Phone

Give your agents a real phone line and a natural voice experience. Customers can call a dedicated number, talk to your agent in real time, and get the same knowledge and actions they would in chat — with richer voice controls, recordings, and review tools built in.

Overview

Phone is part of Link AI's unified voice stack. The same agent that handles web chat, WhatsApp, and other channels can also answer phone calls. When a customer dials your number, the call is routed to your agent, which joins the conversation with low-latency voice AI tuned for phone audio.

What's new

• Call recordings with playback, download, and retention in the Inbox
• Expanded voice library — included and premium voices, plus custom voice design on Growth+
• Background noise for more natural, "in-office" call ambiance
• Custom call greetings with optional personalized welcomes for returning callers
• Voice widgets — embed voice-only or inline voice alongside your chat widget
• Inbox tools — call thread filter, recording player, message feedback, and conversation export

How phone integration works

1. You purchase or assign a phone number in your workspace.
2. You enable Voice mode on the agent and assign the number on the Call tab.
3. An incoming call connects to your agent's voice session.
4. The agent greets the caller, holds a natural conversation, and can run enabled actions (calendar, tickets, forms, transfers, and more).
5. The conversation is saved to the Inbox as a call thread — with transcript, optional recording, and review tools.

The agent uses the same prompt, knowledge, and tools across channels. Phone-specific behavior (greeting, silence handling, recording, ambiance) is configured on the Call tab.

Voice mode requirement

Voice mode must be enabled before phone calls or web voice will work — even if a number is already assigned.

To enable voice mode

1. Open your agent → Call tab
2. Turn on Enable voice mode
3. Configure voice, greeting, and call behavior (see below)
4. Assign a phone number

Voice minutes are included per plan, with overage billing when you exceed your limit. Premium voices add a per-minute surcharge (see Voice library).

Setting up phone integration

Step 1: Get a phone number

1. Go to Phone Numbers in the dashboard
2. Click Get New Number
3. Choose country and area code
4. Select a number (typically $1–8/month per number)

Phone numbers are workspace-scoped and billed with the workspace subscription. See Workspaces for multi-workspace setup.

Step 2: Configure voice on the Call tab

On your agent's Call tab:

• Enable voice mode
• Assign the phone number
• Choose a voice from the library (or design a custom voice on Growth+)
• Set your call greeting and optional personalized welcome
• Toggle background noise if you want a more natural call feel
• Enable call recording if your plan supports it
• Adjust call behavior (presence checks, silence timeout, max duration)

Use the Play control next to your greeting to preview how it sounds with your selected voice — including background noise when that option is on.

Step 3: Test

• Call the assigned number from a mobile and landline if possible
• Try interruptions, pauses, and a tool action (e.g. "Can you check availability?")
• Confirm the greeting, voice quality, and Inbox thread appear as expected

Voice & call settings

All of the following live on the agent Call tab.

Voice library

Open the voice selector to browse a large library of natural-sounding voices.

• Included voices — part of your plan's voice minute usage at the standard rate.
• Premium voices — higher-fidelity voices with an additional +$0.15/min surcharge on top of standard voice minutes.

Filters help you narrow by:

• Tier (Included / Premium)
• Gender
• Language (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hindi, and more)

Plan voice limits

Design a custom voice (Growth+)

On Growth and Scale, you can create a voice tailored to your brand:

1. Open the voice library → Create voice
2. Describe the voice you want (tone, age, accent, energy)
3. Listen to generated previews and pick your favorite
4. Name and save the voice — it's selected on your agent immediately

Custom voice design is a paid feature on Growth and above.

Call greeting

Set the first thing your agent says when a call connects (up to 200 characters).

Examples:

• "Thanks for calling Acme Support. I'm Alex, your AI assistant. How can I help?"
• "Hi, you've reached Bright Dental. I can help with scheduling or general questions."

Use Play to hear the greeting with your current voice before going live.

Personalized welcome

Turn on Personalized welcome so returning callers hear a greeting that uses their name and history when Link AI recognizes them. The agent may say "Welcome back" for repeat callers or a warm first-time greeting for new ones — without reading internal data aloud.

Works for phone and web voice when caller/contact context is available.

Background noise

Enable Background noise under Voice mode to add subtle office ambiance during calls. This makes AI voice feel less sterile and closer to a real phone experience.

• Applies to phone calls and web voice
• Included in the greeting preview when enabled
• Off by default — turn on when it fits your brand

Call recording

Enable Record calls to save call audio to the Inbox and workspace memory.

Retention

• Growth / Free trial: recordings kept for 90 days
• Scale: recordings kept for 180 days

After retention expires, the audio is removed automatically. The transcript remains in the thread.

Compliance: Recording laws vary by region. Some jurisdictions require all-party consent or an announcement at the start of the call. You are responsible for compliance with local laws.

Call behavior

Fine-tune how calls start, pause, and end:

These settings help manage cost, avoid dead air, and keep conversations professional.

