Phone Numbers

Phone numbers put your business on the public telephone network. Buy a number, link one from your own Twilio account, or host your existing business number. Then decide who answers it: an AI agent, a multi-agent, your team's phones, a keypad menu, or voicemail, with different answers for business hours and after hours. Every call, with or without AI, lands in your company's Phone calls table with its status, caller info, transcript, recording, and voicemail. Texts work the same way: an AI agent can answer them, or your team can read and reply from a shared inbox, and every text lands in a Text messages table.

What it's for

• Voice agents: an agent (or multi-agent) answers calls, speaks in its configured voice, and uses its tools mid-call, including tools to hang up, transfer, and take a message.
• Business lines with no AI: ring your team's cell phones or browser phones, play a keypad menu, follow business hours, and take voicemail. AI is optional.
• A mix of both: for example, people answer during business hours and an AI agent answers after hours.
• Call records and follow-up: every call is logged in a Phone calls table you can search, edit, and automate, such as texting back missed calls or emailing new voicemails.
• Texting, with or without AI: the same number carries text conversations. An AI agent can answer them, or your team can read and reply from a shared inbox, with auto-replies and keyword replies for common questions. Texting needs your company's Text Messaging registration.

Navigating here

From the dashboard sidebar, open Agentic Workflows → Phone Numbers. The table lists every number with what answers it, Source, Texting status, and sharing level; search matches the number or the linked agent/multi-agent name. Click a row to open the number's detail page.

View Phone Numbers →

Settings at a glance

Everything below is optional. A new number works with sensible defaults, and you change only what you need.

You want to…	Setting	Section
Decide who answers, by time of day	Call flow, business hours, closed dates	Who answers, Business hours and holidays
Pick the voice and language callers hear	Voice, language	Voice & language
Play your own recorded greeting or menu	Recordings	Using your own recordings
Ring your team's phones	Ring time, labels, press 1 to accept, whisper, caller ID, wait audio, overall time limit	Ringing people
Offer "press 1 for sales"	Prompt, wait time, messages, retries	Keypad menus
Take messages	Greeting, length, finish key, silence, transcription	Voicemail
Tune how an AI agent talks on the phone	Interruptions, end-of-turn speed, hang-up phrases, key presses	AI call behavior
Record and transcribe calls	Recording, transcripts, disclosure	Recording, transcripts, and limits
Delete recordings and transcripts after a while	Keep for N days	Deleting old recordings and transcripts
Remove card numbers and other personal info	Call Redaction	Removing personal info from recordings
End long or silent calls	Maximum length, warning, silence timeout, prompt repeats	Call limits
Know who's calling	Caller info, name lookup	Caller info
Stop unwanted calls	Blocked numbers, anonymous callers	Blocking callers
Detect answering machines on calls you place	Answering machine detection	Answering machines on outgoing calls
Follow up after calls	Text back missed calls, email voicemails, your own triggers	Automations
Handle texts, with or without AI	Who answers texts, text hours, auto-replies, keyword replies, shared inbox, forwarding	Texts

Key concepts

Where a number comes from

The Source column shows how each number got here:

Source	Meaning
Bought through Autessa	You got it here. It's free for calls, and it's released back to the carrier when you release it.
Your Twilio account	Linked from your own Twilio account. Twilio bills you for it, and unlinking never deletes it from your account.
Hosted from your carrier	Your existing number: calls stay with your current carrier, and texting runs through Autessa.

Texting status

The Texting column shows whether a number can send texts:

Status	Meaning
Not registered	Texting isn't turned on for this number, or your company hasn't finished Text Messaging registration.
Pending	The registration is in carrier review.
Ready	The number can text.
Action needed	The registration was rejected and needs a fix.
Ready (your account)	A number from your own Twilio account whose registration there is approved.
Unverified (your account)	A number from your own Twilio account whose registration we couldn't confirm. Texts still send, but carriers may filter them.

Calls don't depend on texting status. A bought number takes calls right away.

Sharing

Numbers follow the standard sharing model: private, shared with specific members, or company-wide, with read/write/admin permission levels. To call out from a number in the browser, you need permission to use it.

