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Three ways to connect an AI voice agent to the phone number your prospects already know — BYOC import, call forwarding, and new number purchase — using Thoughtly's actual platform mechanics.
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You already have a phone number that your prospects know — it's on your website, your Google Business profile, your mailers, and every ad you've ever run. Switching it to test an AI voiceAI voiceAn artificially generated, natural-sounding voice produced by a TTS model. Thoughtly supports a library of AI voices and brand-specific cloning. agent feels like pulling a thread that unravels your entire marketing stack.
It doesn't have to. Thoughtly gives you three ways to put an AI agent behind your existing phone number without forcing prospects to learn a new one: importing the number directly through BYOC (Bring Your Own CarrierCarrierA telecommunications provider that routes phone calls and SMS over its network. Twilio, Telnyx, and Bandwidth are the three most common in the AI voice space.), forwarding calls from your current carrier, or purchasing a Thoughtly number and redirecting traffic. This guide walks through each method step by step, using the actual platform mechanics, so you can go from zero to live inbound agent on your real business number in a single afternoon.
The right path depends on where your number lives today and how much control you want Thoughtly to have over it.
| Method | Best for | Number stays with | Setup time | Full Thoughtly control |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BYOC import (Twilio/Telnyx) | Teams already on Twilio or Telnyx who want full platform control | Your carrier, connected to Thoughtly | 15–30 min | Yes (with webhook updates enabled) |
| Call forwarding | Quick tests, carriers that don't support porting, or numbers you can't move | Your current carrier | 10–15 min | No — your carrier handles the redirect |
| Buy a Thoughtly number + redirect | New deployments where the old number can point elsewhere | Thoughtly | 5–10 min | Yes |
If your number is on TwilioTwilioA cloud communications platform widely used as the carrier layer for voice and SMS. Thoughtly supports Twilio for inbound and outbound traffic. or TelnyxTelnyxA telecommunications provider competing with Twilio for cloud-native voice and SMS. Thoughtly supports Telnyx as a carrier., BYOC import is the strongest option — it gives Thoughtly direct control over inbound routing, call recordings, and SMS without changing your carrier. If your number is on a carrier that Thoughtly doesn't support for direct import (anything other than Twilio or Telnyx), call forwarding gets you live fast while you evaluate.
BYOC — Bring Your Own Carrier — lets you connect your Twilio or Telnyx account to Thoughtly and import existing numbers directly. Your carrier billing stays the same; Thoughtly just takes over call handling.
For Twilio, you need your Account SID and Auth Token (found in the Twilio Console dashboard). For Telnyx, you need your API key and the Connection ID from a TeXML application — navigate to Voice → TeXML Applications in the Telnyx dashboard, create or select an application, and copy the Connection ID.
In Thoughtly, go to Settings → Phone Numbers and click Add a Number. Select Import your Telnyx or Twilio number from the dialog. Choose your carrier, name the integration for easy identification, and paste your credentials.
After Thoughtly validates your credentials, a dropdown shows every available number on your carrier account. Select the ones you want to import.
Then make the critical webhook decision:
For Telnyx specifically, when enabling webhook updates, make sure your TeXML application webhook URL is set to https://api.thoughtly.com/webhook/telnyx/texml — this endpoint handles inbound call routing, recordings, and status updates.
Click confirm. Imported numbers appear in your Thoughtly phone numbers table with an "Imported" carrier designation. If they don't appear, double-check that the numbers are active in your carrier dashboard and that your API credentials have the right permissions.
Call forwarding is the fastest way to test Thoughtly without changing anything about your current phone infrastructure. Your existing number stays exactly where it is — you just tell your carrier to redirect incoming calls to a Thoughtly number.
Purchase or import a number through Thoughtly (Settings → Phone Numbers → Add a Number) and assign it to your voice agentVoice agentAn autonomous, conversational interface that interacts with humans over the phone — answering, qualifying, and routing calls without human staffing.'s inbound profile. This is the number your carrier will forward calls to.
The exact steps vary by carrier and phone system. Some carriers support dial codes (for example, *72 followed by the destination number), while others require you to log into an admin portal or call support. Contact your carrier — Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, RingCentral, Vonage, or whoever manages your number — and request unconditional call forwarding to your Thoughtly number.
