# What is VoiceXML?

The Voice eXtensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) is an XML-based markup language for creating distributed voice applications that users can access from any telephone.

VoiceXML is an emerging industry standard that has been defined by the VoiceXML ForumTM. It has been accepted for submission by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a standard for voice markup on the Web.

The VoiceXML language lets you use a familiar markup style and Web server-side logic to deliver voice content to the Internet. The VoiceXML applications you create can interact with your existing back-end business data and logic.

Users interact with these Web-based voice applications by speaking or by pressing telephone keys rather than through a graphical user interface.

VoiceXML supports dialogs that feature:

- Spoken input
- Telephone keypad input
- Recording of spoken input
- Synthesized speech output ("text-to-speech")
- Recorded audio output
- Telephony features such as call transfer and disconnect
- Dialog flow control
- Scoping of input

Related Information

- What is ECMAScript?
- VoiceXML coding tips
- Creating a VoiceXML file
- Adding VoiceXML elements and attributes
- VoiceXML Forum
- VoiceXML 2.1 Specification