Phone numbers

A phone number in HelloCall is a line that can answer calls and place them. Who carries the call is the number’s provider, and there are three, each under Settings → Number providers:

• HelloCall numbers — a number you buy from HelloCall and pay for monthly from your wallet. Nothing to connect. It takes incoming calls; outgoing calls and SMS are switched on by HelloCall support on request.
• Plivo — a number rented on your own Plivo account. HelloCall connects to that account with its Auth ID and Auth Token; the rent and the carrier charges stay on Plivo, at Plivo’s rates.
• Local modem — a SIM card in a USB modem plugged into a computer that runs the HelloCall desktop app. Calls go out and come in over that SIM, on the mobile plan you already pay for. See Local modems.

Once a number is in the list, everything else works the same whoever carries it: the same routing, the same Call dialog, the same call history, transcripts and campaigns. The provider only decides how the call travels.

Open Phone numbers from the rail on the left of the console. Each row shows the Number (with its label underneath), its Status, its Provider, its Routing and when it was Added. On a phone the table turns into cards.

• Status is Online or Offline. A Plivo number is online while Plivo reports it active. A local number is online while the desktop app on its computer is running and the modem answers.
• Provider reads HelloCall · monthly rent (with Incoming calls only under it until outgoing is switched on), Plivo · account name or Local modem, and for a local number also its live state: Free (with the mobile operator), Ringing, Busy · on a call, No network, No SIM, SIM locked or Offline.
• Routing shows a green Ready badge when the number has a workflow to answer with, or an amber Not routed · Set up now button when it does not.

The buttons along the top are Call and Add number, which buys a HelloCall number in place or takes you to your Plivo accounts or local modems. Buying, syncing and enabling a provider’s numbers happens on that provider’s page under Settings → Number providers. Use the search box to find a number or a label.

Before you can buy or import a Plivo number, connect the Plivo account it lives on. You can connect several — one per customer or business unit is common — and each keeps its own numbers, telecom charges and compliance documents.

1. 1 Open Settings (your avatar at the bottom of the rail), then Plivo under Number providers.
2. 2 Press Connect account.
3. 3 Give it an Account name, for example “Acme Dental — Plivo”.
4. 4 Sign in to the Plivo console in another tab. The Auth ID (it starts with “MA”) and the Auth Token (click the eye icon to reveal it) are in the Account box at the top right of Plivo’s home page. Paste them into Plivo Auth ID and Plivo Auth Token.
5. 5 Optionally fill in Who owns this account — contact name, phone, email and notes — so your team knows whom to ask about it.
6. 6 Press Connect. HelloCall checks the credentials with Plivo before saving them.

The accounts list shows each account’s Plivo balance and when it was Checked. Refresh balances asks Plivo again. A balance under $5 turns red: a low Plivo balance stops calls at the carrier, so top it up in the Plivo console. This is Plivo credit — it is separate from your HelloCall wallet.

The quickest way to a number: HelloCall owns it, and you pay its rent from your wallet. No Plivo account is needed.

1. 1 Open Settings → HelloCall numbers and press Buy a number (or, on Phone numbers, Add number → Buy a HelloCall number).
2. 2 Choose a Country — only the countries HelloCall sells in are listed — and a Type, optionally what the number Starts with, and press Search.
3. 3 Each number shows its price per month including GST. Pick one; the box below says what is paid now: the first month (plus any setup fee) and 18 % GST.
4. 4 Optionally give it a Label and press Buy number. The first month is taken from your wallet, and the number is enabled and on Phone numbers at once.

• The number takes incoming calls. Outgoing calls and SMS are switched on by Crawlink support on request, per number.
• Every month after the first, the rent is taken from your wallet automatically — even when that takes the wallet below zero.
• If the wallet already owes more than a month’s rent when the next one falls due, the number is released instead, and that month is not charged.
• Settings → HelloCall numbers lists your HelloCall numbers with their monthly rent, next charge date and what each may do.

1. 1 Open Settings → Plivo, open the account, and press Buy number.
2. 2 Choose a Country — India, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Singapore or United Arab Emirates — and a Type: Local, Toll free, Mobile or National.
3. 3 Optionally type what the number Starts with, for example “80”, and press Search.
4. 4 Pick a number from Available numbers. Each shows its city or region, its type and its monthly rent. Use Load more for more results.
5. 5 Optionally give it a Label, such as “Clinic main line”, and press Buy number.

The purchase happens on your Plivo account: Plivo charges the setup fee and the monthly rent there, and your HelloCall wallet is not touched. HelloCall configures the answer, hangup and fallback webhooks for you, and the number is enabled at once.

If the number already exists on your Plivo account, enable it instead of buying a new one. Enabling points the number at HelloCall; it buys nothing and does not change the rent.

1. 1 Open Settings → Plivo and open the account. Every number on it is listed under Numbers on this Plivo account, with its rent and renewal date.
2. 2 Switch Enabled on for each number HelloCall should use. It appears on Phone numbers straight away.
3. 3 Switch it off to disable it: it stops answering here and leaves Phone numbers, but stays rented on Plivo. Its routing is cleared; its call history is kept.

A SIM in a modem appears in HelloCall as soon as the desktop app sees it, but only as detected: it is not yet one of your phone numbers and cannot place or answer calls. Enabling it makes it a number.

1. 1 Make sure the desktop app is running on the computer the modem is plugged into (see The desktop app).
2. 2 Open Settings → Local modem. A SIM that is not yet a number shows Not enabled · enable it on its modem card; press it (or Enable number in the card’s menu).
3. 3 Give it a Name, for example “Front desk SIM”.
4. 4 If the SIM does not report its own number, type it in Phone number with the country code, for example +919876543210.
5. 5 Optionally choose its Incoming workflow and Outgoing workflow, and press Enable.

