Abstract: A telephone system employing centrally located telephone answering devices, each assigned to a different subscriber's telephone line. Also centrally located, and intended to be shared, one at a time, by all of the answering devices, is a single electrical tone generator which is used for enabling selective addressing of the different answering devices by their respective subscribers, for the purpose of listening to recorded messages, changing outgoing messages, etc. The tone generator is connected to its own associated telephone line, and is placed in operation through a subscriber's call to the particular telephone number assigned to such line.