One phone number, two handsets

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Senecio

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#270174 27-Apr-2020 08:42

Is this possible? Do any of our Telcos in NZ offer this.

My wife works in a small pilates studio, just her and the owner of the business. The have an office phone which their clients used to contact them on. They would just hand over the physical handset in the past but that's not possible now as they're both working remotely.

Is it possible to have 1 phone number that can be accessed by two different handsets? If a client rings or sends a text message then either of them could answer it or respond?

Linux

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#2471816 27-Apr-2020 09:04

Nope

SATTV

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#2471818 27-Apr-2020 09:05

There are two things at play here,

1) Answering a call and transferring it to the other person

2) Both seeing and replying to text messages.

If you go down the Apple road, you can have a phone and an iPad on the same account, either can answer the incoming call.

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/12/18/how-to-transfer-calls-iphone-ipad/ you can from a cellular call to iPad but not a Facetime call.

Both devices will see and reply to the test messages.

N.B both devices have to be on the same apple Id and same wifi network.

I hope that helps.

John

I know enough to be dangerous

snnet

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#2471819 27-Apr-2020 09:05

If they used 2talk, possibly - with the softphone. I'm not sure how texting would behave though.

Delphinus

437 posts

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#2471823 27-Apr-2020 09:41

Yeah 2talk will support the same number on multiple devices. You could also configure it to forward to multiple other numbers (eg 2 cellphones) and whoever answers gets the call.

Does 2talk do SMS'ing though?

SirHumphreyAppleby

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#2471828 27-Apr-2020 09:53

Delphinus:

Does 2talk do SMS'ing though?

They do, but I think it only works though the app. If you have forwarding setup, SMS messages are not forwarded.

You can configure 2talk to either forward the call to two numbers or to dial two extensions if using SIP clients (most likely softphones).

Another option is Hero. I'm using them now, but not their hosted PBX, so I can't say if they have all the same features as 2talk. The OP may wish to look at them as well.

MadEngineer

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#2471861 27-Apr-2020 11:06

For calls this can be done with a land line with pabx - virtual or otherwise.

I think you need a better solution than what you’re trying to achieve here. If one person is unable to take calls to the mobile consider diverting them to the other

snnet

858 posts

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#2471867 27-Apr-2020 11:27

SirHumphreyAppleby:

Delphinus:

Does 2talk do SMS'ing though?

They do, but I think it only works though the app. If you have forwarding setup, SMS messages are not forwarded.

You can configure 2talk to either forward the call to two numbers or to dial two extensions if using SIP clients (most likely softphones).

Another option is Hero. I'm using them now, but not their hosted PBX, so I can't say if they have all the same features as 2talk. The OP may wish to look at them as well.

Also, the last time I used it, emojis didn't come thru at all so if someone sends a thumbs up, for example, as a reply to a text you probably won't see it

Senecio

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#2471911 27-Apr-2020 11:40

Thanks for the responses.

Calls they could do by diverting but most of the their clients prefer to interact via text. It suits them as well as they can respond when not taking an online class.

Open to any other suggestions people may have. If they got all their clients off text messages and over the a messaging app would that work? They could both be logged in to receive and respond to messages? Only problem is some of the clients are older, some wouldn't even have a smart phone.

deadlyllama

988 posts

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#2472065 27-Apr-2020 13:37

Is there something that could be done with headsets?

hio77

'That VDSL Cat'
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Spark

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#2472070 27-Apr-2020 13:44

I use Join for this, it works great.

My usecase differs slightly, as it's purely to manage the fact that i cary two phones but really have one as a "daily driver"

the other one sits on my desk most of the time.

SMS is shared in realtime over to my other device (or PC) and if a call comes in, I can answer that too. (this used to be a little buggy before VoLTE and 3G Data while on calls was a thing for obvious reasons)

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Any comments made are personal opinion and do not reflect directly on the position my current or past employers may have.

Delphinus

437 posts

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#2472073 27-Apr-2020 13:48

What type of mobile phone has the main number on it? Could the other person access the SMS's via https://messages.google.com/web/ if it was android?

Grunta47

45 posts

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#2472110 27-Apr-2020 15:01

SATTV:

There are two things at play here,

1) Answering a call and transferring it to the other person

2) Both seeing and replying to text messages.

If you go down the Apple road, you can have a phone and an iPad on the same account, either can answer the incoming call.

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/12/18/how-to-transfer-calls-iphone-ipad/ you can from a cellular call to iPad but not a Facetime call.

Both devices will see and reply to the test messages.

N.B both devices have to be on the same apple Id and same wifi network.

I hope that helps.

John

Ah no, that won’t help. As the OP said, they’re working from home/remote, therefore can’t hand the phone over.

if they were both on the same wifi, then that would mean they’re in the same house......just hand the phone over😀.

I would assume the intent is to have the same number in two different locations therefore same Apple IDs will not work.

FYI - I have this setup on my iPhone/iPad and it works great, apart from when I turn off wifi on my iPhone at work (a few restrictions....nothing bad) and forget to turn it on when I get home.

TwoSeven

1463 posts

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#2472126 27-Apr-2020 15:24

Yes, there is such a service, but I am not sure who offers it here.

I would suggest giving your telco a call and talking to them, usually these types of features are part of business plans.

The process of routing calls across devices is called call hunting. If a set of devices are in a group (called a hunting group) then a number of features can be provisioned based on a set of rules.

Some of which are:-

ring on all devices in the group (sometimes called simultaneous ring)
where it rings on one phone, then the next after a certain number of rings (sometimes called call forward - no answer).

Software Engineer
(the practice of real science, engineering and management)

ANglEAUT

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#2472421 27-Apr-2020 20:48

Senecio: ... Open to any other suggestions people may have. ...

What about SMS to email gateway?

Both wife & owner can have access to the mailbox on their PC / cell phone & reply to the email which will then respond to the client?

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