Create a Phone Group when several phone numbers or AI Agent transfer rules should use the same receiving team. A group is a reusable call-routing destination: choose who receives calls, whether destinations ring together or in order, and what happens while the caller waits.
You can use a Phone Group with standard Twilio lines, ring schedule slots, and AI Agent transfer rules.
Before you begin
You need the Setup permission and Phone Groups enabled on your account. If Phone Groups does not appear in Settings, contact your account representative.
Decide who should receive calls and confirm that their phone or browser-calling setup is ready. Use a clear group name such as Leasing Team or After-hours Maintenance.
1. Create the group
- Open Settings → Company Settings → Phone Groups.
- Click + Add group in the left panel. This creates a New Phone Group entry and opens its editor; it is not just a preview of an unsaved form.
- Enter a descriptive name.
- Configure the ring strategy, destinations, and caller experience using the sections below.
- Review the maximum wait time and voicemail settings.
- Click Save Changes to save your configuration changes.
2. Choose a ring strategy
Strategy | How it routes calls | Example |
Ring All | All active destinations ring together. The first to answer receives the call. | A shared leasing team |
Sequential Hunt | Destinations ring in the order shown, moving to the next when there is no answer. | Frontline team, then backup, then manager |
For Sequential Hunt, set the ring duration between 5 and 120 seconds and drag destinations into the intended order. Choose a duration that gives each recipient time to answer without making callers wait unnecessarily.
3. Add the destinations
Click + Add destination and choose the appropriate type.
Type | Where the call rings |
User / Team | Uses the selected user's configured default ring location. If no location is set, it uses their mobile number. Without either, the user has no phone destination to ring. |
Browser | Rings the selected user in Aptly's browser dialer rather than following their preferred ring location. |
Custom Number | Rings an external phone number. |
AI Agent | Routes to another AI Agent's phone number. |
Check every destination before saving. You can turn an individual destination off temporarily without removing it from the group, for example while someone is away.
4. Choose what callers hear
Ring
Callers hear a normal ring tone while the destinations ring. Receiving devices display the caller's original number.
Hold Music
Callers hear a spoken greeting and hold music while waiting. Enter a Caller Greeting of up to 200 characters, then choose a built-in track or a publicly accessible MP3 or WAV audio URL.
With Hold Music, phone and AI Agent destinations display your Twilio number rather than the caller's original number. Aptly browser destinations still show the original number.
Waiting calls can add Twilio usage charges. Aptly does not control Twilio pricing; review current Twilio rates and your account's charges rather than treating a sample per-minute amount as a guaranteed cost.
5. Set maximum wait time and voicemail
Use Max Ring / Wait Time to limit how long a caller waits. The documented choices are Off, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, and Custom.
When a limit is set, configure:
- Voicemail Greeting: the message callers hear before leaving voicemail.
- Send Voicemail Notification To: the recipients who should receive the notification and recording link.
Users subscribed to voicemail notifications on the originating phone number also receive the applicable notifications. The transcript and recording are available in the phone inbox.
Off leaves the caller ringing until someone answers or they hang up. Choose this intentionally; it does not provide a time-based voicemail fallback.
6. Use the group for calls
Creating a group does not, by itself, assign it to an inbound line or AI transfer rule. Do not assign an empty group to a live route; configure and review its destinations first.
Standard Twilio line
Open the phone number's settings and edit the line you want to route. Under Ring To, choose Phone Group, select the group, and save the phone-line settings. Review the group name, strategy, and member count before saving.
For shared-line and personal-line navigation, see Connect a Phone Line with Twilio and How to Create a Ring Schedule.
Ring schedule
Edit the phone number's ring schedule. For each relevant time slot, choose Phone Group as the ring type and select the intended group. For example, a daytime slot can use Leasing Team and an evening slot can use After-hours Maintenance.
Review the default route and every scheduled slot so calls have an intended destination at all times.
AI Agent transfer rule
Open the AI Agent's Configuration → Capabilities → Transfer Call and edit the relevant rule. In the appropriate time window or Otherwise route, choose Phone Group as the destination and select the group.
Review when the rule applies before saving. For the complete transfer workflow, see How to Set Up Transfer Capability with an AI Agent.
7. Save and test the full route
After saving the group and the line or rule that uses it, arrange test calls with the receiving team.
- Call the actual inbound number and confirm the intended destinations ring.
- For Sequential Hunt, let the first destination go unanswered and check the next one.
- Check the caller experience and caller ID in the mode you selected.
- If a wait limit is set, let a test call reach it and confirm the voicemail greeting, recording, and notifications.
- For scheduled or AI-driven routes, test the relevant time windows and transfer conditions.
Edit or archive a group
Select an existing group in the left panel to edit it. Saved changes apply immediately to all phone lines, schedules, and AI Agents that reference the group. Review those uses before changing destinations or routing.
To retire a group, reassign or remove its references first, then use Archive in the group editor. Archiving does not automatically update the phone lines, schedule slots, or AI Agents that used it.