I have a call server that runs on a few custom AGI scripts initiating calls and then managing the calls. I’m getting stuck on the detecting silence functions. I wanted to use the silence detecting as a quick method of substituting Answering Machine Detection.

However, whenever WaitForSilence is supposed to be detecting silence, it always just ends the interval whether or not there is actual silence. If I’m still talking, it will consider that as silence also.

My AEL dialplan associated with the calling is:

And the CLI just outputs:

In my test above, it waits for 5 seconds of silence twice, but even if I’m talking for the 5 seconds it will still just figure that I’m being silent when I’m not.

I also tried using AMD to see if that would do a good job of detecting an answering machine, but it thinks that everything is a MACHINE.

I know Asterisk is knowledgeable abut detecting silence because I have another AGI script that uses the RECORD FILE command that will successfully record somebody’s voice and stop recording when there is 5
seconds of silence (which is what I set).

Is there a setting somewhere that I’m missing somewhere for a silence threshold for WaitForSilence or am I misunderstanding its use?

The Asterisk version is

And it’s Asterisk installed from an Ubuntu package.

Thanks so much!