Phone

How it works

1. You rent a phone number in Chat Thing (or forward your existing business line to it).
2. When someone calls, your bot greets them, introduces itself as an AI assistant and answers their questions from your data sources.
3. If the caller asks for a person, the bot can transfer the call to a phone number you choose. If nobody picks up, the bot takes a message instead.
4. After the call, the transcript appears in your conversations alongside your web, WhatsApp and email chats.

The phone channel runs on the same voice engine as voice calls in the web channel, so the voice, language and answer-length settings work the same way in both places.

Before you start

Once you are on a plan that includes the Phone channel, you can try it before buying any voice minutes or renting a number by using the free test line described below.

Enable the phone channel

1. From your bot dashboard, open the Channels tab and turn on the Phone card. Chat Thing takes you straight to the phone channel's settings page.
2. Work through the sections on the settings page in order: test line, phone number, greeting and voice, transfers and protection. Click Save when you have finished making changes.

Try it on the test line

You do not need a phone number to hear your bot on a call. Every team gets 10 free test minutes a month on a shared test line, and those minutes are separate from your voice packs.

1. In the Test line section, enter your own phone number in Your phone number using the international format (for example +447700900123 or +14155550123) and click Get a test PIN.
2. Chat Thing shows a PIN for that number. The PIN lasts 24 hours and is only shown here, so make a note of it. Clicking New PIN replaces the old one.
3. Call the test line number shown on the page with your caller ID visible, then enter your PIN when asked. Your bot answers exactly as it would on its own number.

Limits on the test line:

• Up to five registered callers per bot, and ten test calls per caller per day.
• Test minutes include any transfers you try.
• Minutes reset on the first of each month (UTC).
• Anyone with your PIN and caller ID can reach this bot's test line, so keep the PIN private. Your carrier's usual call charges apply.

If the section says the shared test line is not available yet, it has not been switched on for your region. You can still rent a number and test on that.

Get a phone number

1. In the Phone number section, choose a Country: United States (+1) or United Kingdom (+44).
2. For US numbers you can enter an optional area code (for example 415) to get a local number. US numbers are local landline-style numbers.
3. UK numbers are mobile numbers, and UK regulations require a registered business address. Fill in Business name, Street, City, County or region and Postcode.
4. Check the price line, then click Get a number. The monthly charge is added to your voice subscription and charged pro rata from today.

Your new number appears in the section with its country and status. Calls to it are answered by your bot from that moment.

Keep your existing business number

You do not have to publish a new number. Set up call forwarding from your existing business line to your Chat Thing number, and keep advertising the number your customers already know. How you forward calls depends on your phone provider; most let you forward all calls, or only unanswered calls, from their app or by dialling a short code.

Release a number

Click Release number if you no longer need it. Callers will no longer reach your bot on that number and the monthly charge is adjusted on your next invoice. Chat Thing holds the number for seven days before returning it to the carrier. If you released it by mistake, contact support during those seven days.

Greeting and voice

This section controls how the bot opens the call and how it sounds.

• Spoken greeting - The first thing callers hear, for example "Thanks for calling Acme. How can I help today?" Chat Thing always adds a short AI disclosure if your greeting does not already make clear that the caller is speaking to an AI assistant. Leave it blank and the bot greets the caller, introduces itself and asks how it can help.
• Call voice - Choose from thirteen voices with British, Irish, Australian, North American and other accents. Press play to hear a prerecorded sample; previews do not use call minutes.
• Voice instructions - Guidance on personality, tone and speaking style for the voice. Chat Thing drafts these from your bot's system prompt the first time. Your bot still follows its original system prompt and uses its data sources and power-ups for answers; these instructions only shape how the voice speaks. Click Regenerate from system prompt if you change your prompt and want a fresh draft, then review and save.
• Spoken language - Use the bot's default language, let the bot follow the caller automatically, or fix a specific language.
• Answer length - Short (up to 90 words), medium (up to 180) or long (up to 300). Shorter answers feel more natural on the phone.
• Maximum call duration (minutes) - Between 1 and 15 minutes, default 5. Thirty seconds before the limit, the bot starts wrapping up and offers to continue on your website chat or by calling back.
• Monthly minutes for this bot - Leave blank to let the bot draw from your team's shared allowance. Set a number to cap this bot's monthly usage, or set 0 to pause new calls to this bot without disabling the channel. The cap does not reserve minutes for this bot.
• When someone calls again - What a number that has called before gets: Start a new conversation (the default), which leaves the earlier one in your inbox, or Continue the previous conversation, so the bot can see what was said last time.

Transfer to your team

When a caller asks for a person, the bot can transfer the call to a real phone.

