Phone calls
How the assistant answers voice calls.
Open AI Receptionist → Phone Calls. This is the main channel for most accounts.
Turning it on
Answers phone calls switches the assistant on for voice. With it off, calls routed to the AI fall through to whatever you have set as a fallback.
Which calls reach it
The assistant does not decide which calls it gets — your numbers do. On each number under Phone Numbers, Who answers your calls decides whether that line rings a person, a team, voicemail or the AI.
Common patterns:
AI answers everything
Set the AI as the destination for all inbound calls.
AI covers overflow
Keep the team as the main destination; set the AI as the When busy destination.
AI covers out of hours
Use business hours so the AI is the destination outside them.
AI on one line only
Point a single number at the AI and leave the rest as they are.
Call settings
End-of-speech patience decides how long the assistant waits after you stop talking before it replies. This is the setting that most affects how natural the call feels.
Too short and it interrupts people who pause mid-sentence.
Too long and the conversation feels sluggish.
Start at Balanced. Move to Patient if your callers are older, speak slowly, or are often reading something out — an address, a policy number. Move to Fast only if your calls are short and transactional.
Respond within sets how quickly it starts speaking once it has decided what to say.
When the assistant is paused
Forward to while paused sets where calls go if you pause the assistant. Set this. A paused assistant with no forwarding destination means calls to that number go nowhere.
Pausing is useful during a change — you can edit the assistant without callers hearing a half-finished configuration.
Call recording
Recording is set per number rather than on the assistant. Recordings appear on the call record under Calls, alongside the transcript.
AI minutes
Time the assistant spends on calls is metered as AI minutes, separately from ordinary call minutes. Watch the balance under Settings → Usage & credits.
If you run out mid-period, the assistant stops answering — so set an alert rather than discovering it from a customer. See AI minutes & usage.
Caller lookup
Caller lookup enriches the caller's record with name, company, line type and location before the assistant speaks, where that data is available. It lets the assistant greet a known caller by name.
See Contacts.
Was this helpful?