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Answer inbound calls on your ExoPhone

The one Exotel step inbound answering needs: an App Bazaar flow that hands calls to your agent. Only for numbers on your own Exotel account — Cualify numbers are set up for you.

Why this step exists

Exotel routes inbound calls through Apps — small flow definitions in their App Bazaar that describe what happens when a call rings in. For Cualify to answer an ExoPhone on your own account, that number's flow has to hand the call to us. It uses up to two applets:

  • Voicebot applet (required): Exotel asks Cualify, for each incoming call, where to stream the audio, and connects the caller to your agent.
  • Passthru applet (optional): placed before the Voicebot, it asks Cualify whether you're open. Open continues to the Voicebot; closed takes the flow's other branch — voicemail, a forward to a person, or a hangup — which you build in Exotel.

Outbound calls don't need a flow. Cualify places them with Exotel's Connect Voice AI, which streams the answered call straight to your agent — that only needs AgentStream / Connect Voice AI enabled on your account (see Connect Exotel, Step 3).

Using a Cualify number? Skip this guide. Cualify numbers live on our Exotel account and we set up their flow. Choose the agent that answers on Integrations → Inbound and you're done.

Before you start

  • Your Exotel account is connected on /integrations/telephony (see Connect Exotel)
  • You have at least one active agent to answer calls
  • You're a workspace admin or the owner — routing decides who answers your phone

Step 1 — Verify the ExoPhone in Cualify

A number on your own account can only take calls once Cualify has seen it on that account. Typing it isn't enough; Exotel's own listing is the proof.

  1. In Cualify, open Integrations → Inbound
  2. Under Add a number from your Exotel account, enter the ExoPhone (e.g. +912248972262)
  3. Click "Verify with Exotel". Once it's found on your account, the number appears in the Number callers ring list.

Step 2 — Choose who answers, and save

  1. Pick the number under Number callers ring
  2. Pick the Agent that answers during hours, and optionally an opening line
  3. Set your Business hours and what happens After hours
  4. Click "Save inbound settings"

The page now shows a box titled Set up this number's flow in Exotel with two URLs. The first is for the Voicebot applet, the second for the Passthru applet. Both are specific to your Exotel account — copy them from this page, not from anywhere else.

Step 3 — Build the flow in App Bazaar

  1. Sign in at my.exotel.com
  2. Left sidebar → App Bazaar → create a new app. Name it something identifiable, e.g. Cualify inbound.
  3. Add a Voicebot applet and paste the first URL from Cualify as its URL. It's an https:// address: Exotel calls it on each incoming call and Cualify answers with where to stream.
  4. Optional, for after-hours voicemail or forwarding: put a Passthru applet before the Voicebot, paste the second URL into it, and connect its other branch to the voicemail, forward or hangup step you want
  5. Click Save

Without the Passthru applet, Cualify still applies your business hours, but after hours it can only say a closing line and hang up. Exotel performs the forward or voicemail, on the branch you build.

Step 4 — Attach the flow to your ExoPhone

Your ExoPhone needs to know which app to invoke when an inbound call rings.

  1. Exotel sidebar → ExoPhones
  2. Click on your number
  3. Connect it to the Cualify inbound app you built in Step 3
  4. Save

Verifying the setup

Ring your ExoPhone from any phone during your business hours. Your agent picks up with the opening line you set in Step 2 — or, if you left it blank, the agent's own greeting — in its selected language.

The call then appears in /calls. Calls the Passthru step declined are recorded there too, so you can see who rang while you were closed.

Troubleshooting

"… isn't one of the ExoPhones on your connected Exotel account"

The number isn't on the Exotel account you connected — check for a typo, or that you connected the account that owns it. Enter it in E.164 (+91…).

"… is already registered to another workspace"

Another Cualify workspace verified this number first. A number lives on one Exotel account, so one of the two is stale. Write to support@cualify.in and we'll sort it out.

"Couldn't read your Exotel numbers"

Cualify couldn't list the numbers on your account. Re-verify the connection on /integrations/telephony and try again.

Inbound calls aren't answered

  • Check the flow is attached to the ExoPhone (Step 4) and saved
  • Check Pause inbound answering is off on Integrations → Inbound, and the page doesn't say the number is no longer one of yours
  • If the URLs were copied from an older setup, copy them again from Integrations → Inbound — URLs from before per-account links are refused

What's next?