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Guides for setting up and running your on-call roster.

Set up Twilio for voice calls

Create a Twilio account, get your Account SID, Auth Token, and a phone number, and connect them in Settings → Voice.

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Voice calls use your own Twilio account (you bring the credentials; OnCallRadar never holds the telecom billing). Setup takes about 10 minutes. You’ll end up with three values to paste into Settings → Voice: an Account SID, an Auth Token, and a phone number to call from.

1. Create a Twilio account

  1. 1Go to twilio.com/try-twilio and sign up with your email.
  2. 2Verify your email address, then verify your own mobile number when prompted.
  3. 3On the “welcome” questions you can pick anything (e.g. product = *Voice*, build with *Code*, language *Node.js*) — it only tailors their dashboard and doesn’t affect setup.

2. Get a phone number (your caller ID)

Twilio places calls *from* a number you own. A new trial account is given one free number — or buy one with Voice capability.

  1. 1Open the Twilio Console.
  2. 2Go to Phone Numbers → Manage → Active numbers (use your trial number), or Buy a number and pick one with the Voice capability.
  3. 3Copy the number in E.164 format — a +, country code, then the number, no spaces (e.g. +15551234567). This is your Caller ID.

A trial Twilio account can only call numbers you’ve verified (add them under Phone Numbers → Verified Caller IDs), and Twilio prepends a short trial message. To call any number freely, upgrade the account by adding a payment method.

3. Copy your credentials

On the Console home page, find the Account Info panel (also under Account → API keys & tokens). Two values matter:

  • Account SID — starts with AC…. A non-secret identifier for your account.
  • Auth Token — click *Show* / the copy icon to reveal it. Treat this like a password — anyone with it can place calls billed to you.

4. Connect them in OnCallRadar

  1. 1Open Settings → Voice (owner only).
  2. 2Paste the Account SID and Auth Token into the Twilio credentials fields.
  3. 3Set Caller ID to your Twilio number in E.164 (+15551234567).
  4. 4Optionally set the default message, acknowledge phrases, acknowledge key, language, and TTS voice — these become the org defaults.
  5. 5Tick Enabled and press Save voice settings.

Credentials are stored encrypted; the Auth Token is never shown back (re-enter it to change it). The server must have VOICE_ENCRYPTION_KEY set — the panel warns if it’s missing.

5. Place a test call

On the Now page, the on-call card shows a Call button (you need the *Initiate voice calls* permission, and on a trial account the recipient’s number must be verified). Confirm or edit the message, pick the number, and place the call. The recipient presses the acknowledge key — or says an acknowledge phrase — and you’re notified. Per-schedule and per-call overrides are explained in Voice settings.

Costs & good to know

  • Twilio bills you directly — roughly per-minute for the call plus a small monthly number rental. Trial credit covers testing.
  • This is operator-initiated calling, not automated paging — a person clicks Call. There’s no auto-retry or escalation by design.
  • Switching providers later won’t change any of this for you — OnCallRadar talks to a provider abstraction, so new providers can be added without reworking the feature.