Returns 0 unless it tries to answer the channel and fails.

The purpose and the usage of this application is only one. To answer the channel if a call is placed on it.

We will give you a short example.

To use this application you need a working Asterisk PBX with registered users in iax.conf, sip.conf or mgcp.conf(It depends on which protocol you would like to use) and made extensions.

To see how the application works we recommend to use our IAX softphone Idefisk. You can download it from here. Please also read our tutorial to learn how to configure it to work with Asterisk PBX.

NOTE: This is only an example of what for you can use this application. Of course you can use it and for other things.

We need three registered users in iax.conf file. This is because we are going to use the IAX2 protocol. If you want to use other protocol such as SIP or MGCP, you have to do the configurations below respectively in sip.conf or mgcp.conf.

So, we have registered the users anatoliy, user1 and user2.

Type=friend means that this user can make and receive calls. Host=dynamic means that the IP is not static but dynamic through a DHCP server. Allow=all means that the line which this user will use, could support all audio codecs. Context=test - this shows that this user is working with the extensions in this context of the configuration file extensions.conf.

If somebody dials 111 the first thing to be executed is exactly the Answer application. Then we have the application Wait which will cause the program to wait for 5 seconds and then to go to the next extension according to the priority. This extension is the one with the SendText application. A message will appear on the screen. In our case it is: This is a test for Answer application.

Now, if somebody dials 112 again the first executed application will be Answer. Then the caller will hear a playtone for busy condition. We achieve this with two extensions. The first one contains the Playtones application and the second one the Busy application. It is very important to use the two applications together. If you use only one of them the result won’t be the desired one.

NOTE: When you are going to use the Playtones application, you always have to use the Answer application before that. Otherwise you won’t be able to hang up the line and you will be constrained to restart you phone.

There are applications which have a built-in Answer.

Such application is Playback. By default it answers the line (unless it is not set a specific option not to do so).

An alternative of Playback is the Background applications. It also answers the line by default.

The difference between Playback and Background is that if you are going to use the first one, you have to wait till the end of the audio message and then you can choose another option. If you are going to use the second one then it’s not necessary to wait till the end of the audio message and you can choose the desired option while listening to the message. The other difference is that Playback has a specific option which could turn off the built-in Answer and then you have to use the Answer application to answer the call. On the other hand Background does not have such an option and it always answers the call by default

Dial is another application which has a built-in answer and it does not require Answer application to answer the call. But there is a parameter to disable this auto answering behaviour