Beside comes with a business phone line, Beside Phone, and a Receptionist that answers it. Your agent uses that line as one of its main sources - every call and text tells it something about your customers - so getting it set up early makes everything else work better.

It takes a few minutes, split between agent.beside.com and the Beside Phone app.

Why every call counts

When someone calls a local business, they are usually ready to act: they want an appointment, a quote or help right now. If nobody picks up, most of them don't leave a voicemail. They call the next number.

Your Receptionist picks up when you can't, takes the details, books the appointment if you let it, and tells you who to call back first. You choose how much it handles when you set it up in step 4: your phone can ring first so it only picks up the calls you miss, or calls can go straight to it.

📖 Understand how customers find and choose you

Where your line lives

Open Settings from the left menu, then Phone Number. That is where your workspace connects to a Beside line, and where you manage it afterwards.

Three Settings sections cover your line between them:

Settings section	What it is for
Phone Number	Connecting your line, your number, and your call handling controls. Its own description says it plainly: Choose what Beside can do with your calls and texts.
Receptionist	Your Receptionist's settings, including the text that goes to a caller you missed and the calendar it books into
Autonomy	What your agent may do with the line on its own: Send proactive texts and Adjust line settings

💡 Search Settings rather than hunting: Settings has a search box at the top. Type the name of a setting and it takes you straight to it, which is quicker than remembering which section it sits in.

Taking calls and replying to texts still happens in the Beside Phone mobile app or at app.beside.com, which Inbox in the left menu also opens inside Beside. 📖 Beside on the web

1. Install the app and sign in

Download the Beside Phone app from the App Store or Google Play.

⚠️ Sign in the same way you signed up: use the same email address you used for Beside. Signing in a different way creates a separate account, and your subscription and your agent won't be there.

📖 Download Beside and sign in

2. Connect your line

In Settings → Phone Number, pick your line and select Connect line. A workspace works with one line, so if you have several, this is where you choose which one your agent uses.

If nothing is listed, create a line in Beside Phone first, then come back and connect it. Only the workspace owner or an admin can connect a line.

Or connect it in the conversation

If you already use Beside Phone as your business phone, you do not have to go looking for the setting. Your agent recognizes the lines on your account, explains in chat why connecting helps, and lets you pick one there. Your existing number, Receptionist and settings carry on exactly as they are.

Review how customers reach you

Once a line is connected, your agent offers to walk you through how calls are handled today, one decision at a time, in plain language rather than a settings form. It covers three things:

What it reviews	The question it answers
Who answers first	Whether your phone rings first, your Receptionist picks up, or the call goes to voicemail
Call alerts	Whether your own phone rings or stays silent when a call comes in
Business hours your Ringing Schedule	When your phone should ring at all. Not when you are open to customers.

Your agent reads your current settings, explains how the three work together, and you keep or change each one. On a shared line it also explains team ringing, and it never changes a teammate's own alerts. You can skip the review entirely.

🟡 The third topic is about ringing, not about opening:

Your agent calls it business hours, but what it is reviewing is your Ringing Schedule: the hours during which phones on the line ring. Outside them, calls skip ringing and go to your Receptionist or voicemail. 📖 Set your Ringing Schedule
It is not the Business Hours under Settings → Business info, which are your Operating hours: when you are open to customers, and what your Receptionist tells callers. 📖 Keep your business information accurate
Changing your Ringing Schedule never changes what your Receptionist says about your availability, and it does not turn your Receptionist off after hours.

✅ Nothing changes without your approval: Each change you ask for goes through the usual approval step, and your agent confirms it actually saved before moving on. Reviewing your setup changes nothing by itself.

Configuring your Receptionist itself, its greeting, voice and what it knows, is not part of this review. That is step 4 below.

3. Decide how customers reach you

You have three options, and they are not exclusive - most businesses start with forwarding and port later.

Option	When it makes sense
Forward your existing number	You want to keep the number your customers already know, and change nothing on their side. The fastest way to start.
Port your number to Beside	You want your number to live entirely in Beside - calls and texts, in and out, in one place.
Use a new Beside number	You are starting fresh, or you want a separate business number with your own area code.

Settings → Phone Number has entry points for the first two, Set up forwarding and Start number transfer, and both finish in Beside.

📖 Port your number vs set up call forwarding

📖 Set up call forwarding to Beside

📖 Port your number to Beside

📌 Some things are still done in the Beside Phone app: Call forwarding, Caller ID, porting and creating a line are completed in the Beside Phone mobile app, not on agent.beside.com. Once set, they apply everywhere automatically.

4. Set up your Receptionist

Your Receptionist is what answers when you can't. It picks up calls and texts, answers common questions, qualifies leads, and books appointments.

You set it up in Beside Phone, in the mobile app or at app.beside.com, or under Settings → Receptionist in Beside: its greeting, its voice, what it knows about your business, and how it handles different kinds of call.

