Phone System
Make and take business calls from the Phone panel in Joby — dial out, answer queue calls, chase missed calls, transfer, and check what happened afterwards.
What it is
The Phone panel is a full business phone built into Joby. You talk through your computer or your handset — there is no desk phone to plug in and no separate phone app to install. Every call is written to your call history, matched to the customer where we can recognise the number, and kept with the job it belongs to.
On a computer you open it with the round phone button in the top bar, on the right, next to the notification and chat icons. On a phone or tablet it is the Phone tab in the bar along the bottom of the screen.
The panel is titled Phone. On a computer you can drag it around the screen by its dark header, and the minimise button in its top-right corner shrinks it into a small strip in the top bar that still shows who you are talking to, the call timer, mute and hang up.
Keypad
Pick the number you are calling from, type or tap a number, and press the green call button. Any call in progress appears as a card above the keys.
Recent
The last calls, with two drop-downs above them: All Calls / My Calls and All Directions / Inbound / Outbound.
Queue
Callers waiting to be picked up. The number on the tab is how many are holding. The one at the front of the line has an Answer button.
Missed
Incoming calls nobody picked up, grouped one card per caller, each with a Call Back button.
When to use it
- You are on the desk and want every incoming call to reach you.
- You are ringing a customer back and want it logged against their job automatically.
- Several callers are holding and you want to take them in order.
- You are stepping away and want calls to stop coming to you for a while.
- You need to hand a caller to a colleague or to the worker who is on that job.
- Someone rang and got no answer, and you want to see who it was and call them back from the right number.
Before you start
- You need at least one phone number. Buy one in Settings›Channels›Phone Numbers using the Buy Numbers button. It searches by area code on the Local (Area Code) tab, or by prefix on the Toll-Free tab. If you already have business numbers with another provider, email support@joby.io and we will plan the move with you.
- Your microphone must be allowed. The first time you open the Phone panel your browser asks for permission. If it was blocked, the panel shows an orange Microphone Access Needed box with an Enable Microphone button.
- You need the right access. The phone button only appears for people whose role includes Phone Dialer. Seeing the Calls page needs Call History. Both are switched on per role in Settings›People›Team Roles.
- Incoming calls need somewhere to land. A number only rings your team once it is attached to a group in Settings›Channels›Call Groups, and that group either rings the team or runs a flow from Settings›Channels›Visual Call Flows.
- Use a headset. Laptop speakers echo back into the microphone and the person on the other end hears themselves.
- On a free trial, calling minutes are capped. When you reach the cap Joby shows a message explaining what ran out.
Step-by-step
Make a call
- Click the round phone button in the top bar.
- Stay on the Keypad tab.
- Check the drop-down at the top of the keypad — this is the number the customer will see ringing them. It shows the nickname and the number side by side. Click it to pick a different one; there is a Search phone numbers... box if you have a lot.
- Type into the Enter number box or tap the keys. The backspace button to the right of the call button rubs out the last digit.
- Press the big green call button. (Pressing Enter in the number box works too.)
You do not have to type numbers you already have in Joby. A phone icon or a Call button next to a number dials it straight away — on the Leads list, inside a job, on Clients, in the Conversations thread header, on SMS History, on Calls, and in whole-account search results.
Answer a call
- A ringtone plays and a card appears in the Phone panel. A call ringing you directly says Incoming Call and Ringing..., with the caller name if we recognise the number and the call group underneath.
- Press the green phone button to answer, or the red one to decline.
- A caller who is holding in a line shows instead as Incoming Queue Call with the group name. Press the green button to take it, or the other button to push it off your own screen and leave it for someone else. The Queue tab lists everyone waiting, and the caller at the front has an Answer button.
- Wait until you can hear the caller before you switch to another tab or page.
While you are on the call
Mute
Stops the caller hearing you. The button stays lit while you are muted.
Speaker
Switches the sound between the earpiece and the loudspeaker. Most useful on a handset.
Keypad
For pressing numbers once you are connected, such as an extension or a menu option at the other end.
Transfer
Hands the caller to a colleague or a field worker. Covered in its own section below.
The large red button below those controls ends the call. On the compact panel on a computer the same controls sit in a single row on the call card.
Transfer a call to someone else
- Press Transfer on the call card.
- The Transfer call window opens. Use the Search by name or phone... box, and switch between the Office Agents and Field Workers tabs.
