Calls on your phone

Calling a lead

Open a lead and tap their number.

• With Smileline Voice (and calling permission), the call goes through the practice line: your phone rings first, and when you pick up the patient's phone starts ringing — they see the practice number, never your personal one. You hear a ringing tone until they answer, then you are connected at once. The in-call screen shows who you are talking to. It says Calling… until the patient picks up, and the timer counts from that moment. If their voicemail picks up instead, Voicemail shows beside the timer a few seconds in; the call stays connected, so you can leave a message or hang up. A patient who has asked not to be called isn't rung; a message tells you why.
• Without Voice, the number opens in your phone's own dialer.

Open a call

On the Calls tab, tap any call — including one from a number that isn't a patient — to open it. The call page shows how it ended (for example Answered, Missed or Voicemail), when it happened, how long it lasted and who took it. An outgoing call that the patient's voicemail picked up shows Voicemail, not Answered: on its page, in the Calls list and in the lead's activity. Below that you can play the recording or the voicemail, read the transcript and, for a call the AI receptionist handled, its summary. Call back rings the number from the practice line, and Open lead opens the caller's lead when they are one. Playing a recording needs permission to listen to call recordings; a voicemail plays for anyone who can make calls.

In the United Kingdom and the United States, an answered call's page also shows its Call AI Summary: the outcome, why the patient didn't book and who can fix it, the next step, Say this next time, the lead's profile and any suggested email. The suggested email is there to read; send it from the opened call in the call log on your computer. The person who took the call and the practice's managers also see the coaching, and Try again or Analyse again when a fresh analysis is due.

The keypad

Tap Keypad on the Calls tab to dial any number. Each key shows its letters, the backspace button sits beside the number (press and hold it to clear), and pressing and holding 0 types +. The round call button works once the number is complete. If you have your own desk phone, Call from desk phone makes your desk phone ring first instead of this phone. The line under the pad shows the practice number you're calling from.

Incoming calls

Incoming practice calls ring on your phone with the caller identified when they match a patient. Calls on your marketing (tracking) numbers are labelled Marketing line and never assume a patient identity.

• iPhone: calls ring even when Smileline is in the background or closed, on the lock screen like any other call. Answer or decline there.
• Android: calls ring while the app is open. Android does not wake a closed app for a call yet.

When you switch practice in Account, the practice you leave stops ringing this phone, and switching back makes its calls ring here again. If that can't reach Smileline (no signal, for example), Calling on this device shows the practice with Retrying… and the switch finishes once it goes through.

To stop this phone ringing, open Account → Calling on this device and tap Turn off calling on this device. It stays off, even after you close and reopen the app, until you tap Enable calling on this device there or place a call. Signing out resets it. If a manager turned calling off for you in Settings → Voice & calling, a manager restores it there and the app turns calling back on the next time it opens.

During a call

The call screen fills your phone, like your phone's own calls: the caller's name and number, how long you've been talking, and six round buttons above the red hang-up button.

• Mute stops them hearing you until you tap Unmute.
• Keypad opens a keypad for menus and extensions on the other end; tap Hide to go back.
• Speaker switches the loudspeaker on and off.
• Hold plays the other person music, and they cannot hear you until you tap Resume.
• Transfer passes the call on (below).

The arrow at the top left hides the call screen while the call carries on. When the call ends, the screen closes by itself.

Transfer lists your colleagues and takes a typed number:

• By default the caller goes straight to them and your call ends. If they don't answer, this phone rings again so you can take the caller back; if you don't answer either, the caller can leave a voicemail, and if they leave no message a task to call them back appears in Today.
• Switch on Ask first to ring them while the caller hears hold music and speak to them before handing over: Hand over passes the caller on, Take back returns them to you.
• Voicemail sends the other person to the practice's voicemail, on calls you made as well as calls you took.