Every number has two workflows. The Incoming workflow runs when somebody calls the number; the Outgoing workflow is the default when you call out from it. A number with no incoming workflow does not answer — callers hear nothing.

1. 1 Open the number’s row menu and choose Routing (or Edit routing on the number’s own page).
2. 2 Optionally change its Label.
3. 3 Choose the Incoming workflow — only workflows set to Incoming calls or Both directions are offered.
4. 4 Choose the Outgoing workflow — only workflows set to Outgoing calls or Both directions are offered — and press Save.

A number that is not routed shows Not routed · Set up now. Pressing it opens Set up routing, where you either pick one of your answering workflows or choose Create a new workflow: give it a Workflow name and, optionally, describe What should it do? — the designer opens with the first steps drafted from your description.

One Call dialog places a call from any of your lines, Plivo or local, running a workflow of your choice.

1. 1 Press Call on the Phone numbers page (or on the console home), or choose Place a call from a number’s row menu to start with that line and its outgoing workflow already chosen.
2. 2 Pick the line under Call from. Lines are listed as “number — Plivo” or “number — Local modem”.
3. 3 Pick the Workflow to run.
4. 4 Type the Number to call. It starts with your organisation’s default dial code, which you can change under Settings → Organisation.
5. 5 Press Call.

The dialog remembers the line and the workflow you used last in this browser, so the next call only needs a number. You can follow the call live and read it afterwards in Call history.

A Human call is one you talk on, through this computer’s microphone and headset, with no workflow in between. Press Human call on the console home.

1. 1 Pick the line under Call from — any Plivo number, or a local modem number when the desktop app is running on this computer.
2. 2 Type the Number to call and press Call. The browser asks for the microphone the first time.
3. 3 The dialog shows Calling…, Ringing, then the call timer once the other side answers. Talk; use Mute when you need it and the keypad for a menu on the other end.
4. 4 Press Hang up to end. The call is in Call history like any other, billed at your plan’s rate on a Plivo line (free of talk time on a local SIM), and recorded if the number records its calls.

Every number can send its incoming calls on to another phone instead of answering them here — or have forwarding switched off from the console. Open the number’s page and press Edit on the Call forwarding card. There are four rules, the same four a mobile phone has:

1. 1 Always — every incoming call goes to the forwarding number; nothing answers here.
2. 2 When busy — when a call is already going on this line.
3. 3 When nobody answers — on a Plivo number: when no incoming workflow or agent is assigned; on a SIM: when it rings out.
4. 4 When not reachable — on a Plivo number: when the wallet cannot fund the call or the call engine is down; on a SIM: when it is off, out of coverage or the modem is unplugged.

Switch a rule on, type the number to forward to, and Save. Turn all off disables every rule at once. “Always” wins over the other three.

On a Plivo number the rules are applied the moment a call arrives, before any workflow runs. The person who picks up sees your number calling, and the call appears in Call history as Forwarded (or Missed when the forwarding number did not answer).

On a local modem number the rules are the mobile network’s own forwarding, set on the SIM through the desktop app exactly as a phone sets them with *21# codes. The dialog reads the current rules from the SIM first, so what you see is what the network has; saving registers only the rules you changed. Local modem must be on in this browser and the desktop app reachable.

Call tuning adjusts how the conversation feels on one number. Open the row menu and choose Call tuning. Under Conversation:

• Allow interruption — the caller talking over the agent stops it mid-sentence.
• Accept keypad input — keypad (DTMF) digits are treated as an answer.
• Record calls — the call is recorded on your Plivo account, and you can play or download it from the call’s details.

Under Timing:

• Speaking speed — 0.5 to 2.0.
• Pause before answering (ms) — how long the caller must be silent before the agent treats their turn as finished, 200 to 3000 ms. Raise it if callers are cut off mid-sentence; lower it for a snappier agent.
• Delay before greeting (ms) — 0 to 5000 ms after the call connects.
• Hang up after silence (ms) — 3000 to 60000 ms of silence ends the call.
• Maximum call length (minutes) — 1 to 120.
• Transfer to human (number), Goodbye message and Message when the wallet is empty (up to 300 characters each).

Check & heal (in the row menu, and on the number’s page) inspects everything a call on this number needs — the Plivo wiring, the routing and the engine — and lists each check with a tick or a cross. Items marked heal can fix are repaired when you press Heal; items marked needs you tell you what to do yourself.

Click a number to open its page. It shows whether it is Answering with a workflow or Not answering, then cards for Routing, Call tuning and Number details (Plivo account, country, type, monthly rent, Plivo application and when it was added). A local number also has an SMS card — see Local modems.

The Call button places a call from this number; the menu next to it has Edit routing, Edit call tuning, Check & heal, Call history and the removal options.

There are four ways to take a number out of HelloCall, and they are very different:

• Release number (HelloCall number) — the number stops taking calls and is given back; its monthly rent stops. Rent already paid is not refunded, and the number cannot be recovered.
• Detach from HelloCall (Plivo) — the number stops answering in HelloCall but stays on your Plivo account, and Plivo keeps charging its rent until you release it there.
• Release at Plivo (Plivo) — removes the number from HelloCall AND gives it up on your Plivo account. The rent stops, and the number cannot be recovered; someone else may take it.
• Remove line (local modem) — clears its routing and stops it taking calls. The SIM goes back to Settings → Local modem as not enabled, and its call history is kept, so you can enable it again at any time.