Microsoft Teams Phone
Teams Phone has no direct connection that Reception.ai can use: Direct Routing needs a certified session border controller, and Operator Connect uses trunks managed by your carrier. Instead, you connect it with call forwarding. Your receptionist answers on its own Reception.ai number, and Teams forwards calls to it. Callers keep dialing your Teams number.
First, go to Receptionists, select the Phone tile, and get a number. See Phone numbers.
Then pick one of the setups below.
Forward a user’s calls
Allow forwarding to outside numbers
In the Teams admin center, go to Voice → Calling policies and open the policy assigned to the user. Turn on Call forwarding and simultaneous ringing to external phone numbers and select Save. It’s on by default.
Open the user’s call answering rules
Go to Users → Manage users, select the user, and open the Voice tab. If there’s no Voice tab, the user doesn’t have a Teams Phone license.
Choose when the receptionist answers
Under Call answering rules, choose one:
- Be immediately forwarded to an external phone number, your receptionist’s number. Calls don’t ring the user.
- Ring the user’s devices, then set If unanswered to an external phone number, your receptionist’s number, and set Ring for this many seconds before redirecting.
Select Save. Users can also change these rules themselves in Teams settings.
Route an auto attendant
Open the auto attendant
In the Teams admin center, go to Voice → Auto attendants and edit the auto attendant on your main number.
Route calls to the receptionist
In the After-hours call flow, under Call routing options, select Redirect call → External phone number and enter your receptionist’s number. Do the same in the Business-hours call flow to send every call to the receptionist, or map a menu key to External phone number.
License the resource account
The auto attendant’s resource account needs a Teams Phone Resource Account license. With Microsoft Calling Plan numbers, it also needs a funded pay-as-you-go Calling Plan license or Communications Credits, or calls to outside numbers fail. With Direct Routing, it needs an online voice routing policy. With Operator Connect, check with your carrier.
Since November 1, 2025, a Calling Plan license on a resource account no longer covers calls to outside numbers. If your auto attendant’s external transfers stopped working, add pay-as-you-go or Communications Credits to its resource account.
What to know
- Caller ID: When an auto attendant transfers a call to an outside number, Calling Plan and Operator Connect numbers show the original caller’s number. With Direct Routing, it depends on your session border controller: with P-Asserted-Identity disabled (the default), the caller’s number is shown; with it enabled, the resource account’s number is shown. If the receptionist sees your Teams number instead of the caller’s, every call looks like it comes from the same number, and your receptionist can’t recognize returning callers by their number.
- Costs: Forwarded calls are outbound calls to the public phone network, billed against your Calling Plan, pay-as-you-go balance, Communications Credits, or carrier.
Test it
Call your Teams number from another phone at a time when the routing you set applies. Check that your receptionist answers, then open Inbox and confirm which caller number the conversation shows. See Testing.