Voicemail to email sends each voicemail message to an email inbox as an audio file, usually with a text transcript, so you can read or play it without dialling into a mailbox. Fax to email does the same for faxes: incoming faxes arrive as PDF attachments, and email to fax lets you send a document as a fax from your inbox.
Both replace a piece of old equipment with something you already check all day. Voicemail to email is a standard feature of most cloud phone systems. Fax needs more care, because fax machines were designed for copper phone lines and often fail when the call is carried over the internet.
Key takeaways
- Voicemail to email delivers each message as an audio file, often with a transcript, to a personal or shared inbox.
- Shared mailboxes, clear greetings and a retention policy make voicemail to email far more useful.
- Fax to email receives faxes as PDFs; email to fax sends documents as faxes, with no machine needed.
- Fax is still used in parts of Australian healthcare, though there is a strong push to replace it with secure messaging.
- A fax machine plugged into a VoIP line is often unreliable. An online fax service or a T.38-capable setup is the fix.
How does voicemail to email work?
When a caller leaves a message, the phone system records it as an audio file. It then sends an email to the address linked to that mailbox, with the recording attached and details such as the caller’s number, the time and the length of the message. Many systems also transcribe the message and put the text in the body of the email.
You can play the recording on your computer or phone, forward it to a colleague, or file it with the customer’s records. In most systems the message also stays in the phone mailbox, so it still shows up on your desk phone or app.
Voicemail to email vs visual voicemail
Visual voicemail shows your messages as a list in an app, so you can pick which one to play instead of listening in order. Voicemail to email pushes a copy to your inbox. They work well together: the app for quick checks, email for sharing and record-keeping.
How accurate is voicemail transcription?
Transcripts are good enough to skim and triage, so you can see at a glance whether a message is urgent. They can trip up on names, phone numbers, accents and background noise. Treat the transcript as a summary and play the audio before acting on anything important, like a callback number or an order.
Why is voicemail to email useful?
- No dial-in. No PIN to remember and no listening through messages in order.
- Shared inboxes. A sales or support voicemail can go to a team inbox, so whoever is free picks it up and nothing waits for one person.
- After hours. Messages left overnight are waiting in the inbox first thing, ready to be handed out.
- Searchable records. With a transcript, you can search your email for a customer’s name or an order number.
- Easy hand-off. Forwarding an email is quicker than explaining a message you listened to.
Tips for setting up voicemail to email
- Separate personal and shared mailboxes. Personal extensions go to the person’s own email. Queues, IVR options and after-hours messages go to a shared inbox, such as sales@ or support@, that more than one person watches.
- Give every shared inbox an owner. Someone needs to be responsible for clearing it each morning, or messages sit unread because everyone assumes someone else has them.
- Write greetings that set expectations. Say who the caller has reached, when you’ll call back and what to do if it’s urgent, such as an after-hours number or an email address.
- Decide where messages live. Choose whether messages are deleted from the phone system once emailed, so staff aren’t handling the same message twice.
- Set a retention policy. Voicemails often contain personal information. If your business is covered by the Privacy Act, APP 11 requires reasonable steps to protect it and to destroy or de-identify it when it’s no longer needed. This is general information only, so get advice for your situation.
- Test it. Leave a message on each mailbox and check it lands in the right inbox and isn’t caught by a spam filter.
What is fax to email (and email to fax)?
Fax to email, sometimes called virtual fax or online fax, gives you a fax number without a fax machine. When someone faxes that number, the service receives the fax, turns it into a PDF or image file and emails it to you.
Email to fax works in reverse. You send an email with the document attached, usually to an address made up of the destination fax number and the provider’s domain, or you upload it through a web portal. The service dials the recipient’s fax machine, transmits the document and emails you a delivery confirmation. The exact address format and supported file types vary between providers.
Why does fax still exist in Australia?
Mostly because of healthcare. In a 2025 ABC report on medical referrals, a GP said some large public hospitals still refuse referrals that don’t arrive by fax. The Australian Digital Health Agency has funded secure messaging so providers can “axe the fax”, but systems that don’t talk to each other have slowed the change.
Outside healthcare, fax use is patchy. You may still deal with the occasional organisation that asks for a signed form by fax. For most businesses, the practical question isn’t whether to keep a fax machine, but how to handle the few faxes that still come and go without one.
