Let one business number ring you and your teammates before your receptionist answers. Calls can reach your SkipCalls number directly or be forwarded from your existing business number. Add up to four external phones. Available phones ring together, and the first answer takes the call. If nobody answers, your assigned AI receptionist takes over.
Watch: Ring your phones before your receptionist answers
Call routing is available on Pro and higher. It is optional and is configured separately for each SkipCalls number.
How do customers reach SkipCalls?
Customers can call your SkipCalls number directly, or you can keep your existing business number and forward calls from it to SkipCalls. These decide how the call reaches SkipCalls.
Ringing your phones first is an optional setting on your SkipCalls number. It works with either route. If you already forward missed or busy calls straight to your receptionist and that works for you, leave this setting off. You do not need an extra ringing step.
When to use it
This works well when you share your SkipCalls number on your website, in ads, or with customers. Customers call that number, and you can answer personally before AI steps in.
Can I keep my current business number?
Yes. First forward calls from your existing business number to your SkipCalls number. Then turn on Answer on your own phone for that SkipCalls number. Customers keep calling the number they know, and SkipCalls rings the phones you selected before your receptionist answers.
Our call-forwarding video shows how to set up the first part. Configure forwarding first, then choose which phones ring in SkipCalls. Use separate receiving phones; do not add the business line that is forwarding back to SkipCalls.
Forward all calls for less waiting. Your carrier sends the call to SkipCalls without first waiting for your original business phone to ring. SkipCalls then rings the selected phones. Carrier connection time still applies.
Forwarding only missed calls adds both waits. For example, 10 seconds on your business line plus 20 seconds ringing the selected phones is about 30 seconds before your receptionist answers, plus connection time. Some callers may hang up while waiting. Forward all calls or shorten the ringing times where your carrier allows it. Leave routing off if you want AI to answer as soon as a missed call reaches SkipCalls.
Set up your phones
Open Phone Numbers and choose Call setup beside your SkipCalls number. Under Ring your phones before your receptionist, choose Set up my phones.
Use Add my phone or Add a phone. Enter each person's name and phone number. You can add up to four phones; US and Canadian numbers can be entered in local format.
Leave each phone on Rings anytime or choose Rings during set hours. Select the hours summary to edit the days and times, and check the timezone.
Choose how long to ring before your receptionist answers: 10, 20 or 30 seconds. Twenty seconds is a useful starting point. A previously saved custom time remains available.
Choose whether to Record calls you answer. Both people hear a notice before a recorded conversation.
Select Start ringing my phones. When updating an existing setup, select Save.
When your phones are enabled, a compact line below the SkipCalls number shows who rings and when the receptionist takes over. Select it to edit the phones.
You can add up to four distinct external numbers. Use regular US or Canadian mobile or landline numbers in the same country as your SkipCalls number. International calls, including calls between the US and Canada, are not supported. Premium-rate, toll-free and other service numbers cannot be used. A +1 country code alone does not make a destination eligible.
SkipCalls numbers cannot be added, including paused numbers: routing between SkipCalls numbers can create a call loop. Do not use a destination that forwards every call straight back to your SkipCalls number.
If a destination forwards unanswered or busy calls back to SkipCalls, a routing attempt can return to SkipCalls or reach that phone's voicemail. Choose a waiting time shorter than the carrier's no-answer forwarding delay. That timer does not prevent immediate forwarding when the phone is busy. If you cannot avoid this return path, remove that phone from routing. Giving customers your SkipCalls number directly avoids the first wait on your original line.
Choose when each phone rings
Choose Rings anytime or Rings during set hours for each phone. Weekly schedules use the timezone below the phone list. You can add two time intervals per day, for example before and after a lunch break. For overnight hours, end one interval at 24:00 and add the next day's interval starting at 00:00.
All enabled phones that are available when the call arrives ring at the same time. Their order in the list does not give one phone priority. If no phone is available, the call goes directly to AI.
Use the switch beside a phone to stop ringing it temporarily. Changing a schedule affects later calls, not a conversation already in progress.
What happens when someone answers?
The first phone to answer takes the call, and the other attempts stop. No acceptance keypress is required. If recording requires explicit consent, the recording prompt may ask for a keypress before connection.
A mobile voicemail or office answering system can also answer first. Choose a routing time shorter than your voicemail pickup time if you want AI to handle unanswered calls instead. For a new setup, choose 10, 20 or 30 seconds.
The receiving phone sees a SkipCalls outbound number as caller ID, not the original caller's number. Use SkipCalls call history to find the original caller's number when available.
Recording and call history
With Record calls you answer on, both parties hear a recording notice before they are connected. Where explicit consent is enabled, recording starts only after consent. If consent is not given, the call can continue without recording. If recording is unavailable, that status is shown in history.
After the call, the recording appears in your call history. SkipCalls also prepares a transcript and a short summary of what was discussed, unless post-call processing is disabled for your account. These may take a little longer to appear. Your AI receptionist does not join the conversation.
With recording off, SkipCalls keeps the routing result, the destination and connected duration, but does not create an audio recording, transcript or content summary. A successfully connected human conversation is still shown as a connected call.
If you take over the call from the SkipCalls app while your phones are ringing, those attempts stop and AI stays quiet. The app’s existing takeover recording rules apply: the in-app conversation does not appear as a recording or AI transcript in history.
Minutes and turning routing off
Routing wait and conversation time can count toward your plan's calling minutes under the existing incoming-call billing rules. Call routing does not introduce a separate checkout or per-destination subscription.
Your receptionist's incoming call duration setting and your plan or trial limits also apply to routed calls. Ringing and recording notices count toward the total time limit. The call ends when that limit is reached; routed calls have an upper limit of four hours.
Your account can have up to three routed calls in progress at once, across all its numbers. Additional calls go to the assigned AI receptionist under the usual plan limits.
To return to your usual AI answering setup, open your phone settings, switch off Ring my phones first, and select Save. Your saved destinations remain available for later. If your plan no longer includes call routing, new calls use the usual AI answering setup.