- Click the person you want. Anyone without a personal phone number saved is greyed out and reads No personal phone on file.
The window says it plainly: the caller stays on the line and is connected to the person you picked, and you drop off the call once it goes through. There is no way to speak to your colleague first, so tell the caller what is about to happen before you press it.
Stop calls reaching you for a while
At the top of the Phone panel there is a switch that reads Available or Busy. Flip it to Busy and callers waiting in the queue stop appearing on your screen. Flip it back to Available when you are ready. While you are on a call the switch is replaced by an In Call label.
Call back a missed call
- Open the Missed tab. The number on the tab is how many are waiting.
- Each card is one caller. A ×2, ×3 badge means they tried that many times, and the card shows when they last rang and how long ago that was.
- Read the green line that says Will call from: and the last four digits. That is the number of yours they originally rang, and it is the number we will show them when you call back.
- Press Call Back. The card leaves the list, so two people cannot ring the same customer at once.
- Admins also get a Mark handled button, for clearing a card that was already dealt with another way.
The Missed list is shared across the office — everyone is looking at the same cards, not a personal list.
How to check it worked
The call connected
The card reads In Call and the timer is counting up. If the timer is not moving, the call has not connected yet.
It was written down
Open the Recent tab. The call should be at the top with Incoming or Outgoing, the length, who handled it and the group.
It reached the call history
Left menu -> Calls. The row shows the status, the length, who answered and a play button if it was recorded.
It landed on the job
Open the job and switch to its Calls tab. The call is listed there with its recording.
Common mistakes
Left on Busy
The switch stays where you put it. If nothing has rung you all morning, open the Phone panel and check it says Available.
Calling from the wrong number
The drop-down at the top of the keypad keeps whatever was last picked. Glance at it before you dial — it is what the customer sees on their screen.
Transferring to someone with no number
A transfer rings the person's own phone. If their row is greyed out, add their number to their profile first.
Closing the tab mid-call
The call lives in the browser tab you started it in. Minimise the panel and keep working in the same tab instead of closing it.
Expecting every call in the Queue tab
Waiting callers only reach the office agents on the team the call was sent to. If a colleague sees one and you do not, check the team on that call group.
Looking for costs on Call Reports
Call Reports counts calls, it does not price them. Spend lives in Settings›Admin›Billing on the Usage tab.
More detail (10)
Your phone numbers
Joby supplies the numbers and the calling service behind them, so there is no separate phone company account for you to open, and nothing to configure at your end. Everything is managed from Settings›Channels›Phone Numbers:
- Buy Numbers — search and buy a local or toll-free number.
- Bulk Activate — paste a list of numbers and put them all on one call group at once.
- Sync numbers — refresh the list if something looks out of date.
- Export CSV — download the list as a spreadsheet.
Which of those numbers rings which team is set in Settings›Channels›Call Groups. Open a group, tick the numbers under Assign Phone Numbers, and pick a flow in the Visual Flow box if you want a menu, business-hours routing or voicemail.
Choosing the number you call from
Outbound calls show whichever of your numbers is selected in the drop-down at the top of the keypad. Admins control that list in Settings›Channels›Dialer Configuration:
- Default Dialer Number — the number that is already selected when anyone opens the keypad. Pick it, then press Save Default Number.
- Available Numbers in Dialer — tick the numbers that should be offered in the drop-down at all, then press Save Display Numbers.
- Changes apply the next time someone opens or refreshes the dialer.
There is no setting that picks a different caller number per service type. If you want different numbers used for different kinds of work, use the drop-down on the keypad before you dial. (Text messages are different — sending numbers can be matched to service types in Settings›Channels›SMS Configuration.)
The call history page
Left menu -> Calls opens the Call History page: every call in and out of the business. Admins also see counters for Total, Inbound and Outbound at the top.
Each row has these columns:
- Direction — in or out.
- From and To — the two numbers, with the customer name where we know it.
- Masking — shown when the call went through a hidden extension rather than the real number.
- Group — the call group the call came into.
- Call Flow — the flow that handled it, if one did.
- Answered By — the office agent, or where it was forwarded to.
- Started and Duration.
- Status — Completed, In Progress, No Answer, Busy, Failed, Ringing or Queued.
- Recording — a player, when the call was recorded.
