Changes).
What happens if a voice note is not added?
If the words do not come back, the recording bar says why and that your recording is kept, for example "The AI took too long to answer. Try again in a moment." followed by "Your 0:14 recording is kept on this computer.", with the length of your recording. It offers Try again, which sends the same recording again, and Discard, which throws it away. Nothing is added to the Details until it works.
Other things the bar can say include:
- "No words came back: nothing could be heard in that recording."
- "The text did not come back."
- "The AI service did not answer properly. Try again in a moment."
- "The microphone stopped, so the note was sent as far as it went." — the microphone was unplugged or switched off while you were talking; what you had said is sent.
When trying again cannot help, for example because voice notes have been switched off for you, the bar offers Discard only.
The kept recording lives only in this window. ABM Service treats it as unsaved work: if you try to close or reload the window, or sign out, you are warned first.
What happens if I leave the call while recording?
If you leave the call while a voice note is recording, the recording is stopped and sent, and the words land in the call you left. That happens when you go to another screen, open another section of the call in the sections sidebar, switch to another tab of the form, or start customizing the layout.
The call you left is kept as unsaved work, and an unsaved reminder naming it appears in the bottom-left corner of the screen: select the reminder to go back, check the note and save the call. A recording you had set aside with Cancel is thrown away when you leave.
The same holds for a recording that was kept after it could not be added: going Back keeps the call open as unsaved work, so the recording is still there when you return.
Why does Save wait for the voice note?
Save call and Save wait while a voice note is in progress, so that what you said is never saved half-way or lost. Their tooltip, and the save bar on a saved call, say what to do:
- "Finish the voice note first: press Done to add it, or Cancel." — while recording.
- "The voice note is being written down. Save once it is in the details." — while it is sent.
- "A voice note is kept on this computer: Try again or Discard it first." — after a note was not added.
The other way round, a voice note cannot start while the call is being saved: Voice note says "The call is being saved. Record once that has finished."