Your Operating hours are edited in Beside. They are the hours your Receptionist tells callers you are open, separate from your Ringing Schedule. Once your line is connected, change them under Settings → Business info, on the Business Hours tab. The Beside Phone app and app.beside.com then show them read-only, marked Managed in your Business Profile, with an Edit in Business Profile link that brings you back here. 📖 Train your AI Receptionist

📖 Set up your AI Receptionist to answer calls

📖 Control who your Receptionist handles

To let it book appointments, connect a calendar. In Settings → Receptionist, open the Call Handling tab. Under Scheduling, the Calendar integration row has a Connect calendar button. Choose Google Calendar, Calendly, Housecall Pro, GoHighLevel or Follow Up Boss. Google Calendar here is connected through Beside Phone's own Google sign-in, which ties it to your line. It is separate from a Google account you connected under Settings → Connectors, and your Receptionist cannot book with that one. Outlook is not offered here; you can still connect it from the Beside Phone app on iPhone or Android. The hours it may book in are set separately from your Operating hours, in the Scheduling settings row of the same section, under Booking hours. 📖 Book appointments with your AI Receptionist

Once it is running, you can change it without leaving Beside: Settings → Phone Number has Silence unknown callers and Team ringing, and Settings → Receptionist has whether it answers, who it handles, its greeting, voice, knowledge and call handling. They are the same settings on the same line, so nothing is duplicated.

Text back after a missed call

In Settings → Receptionist, the Text tab has a Missed call follow-up section. With Text back after missed calls on, a caller who hangs up without reaching you or your Receptionist gets a text from your line, so the lead does not go cold. It is on by default for a new number you get with Beside, and you set it line by line.

Write what it says in Follow-up message, up to 480 characters. Until you write your own, Beside keeps the starter message in line with your business details, such as your name, services and service area. A message you wrote yourself is never changed. If the caller texts back, your Receptionist carries on the conversation.

No text goes out when:

You or a teammate answered the call, or a teammate already texted the caller afterwards
The number was hidden, blocked, or looked like spam
The call ended in a booking, or your Receptionist already sent its own follow-up
The caller is on the Excluded contacts list on the same tab
The same caller already got one on this line in the last 24 hours

📌 It goes out right after the call, at any hour: the missed call text is not held until the morning. If you would rather late-night callers did not get one, turn the switch off.

5. Let your agent use the line

Your line shows up in Beside as a connected source called Beside Phone. Connecting it lets your agent read your calls and texts, which is what it works from.

Acting on the line is separate, and you decide it. Open Settings → Autonomy to say what your agent may do on its own, for example texting a customer back. Connecting or reviewing a line does not ask you for that permission, so nothing is granted by accident.

📖 Choose what Beside can do on its own

How you see it working

In Settings → Phone Number, your line reads Your line is connected. In Settings → Receptionist, on the Call Handling tab, the Calendar integration row names the calendar your Receptionist books into, and says Missing while there is none. After that, every call and text on the line opens from Inbox in the left menu, including the ones your Receptionist answered for you.

FAQ

Is the phone line included in my plan?

Yes. A business line and a Receptionist come with every Beside plan, Standard and Pro. New signups also get a free 30-day trial of Beside Phone before choosing a plan, and Beside Phone stops at the end of those 30 days if no plan has been chosen. 📖 Understand your plan and credits

Why did a caller get a text after I missed their call?

That is the missed call follow-up, on by default for new numbers you get with Beside. Change the message or turn it off under Settings → Receptionist, on the Text tab, in Missed call follow-up.

Business hours, Ringing Schedule, Operating hours: which is which?

Two different things, and Beside unfortunately says business hours for both in places.

Your Ringing Schedule is when the phones on your line ring. Outside it, calls skip ringing and go to your Receptionist or voicemail. This is what your agent reviews when it connects your line, and what the Ringing Schedule setting on the line itself controls. It was called Business Hours before, so an older iPhone build may still show that name.

Your Operating hours, shown as Business Hours under Settings → Business info in Beside, are when you are open to customers. Your Receptionist tells callers it is closed based on them, in its own words. Once your line is connected, you edit them there: the Beside Phone app shows them as Managed in your Business Profile.

Changing one never changes the other. 📖 Set your Ringing Schedule

I'm looking for Text & Call and I can't find it.

It moved into Settings. Your line is now under Settings → Phone Number, the Receptionist switches under Settings → Receptionist, and what your agent may do with the line on its own under Settings → Autonomy. Nothing changed about your line or your settings, only where they sit. Old links still work and open the right section.

Where do I configure my Receptionist?

In Beside Phone (the mobile app or app.beside.com), or in Beside under Settings → Receptionist, which has the Calls, Text, Voice, Knowledge, Call Handling and Permissions tabs. Both edit the same settings on the same line. The exception is your Operating hours: on a connected line, they are edited in Beside under Settings → Business info.

Can I connect my existing line from the conversation?

Yes. Your agent recognizes the lines on your account and offers them in chat, so you can connect one there instead of opening Settings. Your number, your Receptionist and your settings are untouched by connecting.

Does the call flow review change my settings?

Not on its own. Your agent reads your current setup and explains it. Anything you then ask it to change goes through the usual approval step, and it confirms the change actually saved. You can also skip the review and leave everything as it is.

Can I use Beside without setting up the line?

Yes, but your agent will see less. Your calls and texts are where most of what happens with your customers actually happens - without them, follow-ups, lead scoring and much of what your agent proposes have far less to work from.

I have several lines. Can I connect more than one?

Not to the same workspace. Each Beside workspace works with one line, so pick the one your customers actually call. You can disconnect and choose a different one later, and your existing history stays.

I already had a Beside line before subscribing.

Then there is nothing to create. Your number, your Receptionist and your settings carry on exactly as they were, and you connect that line in Settings → Phone Number or straight from the conversation. 📖 Use Beside with your Beside Phone line

Where do calls and texts actually happen?

In the Beside Phone mobile app or at app.beside.com. Beside, at agent.beside.com, is where you connect the line and see what your agent did with it, and its Inbox opens that same Beside Phone inbox so you can reply from there too.

Set up your Beside Phone line