SETUP GUIDE
How to forward your business line to an AI receptionist
You keep your business number exactly where it is. Forwarding tells your current phone provider "if nobody picks up, send the call here" — and "here" is your AI receptionist's number. On a mobile carrier it's one dialed code and works immediately. On an office landline it's a request to your provider, and there are two things you must not do, because they break working phone systems.
First: which calls do you want forwarded?
This is the only real decision, and it's worth getting right before you touch anything.
Your phones ring first for about 20 seconds. If nobody picks up — or the line's busy — the call goes to the AI instead of voicemail. This is what most businesses with staff want.
The AI answers first, always. Useful when you're one person on a truck, out of hours, or you simply don't want the phone interrupting the job.
You can change your mind later — it's the same setting, dialed or set differently. Many owners start with missed-calls-only and move to all-calls once they trust it.
If your number is on a mobile carrier
Dial the code from the phone your business number is on, and wait for the confirmation tone. Replace NUMBER with your AI number, digits only.
| Carrier | Missed calls only | Every call | Turn off |
|---|---|---|---|
| AT&T and anything not listed |
*004*NUMBER# |
*21*NUMBER# |
##004# / ##21# |
| T-Mobile family T-Mobile, Tello, Mint, Metro |
three separate dials:**61*NUMBER#**67*NUMBER#**62*NUMBER# |
**21*NUMBER# |
##61# ##67###62# ##21# |
| Verizon family Verizon, Visible, Xfinity Mobile |
*71NUMBER |
*72NUMBER |
*73 |
| Google Fi | No dial codes. Open the Fi app or fi.google.com → Phone settings → Call forwarding. Fi supports "always forward" only, not missed-calls-only. | same screen | |
We verified the T-Mobile and Verizon codes against each carrier's own help pages — they genuinely differ, and a customer on Tello once hit a carrier error dialing the AT&T-style code. AT&T publishes no official code list, so those are the long-standing GSM convention rather than a documented source. Metro is included on the reasonable assumption it matches its T-Mobile parent, which we could not independently confirm.
On an iPhone? iOS blocks apps and links from auto-dialing star codes, so you'll need to type or paste the code into the Phone app yourself and press call. For "every call" on a GSM carrier you can skip codes entirely: Settings → Phone → Call Forwarding, and enter the plain number.
If your number is an office line or landline
Start here, because the most common assumption is wrong: most business "landlines" are digital voice now, even when the hardware on your desk is an ordinary corded phone. On those lines the old star codes aren't provisioned at all — dialing *92 returns an error rather than a confirmation tone, because the feature lives on your provider's platform, not on the line.
Don't set forwarding from the desk phone's own menu. On a phone your provider supplied, that setting gets pushed to their system and can override the call routing they already keep there — a rollover to a second line, or a forward from the number you advertise to the one that actually rings your desk. It isn't always obvious it broke until someone tells you they couldn't reach you.
It also doesn't reliably undo: clearing it again on the phone can leave the rule sitting on their side. If forwarding has already been tried from the handset, ask your provider to check the line for a leftover forward before adding anything new.
On an office line, start with the landline deep dive — how to tell whether your line is even copper, what the setting is called at Comcast, Spectrum and Verizon, and why rollover groups change the approach entirely.
The path that works: ask your provider
- Sign in to your phone provider's account online and find the call settings for the number that rings your desk — usually under Call Settings, Calling Features, or Manage my phone.
- Look for Call Forward No Answer (sometimes "Don't Answer"), or a Find Me / Sequential Ring feature. Point it at your AI number with about a 20-second ring, so your team always gets first shot.
- If your line can be busy as well as unanswered, add Call Forward Busy to the same number — otherwise a caller who arrives while you're on the phone still lands in voicemail.
Can't find the setting, or it isn't there? Call your provider and read them this:
"Please add Call Forward No Answer and Call Forward Busy on this number, sending to [your AI number], with about a 20-second ring. Please confirm those features are assigned to the line, and leave my other call routing as it is."
Asking them to confirm the features are assigned matters — if they aren't, the setting silently does nothing.
Do your phones roll over? If a second line picks up when the first is busy, your provider built that at their end. A line inside that kind of group ignores its own forwarding settings, so changes made on the phone or by dialing codes can knock the rollover out instead of adding the AI. Ask your provider to forward the group, not a single line.
Genuinely old copper line?
If your line predates digital voice, the standard vertical service codes may work, dialed from that line's own handset:
| What it does | On | Off |
|---|---|---|
| Forward when there's no answer | *92 | *93 |
| Forward when the line's busy | *90 | *91 |
| Forward every call | *72 | *73 |
These are the ATIS/NANPA standard codes rather than one telco's convention, but some exchanges differ — parts of Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Alabama and Wisconsin dial 72# instead of *72 — and published deactivation codes conflict between sources. Treat them as "may work, confirm with your provider." If a code is rejected or you get an error recording, stop — your line is digital, and the provider path above is the one that will work.
The mistake that looks like the AI is broken
Watch the voicemail timing. If voicemail answers before the forward fires, voicemail wins every time and the AI never rings — which looks exactly like the AI not working. Voicemail needs to be off on that line, or set to answer later than the forward.
This is the single most common "I set it up and nothing happened" cause. Before troubleshooting anything else, call your own number and count the rings: if voicemail picks up, that's your answer.
Test it
Call your business number from a different phone and let it ring. With missed-calls-only forwarding, wait past the ring delay you set. The AI should pick up and greet you with your business name.
If you're a NeverMissAI customer, your dashboard flips to a confirmation the moment the first forwarded call lands, so you don't have to guess whether it took.
Turning it off later
On mobile, dial the off code from the table above. On an office line, ask your provider to remove the forwarding they added — and if forwarding was ever set from the handset, ask them to check for a leftover rule on their side too.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to give up my business number?
Why shouldn't I set forwarding on the desk phone itself?
I dialed the star code on my office phone and got an error. What now?
The forwarding is set but the AI never rings.
How long does this take?
Your AI number works before forwarding does
Set it up in about 5 minutes, call the number directly to hear it, and sort the forwarding whenever your provider gets back to you. First 60 minutes free, $0 due today.
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