Who answers

A number either sends every call straight to one agent or multi-agent, or follows a call flow that you build on the number's detail page under Call flow. A call flow can send calls to any of these:

Destination	What the caller experiences
AI agent	An agent answers and talks with the caller.
Multi-agent	A multi-agent answers, handing the conversation between its agents.
People	Your team's phones ring. See Ringing people.
Keypad menu	The caller hears options ("Press 1 for sales, 2 for support") and is sent where they choose. If they don't press anything, the options repeat a set number of times, then the call goes to the destination you chose for no input. See Keypad menus.
Voicemail	The caller hears a greeting and leaves a message. See Voicemail.
Hang up	A message is played (optional) and the call ends. Useful for "We're closed for the holiday."

Any destination can play a short message first, and the flow as a whole can start with a greeting that every caller hears. Messages are spoken in a natural voice from the text you type, in the number's voice and language, or you can upload your own recording instead.

Destinations nest. A keypad menu option can ring people, and if nobody answers, go to voicemail. A business-hours flow can send closed-hours calls to an AI agent. Some common flows:

• Plain business line: ring the front desk, then voicemail if nobody answers.
• AI receptionist: an AI agent answers every call and transfers to a person when needed, using the Transfer Call tool.
• People by day, AI by night: during business hours ring the team; when closed, an AI agent answers.
• Department menu: press 1 to ring sales, press 2 for the support agent, or stay on the line for voicemail.

Numbers set up before call flows existed keep working exactly as before. A number that used the older Press digit routing now runs as a keypad menu.

Numbers with nothing set up

A number that doesn't send calls anywhere yet, or whose agent or flow no longer exists, still takes messages. Callers go straight to voicemail with a standard greeting, and the call is logged in the Phone calls table with handled_by set to "Voicemail (number not set up)". Texts are saved to the shared inbox without a reply. Nothing is lost while you finish setting the number up, and turning on Email me new voicemails or forwarding texts makes sure someone sees them.

Using a number with no AI

Choose People (no AI) or Keypad menu when you add a number, or build a call flow later, and the number works as an ordinary business line. Calls ring your team, callers can leave voicemail, and every call is still recorded in the Phone calls table. If you turn on transcripts, calls handled by people are transcribed from the recording after the call ends. Texts can work without AI too: choose No AI under Texts and your team answers from the shared inbox.

Using your own recordings

Anywhere the number speaks text you type, you can play a recording instead: the flow's greeting, a destination's message, a keypad menu's prompt, a voicemail greeting, and the audio callers hear while your team's phones ring. Upload an MP3 or WAV file next to the text box, and use the play button to check it. When a recording is set, it plays instead of the text. Remove the recording to go back to the spoken text.

Recordings are a good fit for a professionally voiced greeting, hold music, or a message in your own voice. Text is easier to change, and it follows the number's voice and language. From the API, CLI, or a script, you can also point these settings at an audio file you host at an https:// link. See Upload an audio file for the scripted upload steps.

Business hours and holidays

Add business hours to a call flow to send calls somewhere else when you're closed. Set a time zone, and for each day of the week an open and close time (for example Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00). Calls during those hours go to the flow's main destination; calls at any other time go to the closed destination, such as an AI agent, voicemail, or a "we're closed" message. Days with no hours are treated as closed all day. Daylight saving time is handled for you.

Add closed dates for holidays and other days you're closed all day. Each one is a single date or a range of dates (a start and an end date), with an optional name such as "Thanksgiving" so you can tell them apart. On a closed date, every call goes to the closed destination, even during your usual hours. Closed dates follow the flow's time zone.

Ringing people

A People destination rings a list of phones:

• Cell or desk phones: any phone number, in E.164 format (for example +14155550100).
• Browser phones: teammates who are signed in to Autessa with their browser registered for calls. Pick them from your team.

Give each phone an optional label, such as "Front desk" or "Dana's cell", so the list is easy to read. Choose how they ring:

• All at once: every phone rings at the same time. The first person to answer gets the call, and the other phones stop ringing.
• One by one: each phone rings in order for its ring time, then the next one rings.

