Set up a call flow on your number

A call flow answers your number with a sequence of steps you design — a spoken menu, a business-hours check, ringing your team, handing off to the AI assistant, or taking a voicemail — built from a preset in Settings → Numbers and live in a couple of clicks.

Before you start

• Call flows (IVR) are a Growth and Enterprise feature.
• Only owners and admins can edit call flows.
• A number answering with a call flow routes through the flow instead of the work schedule or a phone menu.

Step-by-step

1. Click Settings in the left sidebar, then Numbers.

2. On the number's card, click the Call flow chip. The flow editor expands below (a LIVE badge shows when a flow is answering this number).

3. Pick a preset to start from — each creates a ready-to-publish flow you then make yours:

   • Simple menu — "Press 1 for sales, 2 for support, 3 to leave a message."
   • Business hours — ring the team during opening hours; after-hours voicemail otherwise.
   • AI receptionist first — the AI assistant answers every call; the team is one transfer away.
   • AI after hours — ring the team while you're open; the AI covers the night shift.
   • Full front desk — an hours check, then a menu mixing the AI, the team, and voicemail.

4. Edit the steps. Each card is one step in the flow:

   • Menu — write the greeting under GREETING — WHAT CALLERS HEAR, then map each key under WHEN THE CALLER PRESSES… to another step. Add option adds more keys. Menus that come from a preset also listen for speech — a caller can say "voicemail" or "talk to the team" instead of pressing.
   • Schedule — splits the call by your work schedule: one destination While open, another While closed.
   • Ring the team — rings your team in the app, following the number's ring order; if nobody answers, the caller continues to the step you chose (or voicemail).
   • AI assistant — hands the call to your AI receptionist. It can answer questions, book, and take messages.
   • Voicemail — takes a message. Give the box a mailbox name (like "After hours") and it's shown with the voicemail in the inbox, so your team knows which path the caller took. Leave the greeting blank to use the number's voicemail greeting.
   • Forward — connects the caller to an outside number.
   • Announcement — speaks a message, then continues to the step you pick.
   • Hang up — optionally speaks a message, then ends the call.

5. Click Publish & turn on. The flow answers the number from the next call; the number's mode reads Call flow (IVR).

6. Call your number and test every path.

Editing a live flow

• Changes save as a draft (Save draft) — callers keep hearing the published version until you click Publish update.
• Publishing takes effect on the next call. Callers already in the flow finish on the version they started with, so mid-call surprises can't happen.
• Turn off detaches the flow — calls ring the team again. The flow itself is kept, so you can turn it back on later.

What your team sees

Everything a flow produces lands in the inbox like any other call, labeled with where it came from: a voicemail taken by a flow shows its mailbox name (for example "Voicemail — After hours"), so your team knows which path the caller took. Behind the scenes, every call answered by a flow records which flow, which version, and which options the caller chose — if you use the developer API, that detail comes through on the call record and on the call.flow.started, call.flow.completed, and call.flow.aborted webhook events.

Troubleshooting

• The Call flow chip is missing — call flows are a Growth and Enterprise feature; check Settings → Billing.
• Publish is rejected — every menu option and schedule branch must point at a step; the editor names the step that's incomplete.
• The caller ended up in voicemail without choosing — that's the safety net: a caller who presses an unrecognized key hears the menu again (up to three tries), and a caller who stays silent goes straight to voicemail, so nobody is ever stuck in a loop.

Related articles

• Phone menus (IVR)
• Business hours call routing
• Voicemail — set up your greeting
• When Astra answers vs. your team