AT&T (1740WH) Digital AnsweSystem with Time and Day Stamp, White

No. The machine operates between the phone and the outlet. Plug the unit into the outlet. There’s a place to connect the phone line to the unit. The same line you would use to connect to the outlet connects to the unit instead.

Yes, but on mine the voice is ridiculously loud.

It’s much louder during screening than on the recorded message. … Yes, but on mine the voice is ridiculously loud.

It’s much louder during screening than on the recorded message.

(Don’t put this machine in your bedroom.)

Our is set to show a flashing # of calls missed, no sound…we don’t want to announce that we’re not home. I am quite sure it can be set to also give an audible signal when there are missed calls.

How do you set # of rings?

Albert – AT&T 1740 will announce the phone number of the incoming call (Caller ID required), but not the name.

It’s like all the other electronic devices with clocks…re-set. I just experienced a power outage last week (Sept.,2015), and it will tell you that time and date need to be set.

Sorry I clicked the wrong reply under the "I don’t know" the answer. Hope you can SEE that answer I actually posted!! But just in case you can’t. The manual reads "You can store approximately 60 minutes of messages, memos and announcements (up to a maximum of 99 messages)." Hope this helps!

I believe you can set up to 06 rings. But make sure if your phone service provider has a digital answering service you have to disable that because that is default to go in answering mode after 5 rings

Texas – No special filter. Is this issue with every message? AT&T Support: 1-800-222-3111.

Bill – Any home answering device cannot record a message if your line is busy. If you subscribe to call waiting and VOICEMAIL from your provider, the caller would be able to leave a message via the provider if your line was busy at the time.

Call their 800 number. They are very helpful. Their number is 1-800-222-3111. It’s a great machine; my only complaint is that I can’t turn off the sound completely when I go to sleep and even with the volume turned at the lowest, you can still hear the incoming caller loud enough from another room.

Marilyn – Yes; you can access your recorded messages from a remote location.

Jtalbott – You can use AT&T 1740 with voicemail. Set the 1740 to answer at a lower # of rings than voicemail. This will make the 1740 your primary message taker, and voicemail your backup.

Yes, it will beep every 15 seconds, however, you can turn off the audible message alert.

Hi – Yes, you can listen to messages left on the AT&T 1740 even if you are not at home. Simply call your home phone number then enter the remote access while the announcement is playing. The default remote access code is 19 unless you changed it. Thank you!

The media could not be loaded.  I purchased this AT&T answering machine for my elderly mother. I had two key requirements: simple to use and something that could be made totally silent when the caller is a recording a message. Apparently the silent mode was removed on this answering machine at some point in time as some reviewers reported, however the unit I purchased in January of 2017 can be silent as I demonstrate in attached video. The sound is recorded clearly, not garbled in any way.

The answering machine is fairly simple to use. The set up is simple, the minimum set up requires just setting the clock. You can optionally record your own greeting but the default one is very reasonable as well. The answering machine hook up: the answering machine is plugged into the wall, the phone plugs into the answering machine. The phone is not needed for the answering machine to work, but we have the phone plugged in. The answering machine does not ring as a phone would, it does make a beep when it starts recording. You can see how this works in my video. Note that the incoming call ringing comes from my phone that is hooked into the back of the answering machine.

If you have caller id it will announce the phone number (not the name) of the caller. If you are using the phone and another call comes in the answering machine will not record. Call waiting function works as before the answering machine was attached. The answering machine can hold 60 minutes of messages. The old messages can be deleted one at a time (as you listen to them) or all at once.

The answering machine comes with AC adapter. It has a built-in backup battery for the clock. When I unplug the answering machine to move it to another location the clock remains set. But this battery works only for a short period. When I left the answering machine unplugged for a few days it forgot the date and time.

There are two small things I don’t like: (1) the phone cord does not plug into the machine, it is built in. So if the cord tongue breaks you can’t easily replace it. (2) The play button is the large silver area near the display, it does not look like a button and it is not clearly marked as "play". My mother had trouble finding the play button on her own. All other buttons are better marked.

Ali Julia review

I don’t need an answering machine with all of the bells and whistles. I simply need it to answer the phone and take a message. End of story. This one does just that. I can’t really say that it works as advertised as I have not used all of the features and never will. It does what I need.

— Update —

Now that I have used this machine for several months I find that I like it even more than I did at first. No, I have not used all of the features. That will never happen. What impresses me most is the simplicity of the machine. All of the buttons are labeled and they do what they say they will do. Since I first started using it I have found that I have no need to keep the owner’s manual handy. In the real world that is very important. The same cannot be said of many other products.

Another thing that I like is that when I have listened to a message it is kept on the machine until I tell it specifically to delete. What this means is that after I have listened to all of the messages and a new message comes in, the new message will be played back without all of the old messages playing also. However, with a second push of the playback button I can hear the old messages. I don’t have to frantically hunt for pen and paper to write down a phone number. I can simply playback the old message at my leisure and delete it when needed.

This took me a minute but once I figured it out it was pretty simple. I definitely needed the included instructions which were in a pretty good sized font. I imagine the customer for this product is mostly the over 65 crowd with land lines, which is what I was setting up for my mom. My struggle was mostly due to the fact that her land line is actually plugged into her ATT modem, not the wall phone line. Whatever, I was not about to change that whole system of the phone line going into the modem — not sure who set it up that way, but it works so we don’t change things that are actually working! I inserted the answering machine between the phone and the modem and it worked instantly. I dinged a star for not mentioning in the instructions that it would be okay to plug the machine wire into the modem, if that’s where the phone line is.

