One of the very first voicemail systems is the answering machine. Actually at its basic any voice mail system is an answering machine. However voice mail systems have more feature sand options that include receiving a page when you have a message, answering multiple calls at once, sending messages to multiple voice mailboxes, transferring calls to another number, offering many different greetings, and the ability to record your own voice greetings.

In general the voice mail message will be stored on a hard drive, which is connected to a computer. The recording works very much like creating a CD. You simply need to log into the system using a touch-tone phone and a password and you can access your messages. Today voice mail is standard on all mobile phones though originally they began with office telephone systems.

Voice mail became popular because the cost of phone calls decreased enough that businesses began to use the phone as the main form of communication. Also the number of secretaries decreased as labor rates increased so many callers could not reach their intended person.

The voice mail system evolved due to the technology and necessity. Phone calls were once expensive but have significantly decreased in price. At the same time labor costs increased so companies were not using as many secretaries. Therefore many callers where not getting though with their phone call and a messaging system were needed. At the time of voice mail the Internet was not as extensively used yet for communication so the phone still was on top.

A PBX voice mail system was the first ever used and this is currently used for many corporations and large businesses. There are also stand-alone voice mail systems available. The basic parts of the voice mail system have a telephone interface, user directory and software found on the system disks, disk drives and disk controllers that store all of the incoming messages, and a central processor responsible for running the software. The very best voice mail systems are the ones that are the easiest to use both for the caller and the voice mailbox owner.