We at Switchboard are pleased to announce the release of Outbound Calling. This is our first major feature release since our initial launch, so we are celebrating with a blog post about it!
What is Outbound Calling?
Before the Outbound Calling feature, Switchboard allowed you to configure the behaviour of calls coming in to your Switchboard Virtual Phone Number. There was, though, no way to make outgoing calls that displayed as being from your Virtual Phone Number.
Today that changes with the release of Outbound Calling. Make a call and have your recipient see the call as coming from your Switchboard Virtual Phone Number.
How does it work?
You initiate a call in your browser using the Switchboard web app. You tell Switchboard what number we can reach you at, and what number you are trying to call.
Switchboard makes a call back to you.
When you pick up, Switchboard initiates the call to the number you are trying to reach.
The call proceeds as though you had initiated it all along and your recipient sees the call as coming from your virtual phone number.
Your recipient never sees the number Switchboard uses to call you.
Do I need a real (non-virtual) phone number in order to use this feature?
You do currently need a non-virtual phone number to use the Outbound Calling feature because we need a number where we can reach you to make the initial connection. We are, however, working on Direct WiFi/data calling which would initiate outbound calls from your Virtual Phone Number using only your Internet connection. If you are interested in getting early access to our work in this area, please let us know!
We want your feedback!
We are very interested in what you think of the Outbound Calling feature! Sign up or log in to your Switchboard account, try it out, and tweet or email us about your experience! Reach out to one of us at @goswitchboardhq on Twitter or support@goswitchboard.com.