The outgoing message is very faint and incoming message is very loud. I have figured out how to control the incoming message volume and I’m not sure we actually need to hear the outgoing message so not going to worry about it, but note that they are not the same volume. I wish there were more buttons instead of buttons that have dual uses, but if I follow along with the guide it’s doable. It would be difficult for my mom, though. I suspect more buttons mean higher cost, and I thought this was reasonably priced for a tech item that is probably going the way of the dinosaur. It is perfect for our needs at a great price point.

This is saving me so many headaches. I get a constant barrage of sales, political, and countless other phone calls to improve my pain, offer me a back brace, supplemental insurance, opinion polls, and ways to make my life solar… on my OLD SCHOOL landline, like around 30 – 40 a day, even with the government “do not call” list. So, to spare my time and blood pressure, I now screen every incoming call through this little OLD SCHOOL gem of a secretary/call screener. Priceless… A.I. has nothing on this baby!!

Several people commented that this answering machine was easy to set up, well yes but not for me. The telephone jack is close to the machine: great but the power outlet was rather far and behind the refrigerator. I had to pull out the refrigerator, not an easy task as the kitchen door, edge of the sink and other stuffs made it difficult to pull it out. I had to take a very deep breath to sneak behind the refrigerator to reach the electrical outlet and the power cord of the refrigerator was very short and did not allow me to pull the refrigerator the needed distance.
Anyway it is done and the answering machine is all set up. May it last and work for a long time.

I’ve been using an old GE answering machine for a very long time, but it started going through 9v backup batteries way too fast, which led me to believe some of the internal components had probably just gotten too old to work properly/efficiently anymore.

After looking at a few different potential replacements, I settled on this one because its functions most closely resemble my old one, especially the remote commands that allow you to call in and check your messages from other locations; it’s inexpensive, and comes with the added bonus of a no-battery backup memory system. If the battery got too low in my old one, I’d lose all saved messages and the outgoing message in the event of a power outage.

The sound quality is “ok” … no better or worse than my old one. You can actually do a lot to make your outgoing message sound better, e.g., by just trying to record the message from a few different positions, with your mouth at different distances/angles from the top of the machine, where the internal microphone is located.

Good basic recording machine, very easy to set up/use, certainly worth the price.

I have two of the AT&T 1740s and both work great. I noted that one reviewer has gone through several but one of mine have been in use for several years and no issues – they are prone to lightning strikes and can be knocked out by voltages brought in that way so that could be a reason for failure. I usually unplug my machines when lightning is expected.

This machine is simple to set up and operate. It has good options such as the number of rings before it picks up, a toll saver for remote access, muting of the outgoing message if desired, and a changeable access code so you can set one you want. It run off a wall transformer on 6VAC but can run on 9VDC so it can be used with a solar power system where no AC is available (some electronic knowledge needed). Time is not displayed but can be played using the keypad. Time is recorded on each incoming call recorded, and the option for caller ID (if that service is available) to be recorded is also available. All in all, this is a great little answering machine and a guaranteed robo-call defender (they almost always hang-up), since you can call screen with it. Fully digital, no tapes to deal with, and it maintains recorded information through a power outage. A good investment if you’re looking for an answering device.

I was tired of my cell phone provider’s voice mail system and wanted to go back to a stand alone unit. I wanted an answering machine that will play an outgoing message, beep and record the incoming messages. It definitely doesn’t disappoint. You can call in to the machine and check your messages from a cell phone if you want. It was really easy to set up. All the buttons and their features speak which is nice. I had to change some factory settings to what I wanted but I figured that going in. I turned off the function where it announces incoming phone numbers. I also turned off the function to store phone numbers. By turning off the store numbers function, it doesn’t announce the phone number before playing the message. I like that. I also turned off blocked callers. Now if anybody calls with a blocked number, the machine will announce that it doesn’t take calls from the incoming blocked number and hangs up. I love it. It will also speak in English or Spanish. The sound quality is a bit on the grainy side, but it’s understandable. If AT&T and gone up a step in the sampling rate to 11025, it probably would sound even better. I haven’t had any problems with it so far, I’ve had it for a couple of months now and it works like it should. If you need something simple, easy to use and cool to have on your kitchen counter, get this machine.

As a lot of people have stated in their reviews, it’s very hard to find a stand alone answering machine. I read the reviews for this one, but they were so mixed I wasn’t sure what to think. I decided that for the price, it was worth the risk. So glad I took a chance. I just received it and it took me less than 5 minutes to connect to my phone and set up.

Once you get the wires connected, there’s a large button that says SETUP. You press that and it guides you through everything you need to do. You can choose how many rings before the answering machine picks up. There’s a date, time AND year stamp. If you want to hear the phone number of the called before you hear the message, you can do that, too. All the options are offered in an on or off format. I think other reviews may not have realized all the options they had available with this machine. As long as I have the volume off, you can’t hear the announcement or the caller’s message. If you turn it all the way up, you can hear it rooms away. The sound quality seems fine to me, too. I’ve had my husband call to test it several times.

You do need to start listening to the message before you erase it. I believe that’s to ensure you don’t erase a message in error. You only have to hear about a second of the message before you can delete it. It’s not really an issue for me.

I definitely suggest you take a chance on this machine. I think it’s really worth it.

The media could not be loaded.  This little device is value for money, so easy to set up, user friendly and lots of features. It can block private calls read out the numbers calling, you can listen to your messages remotely etc etc. I happy with my purchase. I record my outgoing message no problem and very clear. Also my incoming messages are also very clear. I set it so it blinks & beeps when I have a message. Totally 💯 love it. Some buyers says it doesn’t work after 2 weeks will edit review if that’s the case but right now I just got it and I love ❤️ it.