Call your original business number from a different phone. The call should route to your Thoughtly agent seamlessly — the caller never sees the Thoughtly number.
If you're starting fresh or can update your public-facing number, buying directly from Thoughtly is the simplest path.
For teams on the Unlimited plan, go to Settings → Phone Numbers → Add a Number → Purchase from our number pool. Select your country, enter an optional area code to match your local market, choose between local, mobile, or toll-free, and click Search. Select the number you want and click Buy now.
For teams on other plans, use the marketplace flow: Add a Number → Import your Telnyx or Twilio number, then browse available inventory by country and area code.
Once purchased, update your website, Google Business profile, ad campaigns, and any printed materials to point to the new Thoughtly number — or set up call forwarding from the old number to bridge the transition.
Having a number in Thoughtly isn't enough — you need to wire it to the agent that should answer.
Remember: each number can only be assigned to one agent per profile. If you need calls to route to different agents based on context, use Transfer nodes inside your agent flow rather than trying to share a number across multiple agents.
For Twilio numbers (purchased through Thoughtly or imported), you can configure the region to minimize latency between Thoughtly's servers and your callers.
Edit the phone number, find the Set Region dropdown, and select the region geographically closest to where the majority of your calls originate. For US-based businesses, choose the appropriate US region (US East, US West, etc.). For international operations, pick the region nearest your callers.
This step is optional but measurably improves connection speed and call quality for high-volume operations. If you don't see the region dropdown, your number type doesn't support regional configuration.
Never deploy to production without testing. Thoughtly provides two built-in testing tools:
After both pass, call your actual deployed number from an external phone. Confirm the call routes to the right agent, the greeting plays correctly, and the full flow works end to end.
If your imported number also feeds calls to a contact center, IVR, or CRMCRMThe system of record for leads, contacts, deals, and activity. Thoughtly reads from and writes to your CRM continuously. telephony integration, enabling "Allow Webhook and Messaging Updates" will break those integrations. Use the Outbound Only toggle until you're ready for Thoughtly to take full ownership.
Importing or buying a number doesn't automatically connect it to an agent. If your number isn't answering calls, check Settings → Phone Numbers and verify the Inbound Profile is set.
Text chat validates logic but not voice quality, latency, or barge-in behavior. Always run Call Me and at least one real inbound call before going live.
Forwarding adds a routing hop that increases latency and limits features like branded calling and full SMS control. It's excellent for pilots — not ideal for production at scale. Move to BYOC import once you've validated the setup.
Thoughtly enforces one agent per number per profile. If you need call routing logic, build it inside your agent using Transfer nodes and outcomes — not by trying to split a number across agents.
Default region settings work, but teams running hundreds of daily inbound calls notice the latency difference. Set the region closest to your callers for the best experience.
After deployment, track these metrics to confirm your inbound agent is working:
Use Thoughtly's Analytics dashboard to track these metrics across agents and phone numbers without building custom reporting.
Yes. You have two options that preserve your current number: import it directly via BYOC if it's on Twilio or Telnyx, or set up call forwarding from any carrier to a Thoughtly number. In both cases, callers continue dialing the number they already know.
No. Your number stays on your carrier, and you continue paying your carrier directly. Thoughtly connects to your carrier's API to manage call routing, but ownership and billing remain with Twilio or Telnyx. There are no additional Thoughtly charges for imported numbers beyond per-minute usage.
Use call forwarding as the immediate path. Set up unconditional forwarding from your current carrier to a Thoughtly number. If you want full Thoughtly control long-term, consider porting your number to Twilio or Telnyx first, then importing via BYOC.
Yes. In Thoughtly's phone number configuration, each number supports three profiles — Inbound, Outbound, and SMS — and all three can be assigned to the same agent. This gives callers a single contact point for every channel.
BYOC import typically takes 15 to 30 minutes from start to first live call, assuming your carrier credentials are ready. Call forwarding can be active in under 15 minutes depending on your carrier. The bottleneck is usually building and testing the agent, not the phone number configuration.
