Seayora Phone: Business Numbers, Desk Phones, Voicemail and Texts

A business phone system on Seayora phone service: numbers, extensions, desk phones, phone menus, ring groups, voicemail, call recording, texts, an AI receptionist, listening in, and seeing who is calling.

Seayora Phone is a business phone system for management companies and contractors. Your business numbers ring the desk phones and cells of the people you choose, callers can pick from a phone menu, missed calls go to voicemail, calls can be recorded, and texts to your numbers arrive in Seayora. When a call comes in, the person it rings sees who is calling on their Seayora screen — matched against your own contacts and team — before they pick up.

It is under Communications → Phone on the website, and in the Phone, Calls, Live calls, Voicemail, Call recordings, Business texts, Business numbers, Extensions, Desk phones, Ring groups, Phone menus, Recorded greetings, AI receptionist, Phone balance, Phone usage, Choose a number, Bring your number, Port a number out and My extension screens of the iPhone and Android apps.

What it costs, and who bills what

Seayora Phone is a separate monthly charge from Seayora, set on its Plan page (Communications → Phone → Plan). The price is shown there before you agree to it, along with any charge for each extension past the ones included, and it is charged to your payment method for Seayora charges each month until you cancel. Canceling keeps it on until the end of the month you paid for.

Your numbers, minutes and texts are provided by Seayora phone service:

On Seayora phone service, Seayora opens a carrier account for your business and you pay as you go from a prepaid balance (Communications → Phone → Balance), at Seayora's rates: the Rates list on that page shows each number's monthly price, each minute in and out, each text, the AI receptionist's minute and any fee to bring a number in or move one out, before you use them. Seayora can agree different prices for your account; agreed prices are listed on the Balance page as well, and you are emailed whenever they change. A business that needs to keep a Twilio account it already has can ask Seayora support; where Seayora agrees, Twilio then bills that business directly. Other carriers (Telnyx, SignalWire) are not available.

Setting it up

• Turn on Seayora Phone on the Plan page. Only the account owner can.
• Set up Seayora phone service under Setup → Connection: give the street address where your phones are (it is what emergency services are sent), read and acknowledge the 911 notice, and tick the box to agree to how it is billed. Only the account owner can.
• On Seayora phone service, add money to your balance under Balance, and switch on automatic top-ups so calls never stop for an empty balance.
• Add a business number — choose a new one (local, toll-free or mobile, by area code, city, state or ZIP, with its monthly price), bring the number you already have from another carrier, or, on your own Twilio account, use a number already in it. Its calls and texts come to Seayora from then on.
• Add an extension for each person or desk that answers calls.
• Choose where each number sends a call during office hours and after hours.
• Optionally, set up desk phones.

The Phone screen shows this checklist with what is done and what is next. A Twilio trial account works for testing but can only call and text numbers you have verified in Twilio, and callers hear a trial message first — upgrade it in Twilio before using it for your business.

Where a call goes

Each business number has one place to send a call during office hours and, optionally, a different one after hours. Office hours, the days you are open and the dates you are closed are set in Office hours, in the time zone you choose.

• A phone menu reads a prompt (or plays a recorded greeting) and sends each key to one of the places above. A menu has up to 10 keys, and you choose what happens when a caller presses nothing.
• A ring group rings several extensions for one call — all at once, or one at a time in order — and goes somewhere else when nobody answers.
• An extension rings a desk phone, a cell, or both, and goes to its voicemail when nobody answers.
• Every route ends somewhere a caller can hear: a menu or group that would loop sends the caller to voicemail instead.
• A blocked number is refused before anything rings.

Your phone balance (Seayora phone service)

• Add money with your payment method on file. A card payment counts at once; a bank payment shows as Pending until it clears.
• Automatic top-ups add the amount you choose whenever the balance falls below the level you choose. If one does not go through, you are emailed.
• Usage is billed from the carrier's own daily totals, usually within an hour or two of a call or text. The last 30 days are listed by what was used.
• At an empty balance, calls to your numbers are still answered but calls and texts out pause until you add money. Calling 911 from a desk phone always works.
• The AI receptionist's minutes are paid from the same balance on either kind of carrier.

