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Phone Number Features

What your Voka AI phone numbers can do.

Voice capabilities​

You can buy a local or toll-free number in the US and Canada, or a local, toll-free, national or mobile number in the UK (see Purchasing Phone Numbers). You can have callers dial the Voka number directly, or keep your existing business number and forward calls to Voka with your phone carrier (see Call Forwarding).

Inbound calls​

  • Your assistant answers 24/7
  • It answers multiple calls at the same time, so callers don't get a busy signal because someone else is already on the line
  • Warm transfer to a person on your team, based on your transfer rules (see Tools)
  • Call recording, which you can turn on or off per assistant

Outbound calls​

Your assistant can also place calls, for example to return a call or follow up with a customer. Outbound calls use your plan's minutes the same way inbound calls do. There's no separate outbound fee.

How to place outbound calls:

  • From your own systems: use the Outbound Calls API with an API key that has the outbound_calls permission. You can pass variables (like the customer's name) into the assistant's prompt, and schedule a call for later.
  • From the portal: open Outbound Calls in the sidebar. The Playground tab lets you try a call.

What to know:

  • Caller ID shows your Voka number.
  • There's no voicemail detection and no automatic retries. If the call reaches voicemail, the assistant talks to the voicemail greeting like it would to a person.
  • You're responsible for consent. Make sure you have the consent required to call each person (for example under the TCPA in the US) and call at reasonable times.
  • On a free trial, calls can go out right away or up to 15 minutes ahead, and they use trial minutes.

Reviewing outbound activity:

  1. Open Outbound Calls from the dashboard sidebar.
  2. Select the History tab to see every outbound call your assistants have placed, along with its status and duration.
  3. Click any call to open its detail page, where you can play the recording, read the full transcript, and review AI insights for that conversation.

SMS/Text messaging​

SMS is a separate paid add-on. Texts are sent from a separately verified toll-free texting number, not from the voice numbers you buy (even a toll-free voice number). Voka provisions and verifies the toll-free number for you; there's no 10DLC registration.

SMS capabilities​

Receive SMS:

  • ✅ Customers can text your toll-free texting number
  • ✅ Messages appear in your dashboard and unified inbox
  • ✅ Two-way conversations (Beta): the assistant replies automatically
  • ✅ STOP/START/HELP handled automatically

Send SMS (with the caller's consent):

  • ✅ In-call texts: an online booking link, a deposit or checkout link, or the appointment details
  • ✅ Two-way replies

SMS features:

  • ~160 characters per segment (longer messages split into multiple segments)
  • Up to 5 toll-free texting numbers per business
  • Message history stored

Note: SMS is not sent from your voice numbers; it uses the dedicated SMS add-on number. Voka doesn't send appointment confirmations or reminders. Those come from your booking system (Square, Acuity or Calendly), based on its own settings.

Learn more: See complete Messaging Documentation

Call recording​

Turning recording on or off​

  1. Open the assistant
  2. Go to the Advanced tab
  3. Under Call Recording, change the recording setting
  4. Save

Listening to recordings​

  1. Go to Analytics → Calls
  2. Click on a call
  3. Play the recording from the call detail page

Recording compliance​

Many places require telling callers, or getting their consent, before recording.

Include in your greeting:

"This call may be recorded for quality and training purposes."

Some US states require two-party consent, and other countries have their own rules.

Legal responsibility

You are responsible for complying with call recording laws where you and your callers are. Consult legal counsel if unsure.

Call transcripts​

Every call gets a transcript and an AI summary.

To read a transcript:

  1. Go to Analytics → Calls
  2. Click on any call
  3. Open the transcript

Transcripts are generated from speech, so background noise or a poor connection can cause mistakes.

Common uses:

  • Review how your assistant handled a call
  • Find where the assistant misunderstood something, then update its instructions or knowledge base
  • Keep a record of what was said

See Call Transcripts.

Emergencies and 911​

⚠️ Important limitations:

  • Voka numbers are not for 911 or emergency calling
  • AI assistants are not an emergency dispatch service

What you can do:

  1. List what counts as an emergency for your business in the assistant's instructions
  2. Tell the assistant what to do, for example warm-transfer to your on-call number, or otherwise log a callback
  3. Have the assistant tell callers with a life-threatening emergency to hang up and call 911
Critical

Never rely on an AI assistant for life-threatening emergencies.

Next steps​

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