What is ring-through?

Ring-through lets your AI agent act as a fallback. When a call comes in, RingDesk dials a real phone number first - your mobile, a staff phone, or your office landline. If nobody picks up after the timeout you choose, the AI agent steps in and answers the call.

This means your team always gets first refusal on calls, but callers are never left ringing out to voicemail.

How to set it up

  • Open your desk, go to Call handling and select the Routing tab.
  • Find the Ring-through section and toggle it on.
  • Enter the phone number you want RingDesk to ring first - this must be a different number to your RingDesk line (your mobile or a staff handset works well). You can enter it in +44 format or local UK format.
  • Choose how long to ring before the AI takes over. Pick one of the presets: 5, 8, 12, 17 or 22 seconds. The default is 12 seconds (about 3 rings).
  • Click Save.

Call whisper

Enable Call whisper to hear a brief announcement (for example "RingDesk call") before you are connected to the caller. This lets you prepare before you start speaking.

Scheduled ring-through

You can limit ring-through to specific hours (for example Mon-Fri 9am-6pm) under Scheduled ring-through. Outside those hours, the AI answers directly without ringing your phone first.

What happens on a call

  • Someone calls your RingDesk number.
  • RingDesk immediately dials your ring-through number.
  • If you answer - the call connects to you directly. The AI is not involved.
  • If you don't answer within the timeout - the caller is automatically connected to your AI agent.

Important: the ring-through number must be different to your RingDesk number

Never enter one of your own RingDesk numbers as the ring-through destination. That would create an infinite call loop. RingDesk checks for this and will warn you if it detects a match.

Testing it

Call your RingDesk number from a different phone and let it ring through without answering. After the timeout, you should hear your AI agent pick up.

If your number forwards to RingDesk

This feature dials a phone to reach you, so it needs a line that isn't the one you forward to us - a line that forwards to RingDesk can't be rung back by RingDesk, because the call diverts straight back. Point it at a different phone (a second mobile, a landline, a colleague), or see Why RingDesk can't call your forwarded number back for the three ways to set this up.

Related articles

- Ring your own phone before the agent answers - Setting up call forwarding - How to pause the AI agent - Transferring calls to the right person (departments) - How RingDesk works with your existing phone number