Telephone answering unit with caller identification and message

Abstract

In a versatile telephone unit subjected to a caller's telephone number reception service wherein at least a caller's telephone number is transmitted to a telephone unit prom a switchboard via a telephone line, the telephone unit has a caller's telephone number displaying feature allowing the user to know who telephoned while the user is absent or away from the telephone. When a call signal from a remote telephone is detected a predetermined number of times, the caller's telephone number transmitted with the call signal from the switchboard is stored in a memory. When the telephone is in an automatic answering mode, the caller's telephone number is stored in the memory along with incoming message. The caller's telephone number stored in the memory can be displayed on a display while reproducing the incoming message if any. A determination of whether an incoming message contains voice is performed and if no voice is determined to be recorded then the incoming message is erased from memory and the device indicates the associated telephone number has no voice recording.