Set up phone & voice

What you'll set up

By the end of this guide, your business will have a working phone number that rings your team in-browser (or on their phones), records calls, takes voicemail, and sends follow-up texts for missed calls, all managed from the Signals dashboard.

Prerequisites

• A Signals account on any plan (voice is available on Core, Pro, and Enterprise)
• The Phone Setup wizard handles everything (no separate voice provider account needed)

Step 1: Get a phone number

1. Go to Voice & Channels → Phone in the sidebar
2. Click Set up phone to launch the wizard
3. Search for an available number:
   • Choose local (DID) or toll-free
   • Filter by area code if you want a local presence
4. Select a number and click Claim

Your number is provisioned instantly. It's ready to receive calls as soon as you finish the setup wizard.

Step 2: Configure your welcome greeting

When a caller dials your number, they hear a greeting before being connected.

1. Enter your greeting text (for example: "Thanks for calling Lakeside Dental. Please hold while we connect you.")
2. Choose a voice from the dropdown (preview voices to find one that fits your brand)
3. Optionally enable recording consent if your industry requires it (HIPAA, legal, etc.)
   • The system plays a consent message before recording begins
   • Callers who don't consent are still connected but not recorded

Step 3: Set up voicemail

If no one answers, the caller can leave a voicemail.

1. Enable voicemail (toggle on)
2. Enter your voicemail greeting text
3. Choose a voice for the greeting
4. Set max duration (default: 120 seconds)
5. Enable auto-transcription to get voicemail text in the dashboard and notifications

Voicemails appear in the Work Queue and trigger notifications if configured.

Step 4: Choose a routing strategy

The routing strategy decides how incoming calls are distributed to your team.

Step 5: Build your ring group

Add the people who should receive calls.

WebRTC agents (answer in-browser via the softphone):

• Add team members by email (they must have a Signals account)
• Agents set their own status: Available, After Call Work, or Offline
• Only agents marked Available receive calls

External phone members (forward to a cell or desk phone):

• Add a phone number directly
• The call forwards to that number as part of the ring group
• Caller ID shows the original caller's number

Step 6: Configure overflow

What happens when no one answers?

• Forward to external number: route unanswered calls to a backup line, answering service, or personal cell
• Missed-call SMS: automatically text the caller: "Sorry we missed your call. We'll get back to you shortly."
• Auto-callback task: create a task in the Work Queue so your team follows up

You can enable any combination of these.

Step 7: Set business hours for calls

The wizard includes a business hours step. Calls outside business hours can go directly to voicemail or play an after-hours greeting.

If you've already configured business hours in Settings → Business Hours, the wizard inherits those settings.

Step 8: Test with a real call

1. Dial your new number from a personal phone
2. Verify:
   • Welcome greeting plays correctly
   • Your softphone rings (or forwarded phone rings)
   • Recording consent plays (if enabled)
   • Voicemail works when you don't answer
   • Missed-call SMS arrives (if enabled)
3. Check the Call History page to see the test call logged

What's next

• Use the softphone: learn the in-browser phone controls
• Voice & Calls reference: detailed configuration reference for all voice features
• Manage notifications: configure call alerts on your mobile device

Tips

• Start with Ring All if you have a small team. Switch to Round Robin or Longest Idle as your team grows.
• Enable auto-transcription for voicemails. It saves your team time and feeds voicemail content into the routing pipeline for AI classification.
• Test after every change. Dial your number after modifying routing, voicemail, or overflow settings to confirm behavior.
• Changes save automatically. After initial setup, edits to phone routing, voicemail, and overflow settings save as you make them.