# Phone calls

Call your bot on its Inkbox number, or have it phone a business for you with /call. What happens during and after each call.

Canonical page: https://themachine.myapps.ai/docs/desktop/inkbox/phone-calls

Inkbox calls work in both directions. A voice assistant (Inkbox Voice AI)
handles the live conversation, and your bot does the real work before or
after.

> **Inkbox calls or Live calls?**
> **Inkbox calls** are real phone calls, on the bot's own phone number or its
> iMessage line: you call from your phone, and the bot can call other people.
> **[Live calls](/docs/desktop/live)** happen inside Machine Desktop or the phone app, with the bot's own voice and
> pictures on screen. Use whichever suits the moment.

## Call your bot

Your number must be on the bot's phone allow-list. The bot doesn't need a
phone number of its own: calls work on its iMessage line too.

1. **Call the bot's number** (shown on the Inkbox row in the bot's
   **Channels**) or, if it has no number, its iMessage line: the number you
   text `connect @handle` to, shown under **Manage** on the web.
2. **Talk.** Inkbox Voice AI answers and talks with you. It notes anything
   that needs doing.
3. **Hang up.** The transcript and the to-dos go to your bot in a new thread.
4. **The bot gets to work** and follows up by text or email when it's done.

Calls from numbers that aren't on the list are still answered by Inkbox (you
set that up in the Inkbox Console), but nothing reaches the bot.

## Have the bot call someone

Ask in any thread: *"Call Rosa's Florist and ask if they can deliver 12 table
arrangements by Saturday 6am, and the price."*

The quickest way is the **`/call`** command in the message box:

### Type /call

Type `/call` in the message box and choose **/call · Phone somewhere to book
or ask (Inkbox)**.

![The /call command in the message box](/images/docs/desktop/inkbox-call-command.webp)
### Say who and what

The box fills in *"Call this place for me with your Inkbox phone, then tell
me how it went. Who and what to ask:"*. Add the business, its number if you
have it, and exactly what to ask or book.

![A /call request ready to send](/images/docs/desktop/inkbox-call-filled.webp)
### Send it

The bot finds the number if needed, and Inkbox Voice AI places the call. When
the call ends, the transcript and the outcome come back to the same thread,
and the bot tells you how it went.

### Tips for good calls

- **Give the details up front:** names, dates, times, budgets, your callback
  number if they need one.
- **Say what to do if it's a no:** *"If they can't do Saturday, ask about
  Friday evening."*
- **One call, one goal.** Several things for one business is fine; several
  businesses is better as separate requests.

> **/call needs Inkbox**
> `/call` is in every bot's message box, but only works for bots with Inkbox
> connected and a phone number on the Inkbox agent. Without them, the bot
> can't place the call.

## Voice and instructions

Voice AI's voice and its standing instructions (such as *"We're closed
Sundays"*) are set in the Inkbox Console. You can also ask the bot: *"Make the
phone voice warmer and tell callers we're closed Sundays."*

## Limits

- At most **3 outgoing calls** run at once.
- Call minutes follow your Inkbox plan.
- The bot never buys numbers or lines. That stays with you in the Inkbox
  Console.