Ring time is how long a phone rings before it counts as not answered. It's 20 seconds unless you change it, and you can give any phone its own ring time, for example longer for a desk phone that's across the room.

Then fine-tune what happens while phones ring:

• Press 1 to accept: the person who picks up hears a short prompt and must press 1 before the caller is connected. Turn this on when you ring cell phones. When a cell phone isn't answered, its own voicemail picks up after a few rings, and without this setting that personal voicemail would take your caller. Voicemail can't press 1, so the call moves on to the next person or to your no answer destination instead.
• Whisper: a short message only the person answering hears before they're connected, such as "Call from the sales line." The caller doesn't hear it. It helps people who get calls from several numbers know how to answer.
• Caller ID: what the rung phone shows. Business number (the default) shows your number, so your team knows it's a work call. Caller's number shows who's calling, so your team can recognize them. If the carrier won't show the caller's number, your business number is shown instead. The caller ID name can't be set per call; carriers show the name registered for the number.
• Wait audio: what the caller hears while phones ring. By default it's a ringing tone. Upload music or a message (for example "Please hold while we find someone to help you.") and it plays on a loop until someone answers.
• Overall time limit: for one by one ringing, the most time to spend ringing everyone. When it runs out, the call goes to your no answer destination even if some phones haven't rung yet, so callers aren't left waiting through a long list.

If nobody answers, the call goes to the no answer destination you choose: voicemail, an AI agent, a message, or hang up. If you don't choose one, the caller goes to voicemail.

Keypad menus

A Keypad menu reads a prompt, such as "Press 1 for sales, 2 for support," and sends the caller wherever the key they press leads. Each key can lead to any destination, including another menu. You can set:

• Prompt: the text read to the caller, or a recording.
• Wait time: how long to wait for a key press after the prompt ends, from 2 to 30 seconds (default 6).
• Wrong key message: what callers hear when they press a key that isn't an option, such as "Sorry, that's not an option." The prompt then plays again.
• No key message: what callers hear when they don't press anything before the wait time ends, such as "We didn't get your choice."
• Retries: how many times the prompt repeats before giving up.
• No input: where the call goes after the last retry, for example voicemail or the front desk.

Voicemail

A Voicemail destination plays your greeting (or a standard one), beeps, and records the caller's message. The message's audio and transcript are saved in the call's row in the Phone calls table, and the call's status becomes Voicemail received. Turn on Email me new voicemails to get each one in your inbox. You can set:

• Greeting: typed text, or a recording of your own.
• Maximum length: the longest message a caller can leave, 2 minutes by default.
• Finish key: the key callers press to finish their message. It's # by default. Choose none and the message ends when the caller hangs up, goes quiet, or reaches the maximum length.
• Silence: how many seconds of silence end the message, from 1 to 30 (default 5). Raise it for callers who pause while they think.
• Transcribe: turn this off if you only want the audio. It's on by default.

Agents can send a caller to voicemail mid-call with the Take a Voicemail tool.

AI call settings

When an AI agent or multi-agent answers, these settings apply to it (most apply to inbound calls only):

• Environment variables and prompt template variables: values passed to the agent for every call and text on this number.
• Initial message: a static greeting spoken when someone calls (defaults to "How can I help you?").
• Initial message generation prompt: instead of a static greeting, a prompt the LLM answers to generate the opening line. Setting it also turns on automatic voicemail detection, and it takes precedence over the static message.
• Conference participants: extra parties added to every inbound call: external phone numbers in E.164 format, or teammates' browser phones picked from your team.
• Client display message: the text shown in the builder's incoming-call notification for browser-phone participants.

The agent also gets built-in variables describing the call, such as @@{callerPhone} and @@{callerName}.

