Forwarding Your Business Phone to Apptoto

Point your existing business line at your Apptoto number so the AI Receptionist can answer calls placed to the number your clients already have.

The AI Receptionist answers calls placed to your Apptoto number. Your clients, though, call the number on your website, your business cards, and your Google listing. Call forwarding bridges the two: your phone company sends calls placed to your business line on to your Apptoto number, and the receptionist picks up.

You keep your published number. Nothing about it changes for your clients.

Before you start

1. Reserve an Apptoto number if you have not already, under Settings > Caller ID. See Caller ID for how. Write the number down, including the area code.
2. Set up the receptionist’s phone settings on the Phone tab, and turn on Phone calls under Channels.
3. Set your office phone number on the Phone tab to a line that does not forward to Apptoto - a direct line, a back-office extension, or a mobile. This is where transferred callers go, and the phone Apptoto rings first if you choose Setup A below.
4. Test the receptionist with Try It Out so you know how it sounds before real callers hear it.

Two ways to set it up

There are two working setups, and the difference is who rings your office phone first: Apptoto, or your phone company. Pick one, because doing both makes every caller sit through two rounds of ringing.

Setup A: forward everything, and let Apptoto ring you first

Your phone company sends every call to your Apptoto number. Apptoto rings your office phone, and if nobody picks up in time, the receptionist takes the call.

• At your phone company: always (unconditional) forwarding to your Apptoto number.
• On the receptionist’s Phone tab: turn on Ring my phone first and set Office phone to a line that does not forward back to Apptoto - a direct line, a back-office extension, or a mobile.

This is the setup to prefer when you can. Because Apptoto is placing the callback, it knows whether a person picked up, logs the call either way, and can transfer callers to you later in the conversation. Whoever answers hears who is calling and presses a key to take the call, so your own voicemail never swallows a call by answering first.

Setup B: your phone company rings you first, then hands over

Your office phone rings the way it always has. Only when nobody answers, or the line is busy, does your phone company forward the call to Apptoto.

• At your phone company: forwarding on no answer and on busy, with always-forward off.
• On the receptionist’s Phone tab: leave Ring my phone first switched off. Your phone has already rung by the time the call reaches Apptoto; ringing it again just makes the caller wait through a second round before the receptionist answers.

Set your carrier’s forwarding delay shorter than your voicemail delay, or your voicemail picks up before the forward ever happens. Apptoto cannot see the rings that happened at your carrier, so the Activity tab shows these as calls the receptionist answered straight away.

Nights and weekends only

If your phone system has a schedule or after-hours rule, point it at your Apptoto number for the hours nobody is in. Leave Ring my phone first off for the same reason as Setup B: there is nobody there to answer it.

Do not create a loop

Whatever you forward, the Office phone number on the receptionist’s Phone tab must be a line that does not forward back to Apptoto. If it does, a transferred caller is handed straight back to the receptionist and goes around in circles.

How to set up forwarding

Forwarding is set on your phone or with your phone company, not in Apptoto. The steps depend on who provides your line.

Business phone systems and VoIP providers

If your phone service is a hosted system - RingCentral, Nextiva, 8x8, Vonage, Ooma, Dialpad, Zoom Phone, Grasshopper, and most others - forwarding is a setting in their admin portal rather than a code you dial. Look for Call Handling, Call Forwarding, Answering Rules, or Call Flow on the phone number or user you want to forward, and set the destination to your Apptoto number.

These systems usually let you forward on a schedule, forward only after a set number of rings, or send calls to Apptoto only when nobody in a ring group picks up. Any of those work.

RingCentral

RingCentral will forward a user’s number anywhere, but the main company number can only be routed to a user, a call queue, or a menu - not straight to an outside number. So the setup has two hops: route the main number to a user, then forward that user’s line to Apptoto.

1. Pick the forwarding user. Any user whose line can be given over to this works. If everyone’s line is in use, create a user for the purpose; it needs a RingCentral user license, and it never needs a phone.
2. Route the main number to that user. In the admin portal, open the company number’s call handling (under the Auto-Receptionist or the number’s own settings) and set business-hours and after-hours calls to connect directly to that user’s extension.
3. Forward the user’s line to your Apptoto number. In that user’s Call Handling & Forwarding, add your Apptoto number as a forwarding number and make it the destination for all calls. Make sure the user’s voicemail does not answer first: forward all calls rather than ringing the user’s phones for a while and then forwarding.
4. Keep the caller’s number. RingCentral can show either the caller’s number or your company number on forwarded calls. Choose the caller’s number, or the receptionist cannot recognize existing clients (see Troubleshooting below).

