Phone integration

An AI agent that answers the phone

Callers ask in plain speech; the agent answers out loud from your documents. Every call becomes a text transcript in your dashboard — and no audio is ever recorded.

Setup with Twilio Voice

  1. 1
    Get a voice-capable Twilio number
    Use an existing business number on Twilio or buy one in the console.
  2. 2
    Paste three values into Chat Cactus
    Dashboard → Integrations → Phone: Account SID, auth token, and the number. Pick the agent and, if you like, a custom spoken greeting for this line.
  3. 3
    Point the Voice webhook at Chat Cactus
    Set the number’s "A call comes in" webhook to the URL the dashboard shows. Calls are verified with Twilio’s signature scheme.

What a call looks like

Illustrative transcript — this is the shape of a call, not a recording

Agent: Thanks for calling Acme. How can I help?

Caller: What are your opening hours on Saturday?

Agent: We're open nine to two on Saturdays. Anything else I can help with?

Caller: Can someone call me back about a bulk order?

Agent: Of course — I've noted your request and a team member will follow up on this number.

Exactly this — the words, as text — is what your team sees: one conversation per call in the dashboard, titled with the caller's number, every turn transcribed. Escalated calls also appear in the escalations queue so the callback actually happens.

No-recording policy

  • No audio is recorded or retained. The platform never issues a record instruction on any call and stores no audio, full stop.
  • Text transcripts are kept — that's the record your team works from, and it lives in your dashboard until you delete the agent that owns it.
  • Speech recognition runs on Twilio's built-in engine during the call; the agent's speech is generated per-reply and not stored.

Use cases

  • After-hours answering: the line is answered at midnight with real answers from your documents, not voicemail.
  • FAQ handling: hours, locations, pricing, policies — the repetitive majority of calls handled without holding.
  • Callback triage: callers who need a person are captured with number and context in the escalations queue, so your team returns calls with the transcript in front of them.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does it make outbound calls?

No — inbound only. The agent answers calls to your Twilio number; it never dials anyone.

Are calls recorded?

No. No audio is recorded or stored — by us or on our instruction. Each turn is transcribed to text in the moment, and only that text transcript is kept, visible in your dashboard.

What does the agent sound like?

A neural text-to-speech voice (Amazon Polly’s Joanna, via Twilio). Replies are deliberately short spoken sentences — no URLs, lists, or “as an AI” filler — because the agent knows it’s on a call.

What happens when a caller asks for a human?

The agent tells the caller a team member will follow up, keeps helping if it can, and files the conversation in your escalations queue with the transcript and the caller’s number. There is no live call transfer today — it’s a callback workflow.

What do I need to set it up?

A Twilio account and a voice-capable number. Paste the Account SID, auth token, and number into the dashboard, then set the number’s Voice webhook to the URL shown. You can also set a custom phone greeting per integration.

Every call answered. None recorded.

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