Make your first phone call

What you will achieve

You will dial a real phone number and have your agent answer.

Prerequisites

• An agent you have already tested in the browser.
• An account with a phone provider and at least one number that can take voice calls. Twilio is the recommended provider. See Phone numbers overview.
• A plan that can publish agents. The Free plan can build and test agents but cannot publish them (see Plans and billing).
• The owner or admin role.

Step-by-step setup

1. Open Phone numbers and choose the Providers tab.
2. On your provider's card, choose Add credentials, enter the values the dialog asks for (for Twilio: Account SID and Auth token), and choose Save. The card then shows Connected.
3. Choose Import numbers. Tick the numbers to use here and choose Import.
4. Open the Numbers tab, open the actions menu on the number, and choose Assign agent. Pick your agent and choose Save.
5. Open the Webhook setup tab and copy your provider's address with the copy button. In your provider's console, set the number's voice webhook to that address. See your provider's page, for example Twilio.
6. Back on the agent, open the arrow next to Save and choose Publish. A published agent shows Published.
7. Call the number from any phone.

Configuration details

• Only a published agent answers. If the agent is not published, the caller hears: "Sorry, no agent is available to take this call."
• One number, one agent. A number answers with exactly one agent. Assigning a number already used by another agent is refused.
• Your own numbers only. A number can be assigned only if it appears on a provider account you connected with your own credentials.

Testing

Call the number and speak. Then open History: the call should appear with direction Inbound, its transcript and its cost.

For an outbound check, set a default outbound number first (Make default outbound in the number's menu), make sure the agent's direction is Outbound or Inbound / Outbound, and use Test call at the top of Phone numbers. Enter the number to dial in international format, for example +14155552671.

Expected result

The phone rings, the agent greets the caller with its opening line, and the conversation is transcribed in History.

Troubleshooting

See Call connection failures and Phone troubleshooting.

Related guides

• Assign a number to an agent
• Inbound calls