Send tones? message: Explain please

[Perkin Warbeck]

Sometimes when I am dialing a number and the person I am calling does not answer right away, I receive this message:

Send tones?

(or some wording to that effect)

What the heck does this mean? I have utterly no idea. Please explain it to me like I'm a 3-year-old. By the way, it doesn't give me this message every time -- which makes it all the more difficult to comprehend.

Thanks!!

 

[Hadron]

Maybe it means tones as in "tone dialing" (the different tones that pressing different keys on a landline phone makes)? That's the only thing I can think of. Of course which tones it would want would be anyone's guess.

 

[A bochur]

Maybe it's saying 'Leave your message after the tone'?

If so, it means that if you want to leave a voice message for the person, you should wait to hear a beep and then say what you want the other person to hear, when you are done, hang up. The recipient will be able to listen to it later.

 

[Perkin Warbeck]

Just to clarify this is text -- not an audio -- message.