Products / Mail & messages
Hoq Phone
Business numbers, call flows and a softphone, with transcripts and summaries.
What it does
Hoq Phone gives a business its phone numbers, the call flows behind them, and phones for its people. Staff answer in the browser, in an installed desktop softphone, or on any SIP desk phone or app set up by QR code.
You build what callers hear as a tree of steps: say something, press a key, ring a group, check the hours, take a voicemail. Edits save as a draft. Callers keep hearing the live version until you publish, and every published version is kept so you can bring one back.
Calls can be recorded with an announcement to the outside party, then transcribed and summarised. The summary is filed on the caller in Hoq CRM or Hoq Service. Managers can ask questions across past calls and get answers with quotes.
Phone is open to businesses we have granted access. You can use Hoq's carrier or connect your own Twilio account.
In numbers
500calls at once carried in our load test, recorded or not
200 MBlargest meeting recording you can upload for a summary
5calling rules per person, from anyone to no outbound calls
100undo steps in the call flow editor
Specifications
| How staff take calls | Browser softphone (installable on Mac and Windows, rings in the background), or any SIP desk phone or app set up by QR code or a downloaded config. |
|---|---|
| Voice codecs | Opus, G.722, G.711 µ-law and A-law, with DTMF as telephone-event. |
| Encryption | TLS for SIP signalling and DTLS-SRTP for audio in the browser softphone. |
| Call flows | Drafts kept apart from what callers hear; publish checks for dead ends first; every published version kept. |
| Recording | Set by a recording policy, with an announcement to the outside party and a retention period. A consent record is kept per call. |
| Voicemail | Saved to an inbox in the app, transcribed, and sent by email. |
| Meeting uploads | Upload a recording up to 200 MB (mp3, m4a, mp4, wav, ogg, webm, flac) or a VTT, SRT or text transcript for a summary. |
| Carriers | Hoq's carrier, or your own Twilio account: we set up the SIP trunk in your account and bring in your numbers. |
| Number porting | Portability check, signed letter of authorization through Hoq Sign, and tracking to the switch-over date. |
| Sign-in and access | Hoq ID single sign-on. Owners and admins manage settings; members see their own calls. |
Features
25 features: 22 shipped, 3 in beta. Listed from the product's code and documentation; each row shows the day it was last checked.
| Get a number | Search for a number and add it to your business. | Shipped | |
| What callers hear | Each number shows, in plain words, what happens when someone calls it. | Shipped | |
| Forward all calls | Forward a number to another phone until a time you set, then fall back to its flow. | Shipped | |
| Bring your own Twilio | Connect your Twilio account; we build the SIP trunk and bring your numbers in. Removing them releases nothing. | Beta | |
| Move numbers to Hoq | Port numbers in with a portability check and a letter signed in Hoq Sign. | Beta |
| Steps view | Lay the flow out as a tree, add steps with +, and work on a phone screen. | Shipped | |
| Steps | Say something, press a key, ring phones at once or in turn, wait, voicemail, hang up. | Shipped | |
| Problem check | Lists every way a caller could be hung up before you publish. | Shipped | |
| Drafts and versions | Edit a draft, publish when ready, and bring back any published version. | Shipped | |
| Try it | Place a pretend call through the flow, press keys, and hear what a caller would. | Shipped | |
| Ring groups, queues, rooms | Ring a group of people, hold callers in a queue, or join a conference room. | Beta |
| Browser softphone | Take and place calls in the browser with hold and transfer; installable as a desktop app with ring, alerts and a missed-call badge. | Shipped | |
| Desk phones and apps | QR setup and downloadable configs for SIP phones and apps. | Shipped | |
| Presence | See who is free, ringing, on a call or not connected. | Shipped | |
| Caller card and actions | See who is calling from CRM and Service, then write a note, open a job, add a lead or text them during the call. | Shipped | |
| Inbox | Missed calls, voicemail and texts in one list you mark done. | Shipped |
| Transcripts and summaries | Recorded calls are transcribed with each side named and summarised. | Shipped | |
| Call review | Check each call against your own checklist, item by item, with a quote. | Shipped | |
| Risk flags | Flag calls that use words you never say or miss words you must say. | Shipped | |
| Ask your calls | Ask a question across past transcripts and get answers with quotes. | Shipped | |
| Call history | Every call with direction, who answered and where it was forwarded. | Shipped |
| Who may call whom | Per person: anyone, only our customers, only their team's, only their own, or no outbound calls. | Shipped | |
| Do not contact and quiet hours | A do-not-contact list and quiet hours by the customer's clock. | Shipped |
| Call data API | Read calls, recordings, transcripts, summaries and audio with your own Hoq ID key. | Shipped | |
| Webhooks | Signed events for call ended, recording ready, summary ready, call flagged and texts. | Shipped |
Works with
- Hoq CRMCaller cards come from CRM, and call notes and follow-up tasks are written back.
- Hoq ServiceOpen a job, book a visit or add a lead from a live call; summaries are filed on the customer.
- Hoq CrewCall review results feed a drafted coaching note in Crew reviews.
- Hoq SignThe letter of authorization for moving numbers is signed in Hoq Sign.
Your data
| Where it is kept | Call records, flows, recordings and voicemail on Hoq's own phone servers and object storage. Contacts and personal settings in Hoq's database. |
|---|---|
| Getting it out | Calls, recordings, transcripts, summaries, audio and texts through the API with a phone:calls key. |
| If you leave | not published |
APIs and standards
- REST API: GET /api/phone/v1/calls, /recordings, /recordings/{id}, /recordings/{id}/audio, /texts (scope phone:calls)
- REST API: GET /api/phone/v1/numbers, POST /api/phone/v1/text (scope phone:use)
- Signed webhooks for call, recording, summary and text events
- SIP registration for desk phones and softphone apps
- Standard: SIP
- Standard: WebRTC
- Standard: DTLS-SRTP
- Standard: TLS
- Standard: Opus
- Standard: G.722
- Standard: G.711
- Standard: DTMF (RFC 4733)
- Standard: WebVTT
- Standard: SRT
Compared
| Checked 2026-11-01 | Hoq Phone | RingCentral RingEX Core | Dialpad Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | Not published | $20/user/mo yearly, $30 monthly1 | $15/user/mo yearly, $27 monthly2 |
| Call recording | Yes, by policy, with announcement and retention | On-demand recording1 | not published2 |
| Transcripts and summaries | Yes, after the call | Not listed on Core1 | Real-time transcripts and call summaries2 |
| Texting included | not published | 25 SMS per user/mo1 | Built-in messaging2 |
| Bring your own carrier | Your own Twilio account | not published1 | not published2 |
| Native mobile apps | No; browser and SIP apps | not published1 | not published2 |
| International numbers | not published | not published1 | Local numbers in over 50 countries2 |
| Call data API | Yes, with your own key | not published1 | Not stated for Standard2 |