AI call behavior

These settings change how an AI agent or multi-agent handles the conversation on this number's calls, incoming and outgoing:

• Interruptions: on by default, so a caller can talk over the agent and the agent stops to listen, the way a person would. Turn it off and the agent always finishes what it's saying, which suits calls where it reads out something important, like terms or instructions.
• Interruption sensitivity: how easily the caller's voice interrupts the agent. Low ignores short sounds like "mm-hmm" and background noise, which helps on noisy lines. Medium is the default. High stops the agent as soon as the caller starts speaking.
• End-of-turn speed: how long the agent waits after the caller stops talking before it answers. Fast feels snappy for quick back-and-forth. Normal is the default. Patient waits longer, for callers who pause mid-sentence, such as while reading out an account number or thinking about an answer.
• Hang-up phrases: phrases like "Goodbye" or "Have a great day". When the agent says one of them, the call ends right after it finishes speaking. It's a simple way to end calls cleanly without giving the agent the Hang Up Call tool. Choose phrases the agent only says at the end of a call.

Giving an agent call tools

On their own, agents can only talk. To let one hang up, transfer, take a message, press keys, pause the recording, or look up the caller, add the call-control tools to it. The number's Call tools card shows which of these tools the answering agent has, and Add to agent adds the rest. Then tell the agent when to use them in its instructions, for example: "If the caller asks for a person, transfer them to the front desk. If nobody answers, take a voicemail." These tools do nothing outside a live call, so the same agent can safely answer chats and texts too.

Taking and making calls in the builder

The header of the builder has a phone icon. Click it to register your browser as a phone (a green dot means it's ready to receive calls). When a call rings your browser, because a call flow rings you or an agent transfers to you:

• an incoming-call notification slides in with the caller, who it's from, and any display message, with Accept and Decline;
• accepting shows the active-call bar pinned to the bottom of the page, with the elapsed time, a mute toggle, and an End button. You talk through your browser.

You can also call out from your browser. Open the dial pad from the phone icon, pick which business number to call from, and dial. The person you call sees your business number, not your personal one. You can also click Call on a call in the number's Recent calls card to call that person back. You need permission to use the number you call from, and outgoing calls are logged in the Phone calls table like any other call.

Texts

Once a number can text (see Turn on texting), you decide what happens when someone texts it, on the number's detail page under Texts. AI is optional here too: an AI agent can answer, or texts can wait in a shared inbox for your team, with automatic replies for the common cases.

What happens by default

You don't have to set anything up for texts to work:

• If the number sends calls straight to one AI agent, that agent answers texts too.
• Otherwise, including numbers with a call flow and numbers with nothing set up yet, there's no AI and no automatic reply. Texts are saved to the shared inbox and the Text messages table, where your team can read and answer them.

Change any of this with the settings below.

Who answers texts

Choose one of these for texts to the number:

• AI agent: an agent answers. Pick the agent, or leave it on the number's own agent (the one calls go to when they go straight to an agent). Each sender gets an ongoing conversation, so the agent remembers earlier messages from the same person. A sender can text CLEAR to start a fresh conversation.
• No AI: nobody answers automatically. Texts go to the shared inbox for your team, with an optional auto-reply.

Texts follow their own setting, separate from the call flow. For example, people can answer calls while an AI agent answers texts, or the reverse.

Business hours for texts

Texts can be handled one way while you're open and another way while you're closed, for example your team answers during the day and an AI agent answers after hours, or texts sent overnight get "We're closed, we'll reply in the morning."

• Hours: set hours just for texts (a time zone, open and close times for each day of the week, and closed dates for holidays), or choose Same as calls to use the hours from the number's call flow. When you change the call flow's hours, text hours change with them.
• When closed: choose who answers texts outside those hours, AI agent or no AI, with its own auto-reply. If you don't set it, texts are handled the same way at all hours.

Without hours, the open setting applies all the time.

Auto-replies

With No AI, you can send an automatic reply to each texter, such as "Thanks for your message. We'll text you back within one business day." To avoid flooding someone who sends several texts in a row, the auto-reply goes to the same person at most once every N hours. It's 24 hours unless you change it; set it to 0 to reply to every text, or up to 720 hours (30 days). You can write a different auto-reply for open and closed hours.

AI agents write their own replies, so auto-replies apply only to No AI.

Keyword replies

A keyword reply answers a specific word with a fixed message, for example texting HOURS gets "We're open Monday to Friday, 9 to 5." A text matches when the whole message is the keyword; capital letters and spaces around it don't matter, so "hours" and " Hours " both match, but "what are your hours" doesn't.