For Setup A, forward all of the user’s calls and turn on Ring my phone first in Apptoto, with Office phone set to a real person’s direct number. For Setup B, have RingCentral ring the office phones first and forward to Apptoto only when nobody answers, and leave Ring my phone first off.

Whichever setup you use, the Office phone number in Apptoto must not be the main company number, since that now routes back to the forwarding user and on to Apptoto. Use a user’s direct number, or a mobile.

Google Voice

Open Google Voice on the web, click the gear icon, then Settings > Calls, and add your Apptoto number as a forwarding number. Google Voice can also be set to forward only when you do not answer.

Mobile phones

Dial the code as if it were a phone number and press call, using your Apptoto number in full with the area code. The “forward all calls” codes are Setup A; the “no answer” and “busy” codes are Setup B, so remember to leave Ring my phone first off with those.

AT&T, T-Mobile, and the carriers that resell them

To do this	Dial
Forward all calls	**21*<your Apptoto number>#
Stop forwarding all calls	##21#
Forward when you do not answer	**61*<your Apptoto number>#
Forward when your line is busy	**67*<your Apptoto number>#
Stop conditional forwarding	##61# and ##67#

Verizon

To do this	Dial
Forward all calls	*72 then your Apptoto number
Forward when you do not answer or the line is busy	*71 then your Apptoto number
Stop forwarding, either kind	*73

Listen for the confirmation tone after each code. Verizon’s *71 is one code for both no-answer and busy, so there is nothing else to dial for Setup B.

On an iPhone you can usually do the same thing from Settings > Phone > Call Forwarding. On Android, open the Phone app, then its menu, then Settings > Calls > Call forwarding. The phone’s own setting is always-forward, so it is Setup A.

Landlines

Most landline carriers use *72 to turn forwarding on and *73 to turn it off.

1. Pick up the handset and dial *72.
2. Wait for the dial tone or confirmation tone.
3. Dial your Apptoto number in full, including the area code.
4. Wait for the confirmation tone, then hang up.

Many carriers also offer *90 for busy forwarding and *92 for no-answer forwarding, turned off with *91 and *93. Codes vary by carrier and by region, so if these do not work, ask your phone company for their call forwarding codes.

Note

Your phone company may charge for forwarded minutes. Forwarding is their service, not Apptoto’s, so check your plan before you forward a busy line.

Test it

1. From a phone that is not the line you forwarded, call your published business number.
2. Confirm you hear your greeting - or, if Ring my phone first is on, that your office phone rings, and that the receptionist picks up when nobody answers.
3. Ask it something you know it should be able to answer, then ask for a person and confirm the transfer goes where you expect.
4. Open the Activity tab and confirm the call is listed with its transcript.

What about text messages?

Text messages cannot be forwarded the way calls can. If clients text the number on your website and you want the receptionist to answer, you have two options:

• Publish your Apptoto number as your texting number, or
• Host your existing landline number with Apptoto so it sends and receives both calls and texts through Apptoto.

Troubleshooting

Callers hear my old voicemail instead of the receptionist. Your voicemail is answering before the forward takes effect. If you are using no-answer forwarding, set your carrier’s forwarding delay shorter than your voicemail delay, or switch to always-forward plus Ring my phone first.

Every caller looks like a new client to the receptionist. Some phone systems replace the caller’s number with your own when they forward. The receptionist finds a client’s appointments from the number they call from, so it cannot recognize anyone if your system does this. Look for a setting along the lines of “keep original caller ID” or “transmit original ANI” on the forwarding rule.

Transferred callers end up back with the receptionist. The Office phone number on the Phone tab is forwarding to Apptoto. Change it to a line that does not.

My own phone never rings any more. That is what always-forward does. Turn on Ring my phone first on the Phone tab if you want a person to get the first chance at every call.

Callers hear my phone ring, then a pause, then it rings again before the receptionist answers. Your carrier is forwarding on no answer and Ring my phone first is also on, so the office phone rings twice. Turn Ring my phone first off, or switch the carrier to always-forward and keep it on. One or the other, not both.

Calls still ring my office and never reach Apptoto. The forwarding did not take. Redial the code and listen for the confirmation tone, or check the rule in your phone system’s portal. Some carriers require forwarding to be added to your plan before the codes do anything.