Phone menus (IVR)
A phone menu answers your number with a spoken greeting — "Press 1 for sales, 2 for support" — and routes each keypress to your team, voicemail, an outside number, or the AI agent.
Building something new? Start with a call flow instead — it does everything a phone menu does, plus business-hours branching, multi-step sequences, spoken menu options, and named voicemail boxes, starting from ready-made presets. Phone menus you already have keep working exactly as before.
Before you start
- Phone menus (IVR) are a Growth and Enterprise feature.
- Only owners and admins can edit menus.
- A number with a live menu routes through the menu instead of the work schedule.
Step-by-step
Click Settings in the left sidebar, then Numbers.
On the number's card, click the Phone menu chip. The menu editor expands below (a LIVE badge shows when the menu is on).
Under GREETING, write what callers hear — for example, "Thanks for calling. Press 1 for sales, 2 for support."
Under WHEN THE CALLER PRESSES…, map each digit (1–9, 0, *, #) to a destination:
- Forward to number — connect the caller to an outside number.
- Ring my team — ring the team in the app.
- Take a voicemail — send them to the number's voicemail.
- AI agent answers — hand the caller to your AI receptionist.
Click Add option for more digits (each digit can only be used once).
Click Turn on menu (it reads Save menu once live). To disable the menu and have calls ring the team again, click Turn off.
Callers who don't press anything are sent to voicemail.
Moving to a call flow
Your menu keeps working — there's no forced migration. When you want the extra power (hours branching, sub-menus, announcements, mailbox names in the inbox):
- On the same number card, click the Call flow chip and create a flow from the Simple menu preset.
- Rebuild your greeting and options in the flow editor — same destinations, plus the new step types.
- Click Publish & turn on. The flow takes over answering the number; the old menu stays saved under the Phone menu chip if you ever want to switch back.
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Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between a phone menu and a call flow?
A phone menu is a single greeting with digit options. A call flow can chain multiple steps — menus, a business-hours check, team ring, the AI assistant, named voicemail boxes — and is the recommended way to build new setups.
What happens if the caller doesn't press anything?
They're sent to voicemail.
Which plans include phone menus?
Phone menus and call flows (IVR) are included on the Growth and Enterprise plans.
Can I have sub-menus (a menu inside a menu)?
Not in the phone menu editor — for multi-step setups (menus inside menus, hours checks, announcements), use a call flow instead.