Keyword replies work whoever answers the number, AI or not, and at any hour. A matching text gets the keyword reply instead of going to the agent or the auto-reply.

STOP, START, and HELP are always handled first, the same way, for compliance: STOP opts the sender out (recorded as an SMS consent opt-out), START opts them back in, and HELP gets the help reply from your registration. You can't override them with keyword replies.

The shared inbox

The number's inbox shows texts as threads, one per person who has texted the number or been texted from it, with the newest at the top. Open a thread to see the whole conversation, including replies sent by an agent, an auto-reply, a keyword reply, or a teammate.

Reply from the thread and your message is sent as the business number, not from your own phone, and the thread shows which teammate sent it. Replies from the inbox follow the same rules as any other text: the number must be able to text under your Text Messaging registration, and the person must be allowed to receive texts from you (they texted you within the last year, or have an approved consent record). People who replied STOP can't be texted until they reply START.

The inbox shows texts whoever handled them, so you can read along with an AI agent's conversations too.

Texts you start

When someone texts your number for the first time, a user-initiated consent record is created for them automatically, so you can reply. Texts your team or agents start, with the Send SMS tool for example, need an approved consent record for the recipient or a text from them within the last year. Opted-out numbers are never texted.

The Text messages table

Every text on your company's numbers, incoming and outgoing, with or without AI, is logged in one AutessaDB table named Text messages. It's created the first time a text needs it and is shared by all your numbers. Like the Phone calls table, it's a normal table you can search, edit, query, and add triggers to.

Column	What it holds
message_id	A unique ID for the text.
direction	INBOUND or OUTBOUND.
business_number	Your number the text was on.
other_number	The other person's number.
body	The message.
media_urls	Links to any pictures or files sent with the text, one per line.
status	RECEIVED, SENT, DELIVERED, FAILED, or BLOCKED (not sent, for example because the person opted out).
handled_by	Who answered or sent it: the agent's name, Auto-reply, Keyword reply, Staff: and the teammate's name (such as Staff: Dana Lee), or Automation.
sent_at	When the text was sent or received, in UTC (ISO-8601).
error	A plain-language note when a text couldn't be sent.

Forwarding texts and other automations

The number's Quick automations card can also send every incoming text on to your team:

• Forward texts to phones: each incoming text is sent on to up to 5 phone numbers as a text, starting with who it's from, such as "From +14155550100: Is the shop open Saturday?" Forwarded texts are sent from this number, so the phones you forward to must be allowed to receive texts from it: the simplest way is to text the business number once from each phone. Texts from those phones are never forwarded, so nothing loops.
• Forward texts to email: each incoming text is emailed to up to 5 people.

Like the call automations, each one is a regular trigger on the Text messages table, so you can open it, see what it does, and change it. For anything else, add your own triggers on the Text messages table: for example, trigger on new rows where direction equals INBOUND to post texts to Slack, add the sender to your CRM, or have an agent tag each text with a topic in a column you added.

Voice & language

Everything the number itself says is spoken in one voice and language that you pick for the number: the greeting, messages, keypad menu prompts, voicemail greetings, the recording disclosure, the "Are you still there?" prompt, and the announcement before a transfer.

• Voice: pick from the same voices your agents use, including your company's custom voices. If you don't pick one, the number uses the voice of the agent the call is going to, or a standard voice when no agent is involved. An AI agent always talks in its own voice; this setting is for what the number says around it.
• Language: for example English (US) or Spanish (US). It sets how the number's messages are pronounced and what language keypad menus listen in. On AI calls, it also tells speech recognition what language to expect, so set it to the language your callers speak. Only languages we fully support are offered.

Write your greetings, menu prompts, and the agent's instructions in the same language you choose here. If you serve callers in more than one language, give each language its own number.

Recording, transcripts, and limits

The number's recording, transcript, Call Redaction, call limit, caller info, blocking, AI call behavior, and answering machine settings apply to every call on the number, incoming and outgoing, whether an AI agent or a person handles it. A call placed with the Make Phone Call tool can override them for that one call. Changing a setting never affects a call already in progress.

