What is early media?

Early media is a feature flag that enables the media to flow before the call is officially connected.

Early media allows for communication between parties before a conversation is established, allowing media to start flowing before the call is officially connected. Before the call is set up, the gateway might provide music, sounds, or announcements that inform the caller of the call’s progress

Infobip Voice uses early media for transferring calls to external numbers. If early media is enabled, customers will hear hold music until early media is established. Once the speech path is connected, the customer will listen to the appropriate network audio (ringing, busy, out of service, etc). If early media is disabled, customers will only hear hold music until the destination party answers or the call times out (ringing, busy, out of service, etc). Customers will not have any indication of call progress. Infobip recommends enabling early media.

Media channels are set up before the call connection. The ringtone that the caller hears is provided through these channels; it is not generated by the caller’s endpoint or any other queuing services, such as hold music.

Early media enables a better call-transferring experience for our customers since it indicates the progress of the transfer. With the benefits that early media provides, customers are aware of every step they are going through during the transfer.