Why is fax over VoIP unreliable?
A fax machine is a modem. It turns a page into audio tones that were designed to travel over a continuous copper phone line. A VoIP call breaks audio into small packets and sends them over the internet, where a few can arrive late or not at all.
A person on a voice call barely notices a lost packet. A fax machine does. As a fax-over-IP white paper from Dialogic explains, the receiver has no way to recreate missing data, so the page arrives with errors or the transmission fails. There are two main ways to carry fax over VoIP:
G.711 passthrough
G.711 is the uncompressed voice codec used for standard VoIP calls. Passthrough sends the fax tones as if they were a voice call. It can work on a clean network, but it is sensitive to packet loss and jitter. It also breaks if anything along the way compresses the audio (for example, with a codec like G.729) or applies voice features such as silence suppression or echo cancellation.
T.38
T.38 is a standard built for fax over IP. Instead of sending the tones, the gateway decodes them into data and sends that data in packets, repeating earlier packets so the far end can rebuild anything that goes missing. It copes with imperfect networks far better. The catch is support: the adapter, phone system and carrier all have to handle T.38, or hand off cleanly to a gateway that converts it.
| Option | How it works | Reliability | Suits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fax machine on a VoIP line (G.711 passthrough) | Fax tones sent as a normal voice call | Hit and miss; fails with packet loss or compression | Not recommended |
| Fax machine with a T.38 adapter | Tones converted to data with redundancy | Good, if every link supports T.38 | Businesses that need a physical machine |
| Online fax service (fax to email) | The provider sends and receives; you use email or a portal | Good; no fax tones cross your network | Most businesses with light fax use |
If you’re moving to the NBN, nbn advises checking with your device provider before you switch whether your fax machine will work, and whether it can dial out in a power outage.
Your fax options when you move to VoIP
- Use an online fax service. For most businesses this is the simplest and most reliable choice. Faxes arrive as PDFs and you send from email or a portal.
- Keep a fax machine with an ATA that supports T.38. An analogue telephone adapter (ATA) connects the fax machine to your VoIP service. Choose this only if you need paper in and out, and confirm T.38 support with your provider first.
- Keep your fax number by porting it. A fax number is usually an ordinary local number, and local numbers are portable. You can move it to an online fax service or your new provider, so the people who fax you don’t need to update their records.
- Retire the number. If you rarely receive faxes, tell the senders you now use email or secure messaging, and let the number go.
Whichever you choose, send a few test faxes of multi-page documents before you rely on it.
How CloudLine does it
Voicemail to email is built into our Hosted PBX. Everyone gets an extension with voicemail, and each message arrives by email as an audio file with a text transcript, so nobody needs to dial in. We can help you plan which messages go to personal inboxes and which go to a shared one.
We also offer fax to email. Faxes sent to your fax number arrive in your inbox as PDFs, so you can handle the occasional fax without keeping a machine plugged in. If you already have a fax number, we can move it across with the rest of your numbers.
If you have an existing fax or phone number you want to keep, our number porting team handles the paperwork. You can also see which business numbers we supply. As part of an IT company, we can check your network and firewall before you switch, which is the first thing to look at when calls, or faxes, are unreliable.
Frequently asked questions
Can voicemail to email go to more than one person?
Yes. Send the mailbox to a shared inbox or a distribution list that several people can see. That works well for sales, support and after-hours messages.
Is voicemail transcription accurate enough to rely on?
It’s accurate enough to triage messages quickly, but names, numbers and noisy calls can come out wrong. Play the audio before acting on important details.
Will a fax machine work on the NBN or a VoIP line?
Maybe, but often not reliably. Fax tones are easily disrupted when calls travel over the internet. nbn recommends checking with your device provider before you switch. An online fax service or a T.38-capable adapter is usually more dependable.
Can you keep your fax number when you switch?
Usually, yes. Most fax numbers are standard local numbers, which can be ported to a new provider or an online fax service.
Is fax to email secure?
It avoids paper sitting on a shared machine, but the fax then travels by email, so your email security matters. If you handle health or other sensitive information, check your obligations and whether a secure messaging system is more appropriate.
Want voicemail that lands in the right inbox, already transcribed? Read our plain-English guide to VoIP, look at Hosted PBX, or get a quote. You can also call us on 1800 256 830.