Bringing your number, and taking it with you

• If your account pays a fee to bring a number in or move one out, the Rates list shows it. A fee to bring a number in is shown on the form, agreed with a tick, and taken from your balance when you send the request; it is credited back if the transfer is cancelled before it finishes. A fee to move a number out is taken from your balance but never holds the move up.
• Bring a number: check it can move, then give your current carrier's details exactly as they have them — the name on the account, the person authorized on it, the account number, the service address and, for a mobile number, a transfer PIN — and attach a bill from the last 30 days. The authorized person is emailed a letter of authorization to sign — from the carrier, or on Seayora phone service from Seayora itself, as a link that works once and for 14 days (Send the signing link again mints a new one). Nothing reaches your current carrier until it is signed. It usually takes 5 to 15 business days; keep your current service until it completes. Toll-free numbers are moved by Seayora support.
• Seayora sends the old account number, the PIN and the bill to the carrier and keeps none of them (only the last four digits of the account number, so you can recognise the request).
• Take a number with you: on Seayora phone service your numbers are yours. Port out shows what your new carrier asks for — the account number and the transfer PIN, shown only to the account owner (on most accounts Seayora sets the PIN at once; otherwise it gets it from the carrier within about a business day). When the new carrier asks for the number, Seayora approves the request you made; a request you did not make is emailed to you. Do not release the number or close the service until the move is complete.
• Release a number you no longer want by typing it to confirm. A released number cannot be recovered.
• Closing Seayora phone service keeps your numbers working for 30 days so you can port them out; after that they are released. Unused balance is refunded on request.

Emergency calls (911)

A desk phone dials 911 directly, with no prefix, whatever the balance or the plan. The call carries the address you set under Setup → Connection, and the people you list there are emailed and alerted the moment anybody dials it. Seayora phone service does not start until that address is given and the 911 notice below is acknowledged, and desk phones cannot be added without it.

Seayora Phone 911 notice. A desk phone on Seayora Phone dials 911 directly and sends emergency services the street address registered for it in Seayora. 911 may not work, or may send the wrong address, if the internet connection or power at the phone is out, if the phone service is suspended, or if a phone is moved without its 911 address being updated in Seayora first. A phone used away from the registered address — at home, for example — needs its own 911 address. Calls placed from the Seayora website or apps do not reach 911: dial 911 from the phone you are holding. Keep another way to call 911.

• A phone used somewhere else — a team member's home, or another site — needs its own 911 address. The account owner gives it one under Setup → Extensions → 911 address, on a business number only that phone uses for 911; after that, the person whose phone it is can update the address themselves from My extension when the phone moves, and the owner is told.
• The Seayora website and apps are not phones. Call rings your own desk phone or cell first, and dialing 911 from the website or apps is refused: dial 911 from the phone you are holding.
• Print the short notice for each desk phone: “911: dial 911 directly from this phone. It sends the address registered in Seayora. If the phone moves, update its 911 address first. 911 cannot be called from the Seayora website or apps.”
• Seayora Phone is not a replacement for a landline in a building that needs one for an alarm or an elevator.

The AI receptionist

The AI receptionist answers calls you route to it — a number's office-hours or after-hours route, a phone-menu option, or a ring group's fallback. It always says it is an automated assistant and that the call is recorded and transcribed, and a caller can ask for a person, or press 0, at any time.

• It answers only from what you write under "About your business", "Answers it can give" and "Common questions" (each with your exact answer). Anything else, it says it does not know and offers to take a message or transfer the caller.
• It knows your office hours and where you work, asks for one thing at a time, reads a number or an address back before it writes it down, and switches between English and Spanish when the caller does. "Names and words it should hear right" helps it hear your building and street names.
• Everything it takes down is a task for your team under AI receptionist, with a summary and the conversation. A repair request from a resident is filed on their building; an estimate it starts is a draft with no prices. Nothing is sent to the caller and nothing is promised.
• With "Keep the full conversation" on, every word of each call — what the caller said, what it said, and what it did — is kept with the call: open the call under Calls to read it. Anyone on your team who can see calls can read it, for as long as you keep recordings. Off, only the short summary is kept.
• When it transfers a caller, the person picking up first hears a one-line summary of who it is and what they need ("Brief the person it transfers to"). The caller does not hear it.
• Caller ID can be faked, so it never reads out anybody's records, balance or address.
• If a caller describes a gas smell, carbon monoxide, smoke or fire, it tells them to call 911 and hands them straight to a person (management companies: whoever is on call).
• Describe your departments so it knows who to transfer to, and choose where a caller goes when it cannot help.
• It is priced per minute of conversation, paid from your phone balance, and shown on the AI receptionist page before you switch it on.

Live calls and listening in

Live calls (Communications → Phone → Live, and the Live calls screen of the apps) shows the calls on your business line right now. Where the account owner has switched listening in on, an administrator can listen to one live — a call the AI receptionist is handling, with its words appearing as it speaks, or a call a teammate is on — and take an AI call over: the receptionist tells the caller it is connecting them, and your extension (or your cell) rings. Nobody on the call hears you, and listening records nothing.

• Switching it on (Setup → Listening in) is the account owner's, with a confirmation in their own name: “I confirm that every teammate whose calls may be listened to has been told in writing that calls on this phone system may be monitored or recorded, and has acknowledged it where my state requires that, and that callers will hear that calls may be monitored or recorded.”
• The recording notice has to be on, so every caller hears that calls may be monitored or recorded.
• Each teammate with an extension is emailed and asked to acknowledge this notice in My extension: “Calls you make and answer on this business phone system may be monitored live or recorded by your account’s administrators, for quality, training and safety. Callers are told that calls may be monitored or recorded.” Until they do, nobody can listen to their calls.
• Nobody can listen to their own call, an emergency call, or a call that has ended; Live calls says why next to each one. Up to three people can listen to one call.
• Every listen is recorded — who, which call and when — in the change log.