Transcripts

Transcripts are on by default. Each call's transcript is saved in its row in the Phone calls table when the call ends:

• AI calls are transcribed as they happen, as a back-and-forth of "Caller:" and "Agent:" lines. After a warm transfer, the rest of the conversation is included too.
• Calls handled by people are transcribed from the call audio after the call ends. This works even when you don't keep recordings: the audio is used for the transcript and then deleted.

Recording

Recordings are off by default. Turn on Save recordings and each call's audio is saved in its row, where you can play it back on the number's Recent calls card or in the table.

When recording is on, callers hear a short disclosure before the call connects. It defaults to "This call may be recorded." You can change the wording, or clear it if you give notice another way.

Deleting old recordings and transcripts

Recordings and transcripts are kept until you delete them, unless you set how long to keep them. Set Keep recordings for to a number of days, and each call's recording and voicemail recording are deleted that many days after the call. Keep transcripts for does the same for the call's transcript and voicemail transcript. The rest of the call's row (who called, when, how long, and how it ended) stays in the Phone calls table, so your call history and reports still add up.

Use this to meet a retention policy, or to keep sensitive audio only as long as you need it. Leave the setting empty to keep everything.

Recording laws vary by state and country, and some require every party's consent. You're responsible for meeting the rules that apply to your calls.

Removing personal info from recordings

Turn on Remove personal info before saving and every recording and transcript on the number goes through Call Redaction before it's saved. Call Redaction finds personal info in what was said and removes it: from the transcript, and from the audio, either as silence or as a tone, whichever you choose. Only the cleaned-up version is saved; the original audio is never stored in the Phone calls table. Voicemails go through it too.

You choose what to remove. By default it's all of these:

Setting	What it removes
Card number, expiry, and security code	Payment card details
Social Security number	SSNs
Bank account and account number	Bank and customer account numbers
Date of birth	Birth dates
Phone, email, and address	Contact details

Call Redaction costs $0.01 per call, whatever its length (a call whose recording and voicemail are both redacted counts once), billed as a Call redaction line on your invoice. While it runs, the call's redaction_status shows Pending; it changes to Done when the cleaned-up recording and transcript are saved.

Call Redaction cleans the recording and the transcript in the Phone calls table. It doesn't change what the AI agent heard during the call, so the agent's conversation history still contains what was said live. Limit who can see that history, and use the Pause or Resume Call Recording tool or careful agent instructions where that matters.

Call limits

Call limits end calls that run too long or go quiet:

• Maximum call length: the call ends after this many minutes. You can set a warning, such as "We need to wrap up in a minute," spoken before the limit. Warn this long before sets when the warning plays, from 10 to 300 seconds before the end (default 30), so match it to your wording.
• Silence timeout: if nobody says anything for this many seconds, the caller is asked "Are you still there?" (you can change the wording). Times to ask sets how many times the question is asked before the call ends, from 0 to 3 (default 1). With 0, the call ends at the timeout without asking.

The Phone calls table records why each call ended, for example SILENCE_TIMEOUT or MAX_DURATION.

Caller info

For incoming calls, the carrier tells us where the caller's number is registered (city, state, and country) and, when the call was forwarded to you, the number it was forwarded from. This is saved with every call and given to the answering agent as built-in variables.

Turn on Look up the caller’s name to also get the caller's name from carrier caller-ID records, when one is listed. The carrier charges a small fee for each lookup, which is included in the call's price.

An agent can get all of this, plus the caller's recent calls with you, using the Get Caller Info tool.

Blocking callers

Stop unwanted incoming calls before anyone answers them:

• Blocked numbers: a list of phone numbers, in E.164 format, that can't reach you on this number.
• Block anonymous callers: turn this on to also block callers who hide their number (shown as "Unknown", "Private", or "Anonymous").
• Blocked message: what blocked callers hear before the call ends, such as "We're unable to take your call." Leave it empty and blocked callers get a busy signal instead, without the call being answered.

Blocked calls never reach an agent or ring your team, and AI time isn't used on them.