Web voice & widgets

Voice is not only for phone numbers. You can offer talk-to-agent on your website with the same voice, greeting, and settings.

Widget styles

In Widget configuration, choose a button style:

• Standard button — classic chat launcher
• Floating input — compact input bar
• Voice only — dedicated voice call button (no chat UI)

Embed options

On the agent Deploy tab, copy embed code for:

• Full widget — chat (and voice if enabled in the widget UI)
• Voice only — standalone voice button

Inline voice on your site

Place a voice button anywhere in your layout — hero, CTA row, sidebar — without a floating corner widget:

<linkai-widget agent-id="YOUR_AGENT_ID" mode="voice-only" placement="inline"></linkai-widget>

Same page as chat: Keep your normal chat widget and add a second inline voice snippet. Load chatbot.js once per page.

Before embedding

• Enable voice on the Call tab
• Add every embed domain under Domain security
• Visitors see a one-time legal consent notice on first use (stored per agent in the browser)

Inbox & call review

Every phone call creates an Inbox thread with source Call. Use the Inbox to review, QA, and export conversations.

Call threads

• Filter by Call in the channel tabs
• See caller info, agent, timestamps, and full transcript
• Live transcript during the call; post-call transcription fills in gaps when needed

Recording player

When recording is enabled, the thread includes an audio player with:

• Waveform synced to the conversation
• Segments for caller, agent, and agent actions (tools)
• Playback speed (1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x)
• Download the recording file
• Delete the recording (transcript stays)

A warning appears when a recording is within 7 days of expiry.

Message feedback

Review individual agent replies with thumbs up / thumbs down and optional comments (up to 500 characters). Use this to flag weak answers, document QA notes, and improve prompts over time.

Feedback is included when you export the conversation.

Export conversations

From the thread header, Export downloads a structured JSON file with:

• Thread and contact metadata
• Full message and tool timeline
• Voice session details (duration, numbers, recording status)
• Admin feedback ratings and comments

Useful for compliance archives, coaching, and integrations.

What your agent can do on a call

Phone calls support the same enabled actions as other channels, with voice-appropriate behavior:

• Calendar — check availability, book appointments
• Smart Forms — collect information conversationally
• Smart Tickets — create support tickets
• Orders — process with verbal confirmation
• Web search — look up live information with spoken progress updates
• Phone forwarding — transfer to a human when needed (see below)

During longer operations, the agent gives verbal progress cues ("Let me check that for you…") so callers aren't left in silence.

Phone forwarding

Phone forwarding is a phone-specific action for agents that are the first line on an incoming number.

Instead of "Press 1 for sales, Press 2 for support," the agent converses naturally, resolves what it can, and transfers only when appropriate — when the caller asks for a person or the issue requires it.

Configure forwarding rules in your agent's Actions tab. Rules can be saved before a number is assigned; they activate once a number is connected.

Pricing snapshot

Check your plan in Settings → Billing for exact included minutes and limits.

Best practices

Optimize for phone

• Keep answers short and spoken-friendly
• Confirm actions verbally ("I've booked you for Tuesday at 2pm")
• Offer to text or email details when something is too long for voice

Sound human

• Pick a voice that matches your brand
• Write a concise, warm greeting
• Consider background noise for customer-facing lines
• Use personalized welcome for support lines with repeat callers

Record responsibly

• Enable recording only when you have a lawful basis
• Disclose recording where required
• Use Inbox export and retention settings for your compliance workflow

Test regularly

• Call from different devices and networks
• Test noisy environments
• Verify transfers, forms, and calendar actions end-to-end

Review and improve

• Scan Call threads weekly
• Use message feedback on weak replies
• Listen to recordings for tone, pacing, and accuracy

Troubleshooting

Call not connecting

• Voice mode enabled on the agent?
• Phone number assigned to the correct agent?
• Number active in Phone Numbers?

No audio / poor quality

• Test from another network
• Check device volume and Bluetooth routing
• Retry during off-peak hours to rule out local network issues

Agent not responding

• Agent published and not over voice minute limit?
• Greeting and voice selected?
• Review agent prompt for conflicting phone instructions

Recording missing

• Record calls enabled on the Call tab?
• Plan includes call recording (Growth+)?
• Recording may still be processing — refresh the Inbox thread
• Expired or deleted recordings show a notice; transcript remains

Widget voice not working

• Voice mode enabled?
• Domain whitelisted?
• If using inline voice, mode="voice-only" and placement="inline" set correctly?
• chatbot.js loaded once per page?

Call drops on silence

• Adjust silence timeout and presence check settings
• Increase maximum call duration if calls are ending too early

Next steps

• Smart Forms — collect structured data on calls
• Smart Tickets — escalate issues from voice
• Channels — run phone alongside chat, WhatsApp, and email
• Workspaces — separate numbers and agents per team