AI voice agents · Autessa Phone & Texting
Live-call tools and transfers
Autessa Phone & Texting gives AI voice agents live-call tools that act on the call they are on: transfer the caller to a person, take a voicemail, press keys through another company's phone menu, look up the caller, ask for keypad input, record texting consent and end the call. Each tool is a no-op off a call, and the number's Call tools card adds them to an agent in one click.
The problem it solves
A voice agent that can only talk is a dead end
Callers ask for a person, want to leave a message, or need to type an account number. Agents that call other businesses hit "press 1 for billing". Without tools that control the call itself, an AI agent has to say "I can't do that". Live-call tools let it do what a good receptionist would.
What you get
- Transfer the caller to a person by phone number, browser phone or a named directory entry, cold or warm, where the agent stays on listen-only.
- Transfers can play an announcement, whisper to the person being rung, ask them to press a key to accept, and choose what happens if nobody answers.
- Take a voicemail with a greeting or audio, a maximum length, a finish key and transcription, and email up to 5 people.
- Press keys to get through phone menus, with pauses, tone length and gap length you control.
- Look up the caller: phone number, name, city, state, country, forwarded-from, direction and recent calls, with transcripts if you allow it.
- Ask the caller to type a number on the keypad with a prompt, digit limits, a finish key and a timeout.
- End the call when the conversation is done, with a goodbye message and a short delay.
How it works
How does live-call tools and transfers work?
Open the number's Call tools
On the number page, the Call tools card lists the tools a voice agent can use on a live call.
Add the ones you need
Click Add to agent for transfer, voicemail, hang up, press keys, caller info, keypad input or texting consent, then publish the agent.
Configure each tool
Set transfer targets and the no-answer fallback, voicemail length and email recipients, keypad digit limits, and the goodbye message.
Tell the agent when to use them
In the agent's instructions, say when to transfer, when to offer voicemail and when to end the call.
Every option
Live-call tools and their main settings
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Transfer the caller to a person | Target (E.164 number, browser phone or directory name); COLD or WARM; announcement; ring seconds (default 25); on no answer RESUME_AI, TAKE_VOICEMAIL or HANG_UP; whisper; require a key press; display message; a directory of named targets; allow any number. |
| Let the caller leave a voicemail | Greeting or greeting audio, max seconds (120 by default), finish key (#), transcribe, email up to 5 people. |
| Press keys to get through phone menus | Digits 0 to 9, * and #, with w for a half-second pause; tone 40 to 1,000 ms; gap 40 to 2,000 ms. |
| Know who is calling and their past calls | Fields to return, 0 to 20 recent calls, include transcripts, and an optional caller-name lookup with a carrier fee. |
| Ask the caller to type a number | Prompt, minimum and maximum digits (1 to 32), finish key, timeout 3 to 60 seconds. |
| Record that the caller agreed to texts | The consent wording, whether to send a confirmation text, and the number it comes from. |
| End the call | Reason, goodbye message, and a delay of 0 to 10 seconds. |
| Pause the recording | Pause or resume, with an automatic resume after 5 to 600 seconds. |
Full reference: Phone & SMS tools reference on docs.autessa.com
Permissions
Who can do what?
| Who | Can |
|---|---|
| Person with write access to the number | Add call tools to the number's agent from the Call tools card and publish it. |
| Tool builder | Create and configure each call tool, including transfer targets and voicemail recipients. |
| Voice agent | Use the tools on the call it is on; off a call they do nothing. |
| Teammate being rung | Hear the whisper, press the key to accept, and take the call on their browser phone or phone. |
AI on the line
What AI agents do here
The agent decides when to use each tool from the conversation and its instructions: it transfers when a caller asks for a person and the agent agrees, offers voicemail when that is the right path, presses keys when it reaches another company's menu, and hangs up once the caller is done.
Connected
How it connects to everything else
PHONE & TEXTING
Ring people and ring groups
The same whisper and press-to-accept options you use in call flows.
PHONE & TEXTING
Secure keypad capture
The tool for card and bank digits, kept out of the AI's hearing.
AUTESSA PRODUCT
Autessa AI Receptionist
An app built on these tools: screened transfers, messages and urgent alerts for a main line.
FAQ
Questions about live-call tools and transfers
Can an AI voice agent transfer a call to a person?
Yes. The transfer tool rings a phone number, a browser phone or a named directory entry, as a cold transfer or a warm one where the agent stays on listen-only. It can whisper to the person and ask them to press a key to accept.
What happens if the person does not answer a transfer?
You choose: the AI comes back on the line, the caller is sent to voicemail, or the call ends. The ring time defaults to 25 seconds.
Can an agent get through another company's phone menu?
Yes. The press keys tool sends digits, star and pound, with pauses, so an agent placing a call can navigate "press 1 for billing" menus.
Can the agent take a voicemail?
Yes. The voicemail tool plays your greeting, records up to the length you set, transcribes the message and can email it to up to 5 people.
100% customizable, code and all
Make Autessa Phone & Texting fully your own.
Use it out of the box, then change anything. Ask Autobot, Autessa’s AI builder, for a new field, screen, report, workflow or agent and it builds it into your copy of the app. Or open the code and edit it yourself. Nothing is locked: the app, its data and its code are yours.
Start free and make it yours