Major update to our phone system

It's amazing to think that it's been over a decade since we first released our beta phone system in 2012. Back then it required Adobe Flash and was free for everyone, unfortunately those days are gone. (original users were grandfathered into the new system free for life though).

The phone system has also come a long way since the last major update in 2021. This latest release represents the most significant changes we've implemented since that time.

The biggest change is probably the phone system app - and while I could list out all the features, what interests me more is how it changes the way we think about business phone systems.

What I mean is, traditionally you'd be locked into whatever solution your provider offered. Maybe they had an app, or SIP trunking, or call forwarding - but rarely all of them, and almost never working together smoothly. It was always a trade-off: convenience vs flexibility, simplicity vs power.

Want calls to ring your app? Done. Prefer using your own VoIP setup with Asterisk or FreePBX? No problem. Need calls forwarded to your regular phone number? Easy. Or maybe you want to mix and match - have calls try the app first, then fall back to your SIP phone, and finally forward to your cell if no one answers. You can do that too.

A Different Approach

Remember when setting up a business phone meant dealing with complicated SIP credentials and hoping the VoIP phone would "register"? I do, and it wasn't fun. With this latest update much of that complexity just... disappeared.

Take setting up the phone system app for example. You get a QR code in your email, scan it, and that's it. Behind the scenes there's still SIP and VoIP and all that technical stuff happening, but you don't have to think about it. It's like how the early web evolved - remember FTP clients and manual HTML editing? Now we just click "publish" and our content goes live. Same idea here.

There are still all the features our more advanced users have some to love though. You can still setup SIP accounts, send calls to your VoIP server (Asterisk, FreePBX etc) or another SIP provider.

The FlyNumber Thing

The ability to choose which FlyNumber shows up when making calls was probably our most requested feature ever. Makes sense - people travel, run multiple businesses, or need different numbers for different regions. A real estate agent might want their local number when calling clients in New York, but their Florida number when working with snowbirds. A consultant might need their UK number for European clients and their US number for stateside work. Or maybe you're traveling abroad but want to keep your business presence local. Now it's just a tap in the app to switch numbers. This small feature has been a game-changer for how people manage their business presence.

Some Technical Bits (because I can't help myself)

The app uses push notifications to handle incoming calls, even when it's completely closed. This is actually pretty clever - instead of keeping a constant connection to our servers (killing your battery in the process), it only wakes up when needed.

And if you're into building custom call flows (I know I am), the app integrates right into those. You can have calls go through your IVR menus, time-based routing, or whatever else you've set up. The app just becomes another destination in your call flow, like any other phone or SIP device.

What's Next?

I'm curious to see how people use this. Will they build complex call flows with the app as just one piece? Or will they keep it simple - just the app and maybe voicemail? Both approaches work, and that's kind of the point.

The phone system itself keeps evolving too. We're working on things like AI call insights (still in progress) and better analytics. But that's a topic for another post.

For now, if you're using our phone system, the app's there when you need it. Just head to the phone system panel, look under Users, and you'll see the app setup option when you create a user. And if you run into any issues or have thoughts on what could be better, let me know. This is very much a work in progress, and real feedback helps shape where we go next.