1. Turn on Allow transfers.
2. Enter your Team phone number in international format, for example +447700900123. Transfers stay in the same country as your Chat Thing number: UK numbers transfer to UK numbers and US numbers to US numbers. Premium-rate and other expensive destinations are blocked.
3. Set Ring for (seconds): how long to ring your team before giving up, between 10 and 60 seconds (default 25).
4. Choose what happens if nobody answers: return to the bot to take a message (default), or apologise and end the call.

How a transfer works for your team: the person answering hears "Chat Thing is transferring a caller on number. Press any key to accept." Pressing a key connects them to the caller. Because a key press is needed, voicemail can never accidentally take the call, and the bot never tells the caller they have been connected until someone has really picked up.

A few things to know:

• The bot attempts one transfer per call. If it fails, the bot apologises and offers to take a message rather than trying again.
• When taking a message, the bot asks for the caller's name, a callback number if it is not already known, and what they need, confirms it back, and records it so your team can follow up.
• Transferred call time counts against your team's voice minutes, including the time your team member spends on the call.
• Until you add a team phone number, the bot takes messages instead of transferring.

The Talk to a human power-up also triggers a transfer on phone calls, so a bot that already hands off in chat will do the same on the phone.

Protection

Anyone can dial a public number, so these limits protect your voice minutes.

• Calls at the same time - How many calls the bot will hold at once, between 1 and 20 (default 3). Extra callers hear that all lines are busy.
• Calls per caller per day - Between 1 and 500 (default 30). Callers over the limit are asked to try again tomorrow.
• Reject withheld numbers - On by default. Callers who hide their number hear a short message and are not connected.
• Blocked numbers - Up to 200 numbers in international format, one per line. Blocked callers hear a short message and are disconnected.

Your bot's normal usage limits also apply: if the bot has reached its message-token limit, callers are told the assistant is unavailable, and if your team has run out of voice minutes, callers are asked to try again later or visit your website. No minutes are spent on rejected calls.

After the call

Recent calls

The Recent calls table on the phone settings page lists the 50 most recent calls to this bot's number: who called, when, how long the call lasted and how it ended (Completed, Transferred, No answer, Rejected or In progress). Test-line calls are marked. Click View chat to read the transcript.

Transcripts in your conversations

Every phone call is saved as a conversation, just like a web or WhatsApp chat. Phone conversations show a phone icon and the caller's number (or "Withheld caller") in My Chats. The caller's number is also saved to the conversation's user data, so it is available to webhooks and power-ups. When someone calls again (in the channel settings) decides what a known number gets: a new conversation, which is the default and leaves the earlier one in your inbox, or a continuation of the previous one, so the bot can see what was said before. Test-line callers follow the same setting.

Transfers are recorded in the transcript as system notes, so you can see when a call was passed to your team and whether it was accepted.

Analytics, webhooks and power-ups

Phone conversations flow into your bot's analytics and webhooks like any other channel. Power-ups that run on the server (Send email, Use API, Notion, Zapier, Slack, Browse webpage, Bot-to-bot and others) work on phone calls, so the bot can log a message, look up an order or create a ticket while talking. Power-ups that run in the visitor's browser, such as website SDK power-ups and display cards, are not available on the phone.

Minutes and billing

• Each call reserves its maximum duration from your team's allowance when it starts, and returns whatever it did not use when it ends. This stops several callers spending the same minutes at once.
• Call time includes silence and pauses while the bot looks things up. Looking things up also uses your plan's normal message tokens, the same as in chat.
• There are no overage charges. When minutes run out, new calls are politely declined until the next renewal or until you add a pack. Chat keeps working.

See voice calls and phone numbers for packs, renewals and the launch offer.

Current limits

• Numbers are available in the US and UK. Other countries are coming later.
• Chat Thing does not record call audio; transcripts are text only.
• The phone channel does not send or receive SMS, make outbound calls, or port in an existing number. Forward your existing number instead.
• Team members cannot join a live phone call from the inbox. Use the transfer settings to reach a person.

Troubleshooting

• "Enable voice calls first" when renting a number - Your team does not have a voice subscription yet. A team owner can add one under Billing → Voice calls.
• The UK address was rejected - The carrier validates UK addresses against the business name. Check the postcode and use the registered business name exactly.
• Callers hear "this number is not in service" - The number is not attached to an enabled phone channel. Check that the channel toggle is on and the number is listed in the settings.
• Callers hear "we cannot take calls right now" - Your team has run out of voice minutes, or this bot's monthly minute cap has been reached.
• Calls from a withheld number are rejected - Turn off Reject withheld numbers if you want to accept them.
• Transfers are never accepted - The person answering must press a key to accept. If calls go to voicemail before anyone presses a key, increase Ring for or check that the team number is right.
• The call ends abruptly after a few minutes - Raise Maximum call duration. Remember that longer limits reserve more minutes per call.
• The bot sounds unlike your brand - Edit Voice instructions, or regenerate them after improving your system prompt.