Call Bridge
Call Bridge is a separate feature for connecting you (the business owner or sales person) to a lead over the phone the instant they share their phone number in a text conversation. It’s not an AI agent — it’s a live-person connection. The system calls you first, waits for you to pick up, then calls the lead and bridges the two calls together.
Call Bridge is also available as an Integration on non-voice-agent sources. See Integrations.
Getting here
In Auto-Respond, Call Bridge is configured per source under Integrations → Call Bridge, and its settings also live alongside your voice agent phone numbers.
How it works
- A lead sends their phone number in a text conversation.
- Our voice platform calls your configured business owner phone.
- You answer — we tell you who the lead is and why they’re calling.
- We then call the lead from your voice agent phone number (or from your verified caller ID if that’s enabled).
- Both sides connect in a bridged live call.
The system waits up to 60 seconds for you to answer. If you don’t, the bridge is cancelled and logged as not connected.
Call Bridge connects the lead to you, a live human. Compare with an Answering Agent or Calling Agent, which connects the lead to the AI. Use Call Bridge when you want to personally speak with every lead who shares a number.
Options
Business Owner Phone
- The phone number we call first.
- E.164 format with leading
+(e.g.,+12125551234). - This is where the bridge rings you. Keep a phone you’ll actually answer.
Voice Agent Phone Number
- The system phone number on the line during the bridged call.
- Purchased under Manage Business Phones. See Phone Numbers.
- Unless caller ID is verified and enabled (below), this is the number the lead sees.
Caller ID Verified
- Indicates whether your business owner phone has been caller-ID-verified.
- If verified, you can opt to show your real number to the lead instead of the system voice agent number.
- See Caller ID & Trust Hub for the verification flow.
Use Caller ID for Lead
- Toggle.
- When on (and your owner phone is caller-ID-verified): the lead sees your real business number when the system calls them.
- When off: the lead sees the voice agent phone number.
Setting it up
Configure the business owner phone
Enter the phone number you want to receive the initial bridge call on. This is where you answer first before the lead is dialed.
Assign a voice agent phone number
Pick or buy a number in Manage Business Phones and use it as the bridge’s outbound number.
(Recommended) Verify caller ID and enable it
Verify your business owner phone as caller ID and toggle Use Caller ID for Lead on. Leads are meaningfully more likely to answer a call from a number they recognize as yours.
Enable the feature
Turn on the Call Bridge toggle for the source. The bridge is now active for any lead on that source who shares a phone number in chat.
Best practices
- Keep your phone nearby. The 60-second answer window is tight. An unanswered bridge is worse than no bridge at all — the lead doesn’t hear anything and won’t know to try again.
- Verify caller ID. Unknown numbers are ignored or screened much more often than recognized ones.
- Don’t enable on every source. Use Call Bridge where you genuinely have time to talk live. For sources where you don’t, use a Calling Agent instead.
Troubleshooting
The bridge isn’t triggering.
- Confirm Call Bridge is enabled for that source.
- Confirm the business owner phone and voice agent phone are both set.
- Confirm the lead actually shared a phone number in chat — Call Bridge only triggers on a phone-number detection.
The lead sees the wrong caller ID.
- To show your real number: verify it via caller ID, and turn on Use Caller ID for Lead.
- To show the system voice agent number: turn Use Caller ID for Lead off.
The bridge disconnects before the lead answers. You didn’t pick up within 60 seconds, so the system cancelled before attempting the lead. Try again, or rely on a Calling Agent for the same source if you can’t consistently answer within a minute.
Questions? Email support@auto-respond.com.