Abstract: An electronic message unit adapted for use with an existing telephone and a public communication link for receiving incoming messages (machine interpretable messages and voice messages) over the communication link and for receiving incoming call signals indicating an incoming message being receivble over the communication link including a telephone control assembly and a message controller. The telephone control assembly is connectable to the communication link and to the existing telephone for receiving call incoming signals and for connecting to the communication link in response to receiving a call incoming signal, the telephone control assembly receiving the incoming messages over the communication link when connected to the communication link and outputting the received incoming messages. The message controller receives the incoming messages outputted by the telephone control assembly and determines the incoming message to be either a machine interpretable message or a voice message.