What Happens To Calls When Your Agent Is Turned Off
Switching your AI agent off doesn't drop your calls. Here's the order Optiphone rings your team instead, and how to make sure someone is always at the end of it.
Last updated: September 2026
Step-by-step guide
- 1
Your agent stops answering, your number keeps working
Turning an agent off tells it to stop picking up the phone. It does not disconnect your Optiphone number. Calls still arrive, they're still logged in Call Logs (marked 'Agent Inactive'), and Optiphone immediately hands them to a human instead.
- 2
Stage 1: your preview contact rings
The first person we try is your preview contact, set in Settings under call forwarding. This is the same person who gets the first ring on a normal call preview. Their phone rings for up to 45 seconds.
- 3
Stage 2: your emergency contact rings
If no preview contact is set on your account, we move to your emergency contact instead, and ring them for up to 45 seconds. This only happens when there's no preview contact at all. If you do have one and they simply don't pick up, the call does not roll on to your emergency contact.
- 4
If nobody answers
The caller hears a short message with your business name, inviting them to text the number we just rang or try again later. It's the same experience whichever of the two contacts we dialled.
- 5
If neither contact is set
With no preview contact and no emergency contact on the account, there's nowhere to send the call. The caller hears 'We are unable to take your call right now, please try again later' and the call ends. The call is still recorded in your Call Logs so you can see who tried to reach you, but nobody was connected. This is the one outcome worth avoiding: set at least one of the two contacts.
- 6
Check your fallback now
Log in to app.optiphone.ai, open Settings and confirm your call forwarding contact and emergency contact are both filled in with numbers someone actually answers. Then turn your agent off briefly and call your own number to see which phone rings.
- 7
A note on numbers we won't dial
If either contact is set to an Optiphone number, we skip it and move to the next stage. Dialling it would send the caller straight back into Optiphone and loop them in circles. Always use a mobile or a landline your team picks up directly.
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