Answering machines on outgoing calls

When you or an agent place a call, Answering machine detection decides whether to check if a person or a machine picked up:

• Off: no check. The call starts as soon as it's answered, which is fastest.
• On: a quick check right after the call is answered. The call's answered_by is set to HUMAN or MACHINE, and if a machine answered, your voicemail message is left.
• Wait for the beep: if a machine answers, wait until its greeting finishes and it beeps before leaving your voicemail message, so the whole message is recorded.

Detection time limit is how long to listen before deciding, from 2 to 60 seconds. When you leave this setting unset, detection turns on by itself for calls that have a voicemail message or a generated opening line (see the Make Phone Call tool).

The Phone calls table

Every call on your company's numbers, incoming and outgoing, with or without AI, is logged in one AutessaDB table named Phone calls. It's created the first time a call needs it and is shared by all your numbers. A row is added when the call starts and filled in as the call progresses, so you can see calls that are still ringing or in progress.

To see it, open a number's detail page: the Recent calls card shows the latest calls with their status, length, a player for the recording, and the transcript. Click View all to open the full table. It's a normal AutessaDB table, so you can search and filter it, edit rows, add your own columns, query it from AutessaScript or the SQL Workbench, and add triggers to it.

Column	What it holds
call_id	A unique ID for the call.
direction	INBOUND or OUTBOUND.
business_number	Your number the call was on.
other_number	The other person's number.
caller_name	The caller's name, when caller-name lookup found one.
caller_location	Where the other person's number is registered, such as "Seattle, WA, US".
forwarded_from	The number the call was forwarded from, if any.
handled_by	Who handled the call: the agent's name, "People", the menu choices the caller made, the teammate who called out, or "Voicemail (number not set up)" for a number with nothing set up.
conversation_id	The agent conversation for AI calls, so you can open it in agent history.
started_at, ended_at	When the call started and ended, in UTC (ISO-8601).
duration_seconds	How long the call lasted.
status	RINGING, IN_PROGRESS, COMPLETED, NO_ANSWER, BUSY, FAILED, VOICEMAIL_RECEIVED (the caller left you a message), or VOICEMAIL_LEFT (your outgoing call left a message on a machine).
answered_by	HUMAN, MACHINE (an answering machine picked up your outgoing call), or PERSON (one of your team answered when their phone rang).
ended_by	CALLER, AGENT, SILENCE_TIMEOUT, MAX_DURATION, TRANSFERRED, or ERROR.
transferred_to	Who the call was transferred to.
keypad_response	The option chosen on an outgoing play-a-message call with a key press.
transcript	The call's transcript, when transcripts are on.
recording	The call's audio, when recordings are on.
voicemail_recording, voicemail_transcript	The voicemail the caller left, and its transcript.
redaction_status	NOT_REQUESTED, PENDING, DONE, or FAILED. See Removing personal info from recordings.
processing_error	A plain-language note if the recording or transcript couldn't be processed.

Rows are yours to edit, for example to correct a caller's name or add notes in a column you added.

Automations

Quick automations

The number's Quick automations card turns on common follow-ups in one click:

• Text back missed calls: when an incoming call isn't answered, gets a busy signal, or goes to voicemail, the caller gets a text from this number, such as "Sorry we missed your call. We'll call you back shortly." You write the message. This is offered only when the number can text; see Turn on texting.
• Email me new voicemails: when a caller leaves a voicemail, up to 5 people you choose get an email with the transcript and a link to the call.

Each one is a regular trigger on the Phone calls table that runs a regular tool, so you can open it, see exactly what it does, and change it. Turning a quick automation off disables its trigger without deleting it.

Build your own automations

Click Add your own on the Quick automations card to open the Phone calls table's triggers. Any trigger can use the call's columns as @@{column_name} variables. A few recipes:

• Summarize every call with an agent: add a column summary. Create an Invoke Agent trigger on UPDATE when transcript becomes non-null, with a prompt like Summarize this call in three bullet points and list any follow-ups: @@{transcript}. Give the agent an AutessaDB update tool so it writes its answer into summary.
• Post missed calls to Slack: create an Invoke Tool trigger on UPDATE when status equals NO_ANSWER and direction equals INBOUND. Use an API call tool that posts to a Slack incoming webhook, with text like Missed call from @@{caller_name} (@@{other_number}) at @@{started_at}.
• Update a CRM row: create an Update AutessaDB trigger on UPDATE when ended_at becomes non-null. Point it at your contacts table, match on the phone number column with @@{other_number}, and set its "last contacted" column to @@{ended_at}.
• Follow up on a key press: after an outgoing reminder call that asks callers to press 2 to reschedule, trigger on keypad_response equals Reschedule to email your scheduling team or start a rescheduling agent.