- AI Insights — see the next section.
- Price — only on accounts that bring their own calling plan. Everyone else sees spend on the billing page instead.
The filter row narrows the list by Date, office agent, Phone, Status, Group, Direction, Masking, Recording and Type. Once a set of filters is useful, press Save view and it appears in the Saved views box for next time. Export CSV downloads what you are looking at, and the rows-per-page box goes up to 1000.
Recordings and automatic call notes
Recorded calls have a play button in the Recording column on the Calls page. The same player appears in three other places: on a job's Calls tab, on a client's record, and in the Conversations thread.
Next to the recording, the AI Insights column can write the call up for you:
- Generate AI — reads the recording and produces a written summary. It shows Generating… while it works.
- Open — appears once it is ready, and opens the Call Intelligence panel: an importance and sentiment marker, a short summary, and — behind + show details — call details, key points, action items and outcomes. Copy puts the whole write-up on your clipboard.
- Retry AI — appears if it failed. Hover it to see the reason before trying again.
Admins can have this happen by itself after chosen call types finish, in Settings›Connections & AI›Joby AI Hub.
Recording and the law
Recording rules differ by state and country — some require only one person on the call to know, others require everyone to agree. Check what applies where you and your customers are before you rely on recordings.
Voicemail
Voicemail is not a switch you turn on — it is a step you add to a call flow. Go to Settings›Channels›Visual Call Flows, open or build a flow, and drag in the Voicemail block (described in the builder as "Record caller message"). Put it after the step that tries your team, so a caller who is not picked up is invited to leave a message.
Where messages turn up
- In the Phone panel's Recent tab, marked Voicemail in amber.
- On the Calls page — set the filter to Type: Voicemail to see only these, then play the recording.
Watching the words as they are spoken
If an admin has switched on Settings›Channels›Live Transcription and turned the Enable Live Transcription toggle on, a small button appears in the corner of the call card while you are talking. Press it and a panel opens showing the conversation being written out live. You can drag the panel where you like and clear it when you are done. See the Live Transcription guide for the full detail.
What calls cost
Calling minutes are counted and shown in Settings›Admin›Billing on the Usage tab, alongside the rest of your usage for the month. That page also shows what is included in your plan before anything is charged.
The Call Reports page (left menu -> Reports -> Call Reports, titled Call Analytics) is about volume and behaviour, not money — its tabs are Overview, Agents, Patterns, Groups and Phone Numbers.
On your phone
In the Joby app the phone is the Phone tab at the bottom of the screen, and it fills the whole screen instead of floating. The same four tabs are there — Keypad, Recent, Queue and Missed — and so are the Available/Busy switch and the in-call controls.
On both iPhone and Android, incoming calls come through as proper phone calls from your handset's own call screen, so they still reach you when Joby is closed or in the background.
Who can do what
- Phone Dialer — shows the phone button and the Phone tab. Without it there is no dialer at all.
- Call History — opens the Calls page.
- Phone Numbers — opens the Phone Numbers page to buy and manage numbers.
- Call Groups — opens the Call Groups page.
- Visual Flows — opens the call flow builder.
- Mark handled on a missed call is admin-only.
All of these are switched on per role in Settings›People›Team Roles.
If something is not working
The call connects but nobody can hear anything
- Check the Phone panel for the orange Microphone Access Needed box and press Enable Microphone. If it says access was denied, allow the microphone in your device settings and reload.
- Check your computer's own sound settings are pointing at the headset you are wearing.
- Make sure Mute is not lit.
- Try one more call to see whether it is this browser, this device, or every call.
Nothing is ringing
- Open the Phone panel and check the switch says Available, not Busy.
- Check the number is attached to a group in Settings›Channels›Call Groups, and that you are on the team that group rings.
- If the group uses a flow, open Settings›Channels›Visual Call Flows and follow the path a caller takes to make sure it reaches a step that rings people.
- Check the caller is not on the list in Settings›Channels›Blocked Numbers.
There is no recording on a call
- Very short calls and calls that never connected have nothing to record.
- Check the Status column on the Calls page — only calls that actually completed have audio.
- Set the filter to Recording: Has to confirm whether recordings are arriving for other calls at the same time of day.
Tip
Use a headset. Built-in laptop speakers feed the caller's voice back into the microphone and they end up hearing themselves echo.