Help Center

Call forwarding vs. using your Talkybara number directly

There are two ways callers reach your AI agent, and you pick one on the Phone Setup page. Neither is more supported than the other — they suit different businesses.

The two modes

	Keep my current number	Use my Talkybara number
What callers dial	The number you already advertise	Your new Talkybara number
Setup needed	A forwarding code on your existing line	None
Best for	An established number on signage, cards and listings	A new line, a new location, or a number you're happy to publish
Risk	Your phone's call screening can intercept calls first	Changing the number later means updating everywhere you've printed it

Keeping your current number (forwarding)

You keep the number customers already know and forward it to your Talkybara number, the same way you'd forward it to voicemail. Callers never see or dial the Talkybara number — the forward happens invisibly at your carrier.

1Open Phone Setup and choose Keep my current number.
2Copy your Talkybara number from the card below it.
3Pick your carrier from the tabs — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, or Other/VoIP — and choose a forwarding method.
4Dial the code shown, from the phone you're forwarding, and press call.
5Come back and flip "I've set up call forwarding" so the reminder banner stops following you around.

That toggle is self-reported

We can't see your carrier's forwarding settings from our side, so the toggle is you telling us, not us checking. Make a real test call to your own number afterwards — that's the only way to know it worked.

Forward everything, or only when unanswered?

Both are offered on the carrier instructions, and each carrier has its own code for each.

Only when unanswered or busy — the recommended default. A person still gets first crack at the phone; your agent picks up what would have gone to voicemail anyway. Lower risk while you're getting comfortable.
Everything — every call goes straight to your agent. The right choice if you want to go fully AI-first, or nobody is reliably free to answer.

To turn forwarding off again, the page shows the right code for your carrier and method — Verizon uses *73; AT&T and T-Mobile both use ##002#, which clears every kind of forwarding at once. On a business phone system or VoIP provider there is no dial code: it's a setting in your provider's own admin portal.

iPhones and some Android phones can break this silently

Built-in call screening — Apple's Live Voicemail, Android's Call Screen, and Samsung's equivalents — can intercept a call on the handset, before your carrier's forwarding ever triggers. Forwarding looks correctly configured and calls still never arrive. If calls aren't reaching your agent, check this first: Turning off Live Voicemail / call screening.

Using your Talkybara number directly

Nothing to configure. You advertise the Talkybara number as your real business number — on your site, your listings, your signage — and calls arrive at your agent because they were dialled there.

No carrier codes, no forwarding to verify, and no call-screening risk, because the call never touches a handset of yours on the way. Phone Setup hides the carrier instructions and the forwarding confirmation toggle entirely in this mode, and the forwarding reminder banner never appears.

The trade-off is on the other end: because customers hold this number themselves, changing it later genuinely disconnects anyone who hasn't seen the new one. Worth choosing your number with a little more care up front.