Call screening

Call screening means Callify tells you a call is from your store, and asks you to press a key before connecting it.

It’s on by default, and you can turn it off in Settings → Calls with the switch labelled Ask me to accept calls.

What it sounds like

When a customer calls your store number and your phone rings, you answer and hear:

“Call for [your store name], from [the caller’s number]. Press any key to accept, or hang up to send it to voicemail.”

Press any key on your keypad and you’re connected. The caller hears ordinary ringing throughout — they have no idea this happened.

Why it exists

Two reasons, and the second one is the important one.

So you know which hat to wear. Your caller ID shows the customer’s own number, not your Callify number, so a store call looks identical to a personal one. Screening tells you it’s a shop call before you say “hello” — and tells you where it came from.

So your personal voicemail doesn’t steal the call. This is the real problem it solves.

When you decline a call, or let it ring out, most mobile carriers send it to their voicemail. From Callify’s side, that carrier voicemail answering looks exactly like you picking up — so without screening, the caller would be connected to your personal voicemail greeting, and the message would land there instead of in your Callify inbox.

A recorded greeting can’t press a key. That keypress is the only reliable way to tell “a person answered” from “a machine answered.”

What happens if you don’t press a key

You have about 10 seconds. If nothing is pressed in that time — you declined, you missed it, or it went to your carrier’s voicemail — Callify hangs up your leg of the call and sends the caller to your store’s voicemail, where they hear your greeting and can leave a message that lands in your Callify inbox.

The call shows in your call history as Missed.

Should you turn it off?

Keep it on if your Callify number forwards to a mobile — which is most people. The carrier-voicemail problem is real and constant.

Consider turning it off if:

• Your forwarding number is a dedicated business line or a call centre, where every call is a store call anyway and the extra step just slows answering.
• Your handset has no voicemail of its own to interfere.
• You want the fastest possible answer and you’re happy to lose the distinguishing announcement.

With screening off, the call connects the instant your phone answers — including when the thing answering is your carrier’s voicemail.

Screening and recording together

Both can be on at once, and they happen in order.

You press a key to accept. Then both parties hear “This call may be recorded for quality and training purposes.” Then you’re connected and recording starts.

The screening announcement is only ever played to you, and it’s never part of the recording.