Do you have to change your business phone number to use an AI receptionist?

No. You keep your existing business number and forward calls to the AI receptionist. Your published number never changes, nothing about your line is permanently altered, and most carriers let you forward only the calls you do not answer — so your phone rings first and the receptionist catches what you would otherwise miss.

• Forwarding is a carrier setting on your own line, not a change of ownership or provider.
• Conditional forwarding rings your phone first and passes on only unanswered or busy calls.
• Setup is one dial code on most mobile carriers, or a few clicks in a VoIP portal.
• One deactivation code returns your line to exactly how it behaved before.
• Porting your number is a separate, slower process you do not need — and should not do during a trial.

Do you have to port or change your number?

Neither. Porting moves ownership of a number between carriers and takes days; forwarding just tells your existing carrier where to send calls, takes effect immediately, and is reversible in seconds. An AI receptionist only needs forwarding, so the number on your vans and signage stays exactly as it is.

This is why you should never port during a trial. Forwarding lets you test with a genuine escape hatch: if you dislike it, you dial one code and your line behaves precisely as it did before. See how setup works for the rest of the flow.

What is conditional call forwarding?

Conditional forwarding sends on only the calls you do not pick up — busy, no answer, or unreachable. Your phone rings normally first. It is the setting most people do not know exists, and it is the lowest-risk way to start, because the AI is compared against nobody answering rather than against you answering.

• Conditional forwarding. Your phone rings first; unanswered calls pass to the receptionist. Start here.
• Immediate forwarding. Every call goes straight to the receptionist and your phone stops ringing. Useful for nights, holidays, or once you trust it.

How do you set it up on your carrier?

You dial a short code from the business phone itself and wait for the confirmation tone. The codes differ by carrier — there is no single universal one, despite what most articles imply — so use the table below and treat it as a starting point rather than gospel.

Google Voice and hosted VoIP systems such as RingCentral, Grasshopper, or Ooma are configured in a portal rather than by dial code. For Google Voice, that is Settings, then Calls, then Call forwarding. For a VoIP provider, look for call handling or answering rules, keep your own devices ringing first, then add the receptionist as the no-answer destination — and disable the provider's own voicemail so it cannot answer before the receptionist does.

How do you turn it off?

You dial the deactivation code from the same phone, and forwarding stops immediately. Your line reverts to exactly the behaviour it had before, with the same number, the same carrier, and the same voicemail. Nothing needs to be undone on the receptionist's side first.

On Verizon and most landlines that code is *73. On AT&T and T-Mobile it is ##004# for conditional forwarding or ##21# for immediate. Knowing the off switch before you flip the on switch is the entire reason forwarding is a safe way to trial this.

Can you use a second number instead?

Yes, and it is the gentlest possible start. Every plan includes at least one number, so you can put the receptionist on a brand-new line and leave your main number untouched entirely — useful for testing, or for a specific ad campaign you want tracked separately.

A tracking number on your ads while your main line stays with you is a common pattern. Plans include one to three numbers depending on tier; see plans and pricing for the counts, or how to choose an AI receptionist for what else to check before committing.

Related questions

Will callers see a different number on caller ID?

Callers dial your published number and never see the forwarding destination. What they see when the receptionist calls or texts them back depends on your configuration, which you set during onboarding.

Does forwarding work on a landline?

Yes. Most landlines use *72 to activate and *73 to cancel, though busy and no-answer forwarding often has to be enabled by the provider. On rotary or older exchanges the activation code may be 1172 instead.

What happens to my existing voicemail?

It stays exactly where it is and still works. In practice you want it out of the way, because voicemail that answers quickly will intercept calls before forwarding hands them to the receptionist.

Can I forward only after hours?

Carrier dial codes are on or off, with no schedule. Set business hours inside the receptionist instead, and it will handle calls differently by time of day while forwarding stays on permanently.

What to do next

• Start the free trial to get a number, then call it yourself before forwarding anything.
• Turn on conditional forwarding using the code for your carrier above, and note the deactivation code somewhere you will find it.
• Not sure it is worth it yet? Work out your own payback number first.