Phone
The phone places calls from the dashboard itself. Your browser is the SIP client and the call travels over one of your own SIP trunks, so there is nothing to install and no API key to hand out: the dashboard mints a session credential for each call, and that credential expires within minutes.
Open it from Phone in the Voice section of the dashboard sidebar. It is a floating window that stays with you as you move around the dashboard, so a call outlives the page it was placed from.
What a browser call needs
- A verified caller ID. Register the number you present on the Trust page and complete its verification call. See Caller IDs.
- A trunk that can carry a browser call. Three settings on the trunk, all on its own page: outbound calling on, session credentials accepted, and MD5 in the Digest offer, the only algorithm a browser can answer with.
- The country turned on. A call to a country your workspace has not enabled is refused at setup. See Destinations.
- Permission to place calls. A call bills the workspace, so the phone appears only for members with voice access at write level.
Your browser asks for microphone access on the first call.
A call that does not go through says why in the window. When Bird refused it, that is the rejection reason, with the setting that fixes it.
During a call
- Keypad sends DTMF tones, for an IVR menu or an extension; typing digits on your keyboard sends them too.
- Microphone and speaker have their own picker, and the microphone can be switched mid-call. Choosing the speaker works in Chromium browsers; elsewhere the call plays through the system default.
The phone places outbound calls only: it does not ring for incoming ones, and it has no hold or transfer. It cannot reach emergency services.
It cannot be closed during a call either, since that would leave a billed call with nothing to end it: hang up first. Reloading the page rejoins a call that had been answered; a call still ringing when the page went away cannot be rejoined, and its record is then the only account of how it ended.
Where the calls show up
A browser call is carried and billed like any other, and it produces the same record: it lands on the Calls page alongside every call the workspace placed, from any client.
Next steps
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| SIP trunks | Session credentials, the IP allow list, allowed API keys, and Digest |
| Caller IDs | Registering a number and proving you own it with a verification call |
| Voice destinations | Turning on the countries you call, and what high risk means |
| Call log | Every field on a record, filtering, and CSV export |
| Place your first call | From an empty workspace to a ringing phone in about ten minutes |