Trigger on the column you actually need, such as transcript or voicemail_transcript becoming non-null, rather than on status. Transcripts and recordings are saved after the call ends, so they arrive a little after the status changes.

How to add a number

On the Phone Numbers page, click Add number and choose where the number comes from.

Buy a number

Numbers are free to get and use for calls. No card is needed.

1. Enter an area code and pick a number from the list.
2. Choose who answers it: an agent, a multi-agent, People (no AI), or a Keypad menu, with its settings. You can change this later from the number's detail page. Until a number is set up, callers can leave voicemail.
3. Confirm. The number takes calls immediately. Texting is off until you turn it on.

Use my Twilio account

Link numbers you already have in your own Twilio account. Your registration in Twilio covers their texting, so you don't register again here.

1. Enter your Twilio Account SID, an API Key SID and API Key Secret, and your Auth Token. The auth token is needed because Twilio signs the texts and calls it forwards to Autessa with it, and that signature is how incoming messages are verified.
2. Choose which of your numbers to link. For each one, turn on Enable calls if you want calls handled here too; otherwise only texts are.
3. Choose who answers, as for a bought number.

We show each linked number's registration status from your Twilio account but don't block texts because of it. Unlinking a number disconnects it from Autessa and restores its previous settings in Twilio. It never deletes the number from your account.

Host my existing number

Keep your current carrier for calls and move only texting to Autessa, which is useful when a number is already printed on signs or cards. Hosting uses your business address, so finish the Business step of Text Messaging registration first.

1. Enter the number (US or Canada, not toll-free) and a contact name, email, and title.
2. Twilio emails the contact a Letter of Authorization. Sign it from that email.
3. Click Call me. Twilio calls the number; enter the code shown on your screen using the phone's keypad.
4. The carrier moves texting over, usually in 1–7 business days. After that the number appears in your list and registers like a bought number.

The hosting request has its own page showing which step you're on. See Hosting your existing number for the full walkthrough.

The number detail page

Click any number to open its detail page. From there you can:

• Change who answers: pick a different agent or multi-agent and edit its AI call settings, or build a call flow with people, menus, business hours, and voicemail.
• Pick the voice and language: see Voice & language.
• Set recording, transcripts, limits, blocking, and AI call behavior: see Recording, transcripts, and limits and AI call behavior.
• Decide how texts are handled and answer them: see Texts.
• Turn on quick automations: see Quick automations and Forwarding texts.
• Give the agent call tools: see Giving an agent call tools.
• See recent calls: the latest calls with recordings and transcripts, and a link to the full Phone calls table.
• Check texting status: whether the number can text and, if not, what it's waiting on.
• Turn texting on or off: see below.
• Release or unlink: a bought number is released back to the carrier (it may not be recoverable, and any texting fee stops from the next month); a hosted number stops being hosted; a number from your Twilio account is only unlinked and stays in your account.

Turn on texting

A number is free while it's only used for calls. To let it send and receive texts, click Turn on texting on its detail page. The flow takes you through everything still needed:

1. Your company's business registration, if it isn't approved yet. Its one-time fees are shown in the Review & fees step.
2. The number's monthly texting fee, shown before you confirm. A card on file is required.
3. The number is added to your registration and starts texting, and billing, once the registration is approved.

Turning texting off keeps the number working for calls; its texting fee stops from the next month. See Fees for everything texting costs.

Everything here is also scriptable through the Phone Numbers Poweruser API, the CLI, and AutessaScript.

Related

• Phone & SMS tool types
• Agents
• Managers
• AutessaDB triggers
• Text Messaging Setup
• SMS Consent
• Custom Voices
• Phone Numbers Poweruser API