Who is calling

When a call rings an extension, the person it belongs to sees a card on whatever Seayora screen they are on: the caller's name and kind when the number belongs to one of your contacts or a teammate, how many times they have called before, and buttons to open the contact or the call. A number in none of your records is shown as the number, with Add to contacts. The card never answers the call — the desk phone or cell does. Matching uses only your own account's records.

Calls, outcomes and notes

Calls lists every call to and from your numbers, newest first, with who it was, how long it lasted and who answered. Open one to see the steps it took through your menus and groups, its voicemail and recordings, and to add notes and an outcome your team can see.

To call somebody from your business number, use Call (or Call back on a call). Seayora rings your own desk phone or cell first; when you answer, it calls the other person from your business number, so they see that number and not yours.

Voicemail

A caller can leave a message of up to 3 minutes. It lands in the box of the extension (or the ring group) the call was for, the people it belongs to are notified, and — unless you switch it off — it is emailed to them. With transcription on, the carrier writes out what was said. Listening opens a private link that works for ten minutes.

Recording calls

Many states require everybody on a call to agree to it being recorded. With recording on, callers hear "This call may be monitored or recorded." (or your own wording) before the call is routed, and calls you make announce it to the other person. You can switch the notice off only by confirming, in your own name, that everybody on a recorded call will have agreed some other way — the confirmation is kept. Record this call starts recording a call that is still going, and asks you to confirm you told everybody first.

Recordings are kept in Seayora for as long as you choose (up to 3650 days, or until you delete them) and, unless you switch it off, deleted from the carrier once Seayora has its copy. They are never stored at a public address.

Texts

Texts to a business number that has texting on arrive in Business texts, where your team can reply from that number. You can text somebody a missed call automatically (at most once a day per caller) and send an automatic reply to texts after hours.

• Somebody who replies STOP is not texted again from that number until they reply START. Seayora enforces this whatever anybody tries to send.
• Texting customers from a US number needs A2P 10DLC registration of your business with the carriers. On Seayora phone service, Seayora files it for you — ask Seayora support to start it. Until it is approved, carriers may block your texts.
• Only text people who expect to hear from you.
• A text can be up to 1,600 characters.

Desk phones

Each desk phone belongs to an extension. Yealink, Poly and Grandstream phones set themselves up from a private link Seayora shows when you add the phone — type it into the phone's provisioning (auto-provision) server setting, using the MAC address on the label under the phone. Any other SIP phone, or a softphone app, takes the extension's server, username and password by hand. The password is shown once, when the extension is made or its password is reset.

Your own extension

Anybody with an extension can see it in My extension — its new voicemail, the settings for a SIP app, the address its phone sends to 911 (and, for a phone with its own 911 address, the form to update it), the monitoring notice to acknowledge when listening in is on, and Do not disturb, which sends their calls to voicemail or the next person until they switch it off. That is theirs even if the company has not given them the rest of the phone system.

Who can do what

• The account owner turns Seayora Phone on and off, sets up Seayora phone service and the 911 address, buys numbers, and switches listening in on.
• Team members need Phone access (in team permissions) to see calls, texts, voicemail and recordings and to change how calls are answered.
• Notifications for calls, voicemail and texts are in Settings → Notifications → Business phone line.
• Every change to the phone system is kept in its change log.

With an assistant

A connected assistant cannot place calls, send texts, play recordings or change your phone system. Calls and texts reach real people and recordings are private; those stay with the people on your team.

Related features and guides

• In-App Voice Calling — Feature. Browser-based voice calling between landlords, tenants, staff, and contractors, with call logs kept alongside the conversation and personal numbers never exposed.
• Calls & Call Recording — Documentation. How in-platform calling works, when calls may be recorded, and the consent rules that apply.
• Private In-App Voice Calls — Feature. Voice and video calls that run inside Seayora between two accounts — no telephone number is used on either side, so landlords, tenants and service pros talk without exchanging personal contact details.
• Texting Tenants: TCPA Consent, Opt-Outs and Quiet Hours — Guide. What the TCPA and the FCC’s rules require before a landlord texts tenants: consent, the STOP words, 10 business days to honor an opt-out, and quiet hours.
• Caller ID — Documentation. See who is calling when a resident, owner, contractor or teammate you deal with on Seayora rings your ordinary phone number — on iPhone and Android, without Seayora ever learning who called you.
• Call Recording & Consent — Feature. Where enabled, calls can be recorded or transcribed for quality and dispute resolution — with recordings attached to the conversation and consent obligations made explicit.

Explore Seayora

• All documentation
• Everything Seayora does
• Help center