Create and schedule audio announcements that play within your IVR system, such as holiday hours notices or temporary service updates.
The Announcements page at https://pharmacy.voxo.co/announcements holds audio messages that play to callers in your IVR menus. Use them for temporary information, such as holiday closures, updated hours, or service notices, without changing your IVR configuration. You can schedule each announcement to turn on and off on specific dates.
Announcements only play when the inbound call passes through an IVR menu. If your phone number sends callers straight to a call group, queue, or extension with no IVR in the path, the announcement has nowhere to play. To use announcements on that line, point the number at an IVR and set the call group, queue, or extension as a destination inside the IVR.
Open the Announcements page and click Create announcement. In the first step, enter a name for the announcement and an optional description. The name appears in the announcements list, so pick one that says what the announcement is for, such as “Thanksgiving hours 2026.”
2
Add audio
In the Audio step, add the audio callers hear. You have two options:
Upload a file — select an audio file (MP3 or WAV) from your computer.
Generate text-to-speech — type the announcement text and VOXO generates audio from it.
Preview the audio before you continue.
3
Set a schedule
In the Schedule step, set when the announcement is active:
Start date — the date the announcement begins playing.
End date — the date the announcement stops playing. Leave it blank to keep the announcement active until you turn it off.
Time-of-day range — optionally limit the announcement to a time window each day, such as business hours.
4
Select IVR menus
Select one or more IVR menus for this announcement to play in. The list shows every IVR menu in your account.
5
Set the play order
Enter a play order number. Lower numbers play first. See Play order.
6
Review and save
Check the name, audio, schedule, IVR menus, and play order, then click Save. The announcement appears in the list and turns on according to its schedule.
With a start date and end date set, the announcement turns on at the start of the start date and off at the end of the end date. You don’t need to return to the app to turn it on or off.If you leave the end date blank, the announcement stays active from the start date until you toggle it off or delete it.The optional time-of-day range limits playback within each active day. With a range of 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, only callers who reach the IVR during those hours hear the announcement.The Active column in the announcements list shows the current state. An announcement with a future start date shows as inactive even if the toggle is on. It turns on when the start date arrives.
For a holiday closure notice (“we will be closed Monday for Memorial Day”), set the start date a few days before the holiday and the end date on the holiday itself. The announcement plays in the lead-up and then stops on its own. Pair this with a holiday entry in Time of Days so calls also route correctly on the day of closure.Short-notice closures work the same way. Set the start date to today (for “we’re closing early today”) or tomorrow (for “we’ll be closed tomorrow”) and set the end date on the last day the message should play. If the closure also changes where calls should route, add the matching date-specific entry in Time of Days as well.
Turning an announcement off with the Active toggle overrides the schedule. It won’t play until you toggle it back on.
The Announcements page lists every announcement in your account. Search by name or description, or use the status filter to show All, Active, or Inactive announcements.
Column
Description
Name
The announcement name
Description
The optional description you entered when creating the announcement
Active
A toggle showing whether the announcement is currently active. Click the toggle to activate or deactivate it.
When more than one announcement is active on the same IVR at the same time, the play order sets which plays first, second, and so on. The IVR plays all active announcements in sequence before the main menu.Lower numbers play first: an announcement with play order 1 plays before one with play order 2.You set the play order in the wizard and can change it by editing the announcement. If two announcements share a play order number, the IVR may play them in any order, so use unique values for active announcements on the same IVR.
Leave gaps between play order numbers (for example, 10, 20, 30 instead of 1, 2, 3) so you can insert new announcements between existing ones without renumbering everything.
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