Calls

With Midlr you can take and make WhatsApp voice calls in your browser, using your business number. There are two ways to work with calls:

	Simple calling	Call Center
Best for	Small teams that take the odd call	Teams that handle many calls a day
Where calls happen	In the chat, plus a small call panel	In its own Call Center area
Who gets an incoming call	Your team members who are online	One agent at a time, picked by your routing rules
Extras	Call history	Agents and managers, routing, queues, phone menus (IVR), call hours, recordings, live monitoring

Your business uses one or the other, never both. When the Call Center is turned on, simple calling switches off.

Before you start

• Calling is available on selected plans. If you don't see Calls in your sidebar, contact support.
• Calling must be turned on for your business number. Go to Business Numbers, open the number's details, and turn on calling in the call settings. If it's off, Midlr shows Calling Unavailable or Calling is disabled for this number.
• Your browser needs access to your microphone. Midlr asks the first time. If you blocked it, Midlr shows Microphone Access Required with steps to fix it.

TIP

Calls only work while Midlr is open in your browser. Keep the tab open if you expect calls.

Call permission: WhatsApp's rule

WhatsApp doesn't let a business call a customer out of the blue. You can only call a customer directly after they have given you permission. There are two ways to get a call going:

• Ask for permission. Send a Call Permission Request. When the customer accepts, you can call them directly for a while (or permanently, if they choose so).
• Let them call you. Send a "Call Us" Message. It has a button the customer taps to call you. You don't need permission for this.

Both are sent as interactive messages, so the 24-hour window must be open.

The permission status shows as a coloured dot on the call button in a chat: green means you can call directly, red means you can't yet. Hover over it to see the status, for example No call permission given, Call allowed until a date, Permanent call permission, or Client denied call permission.

Simple calling

Call a customer from a chat

1. Open the chat in Chatting.
2. Click the phone icon (Call options) at the top of the chat.
3. If the dot is green, click Call Now.
4. If you don't have permission yet, the Direct Call button is locked (No permission). Click Send "Call Us" Message instead, so the customer can call you.

To ask for permission, go to Attach > Interactive message and pick Call Permission Request. See Sending messages.

If the chat is assigned to another agent, calling is locked for you.

Answer an incoming call

When a customer calls, an Incoming Call card pops up in the call panel. Click Accept to answer or Decline to reject.

The call rings for everyone on your team who has Midlr open, not only the agent the chat is assigned to. Team members with permission to see calls also get a push notification, if they turned push notifications on. The first person to click Accept takes the call.

If a teammate answers first, you see Call Accepted with their name, and the card closes.

During a call

The Call Manager panel shows your calls in tabs: All, Active, Outgoing, Incoming and Reconnect. On an active call you can Mute / Unmute and End the call.

If you're already on a call and accept another one, Midlr warns you that the first call will end.

If your connection drops

If your browser loses connection or you reload the page, the call shows under Reconnect with Connection Lost. Click Reconnect to rejoin on this device, or End Call.

If the call is still active on another of your devices, you see Call Active On Another Device. Click Switch Call Here to move it to this device.

See your call history

In the sidebar, under Customers, click Calls. You see a list of past calls with the caller, date and time, ring time, duration and status. Use the search and filters (date range, status, duration, ring time) to find a call.

Call Center

The Call Center is a separate area for teams that handle many calls. It has managers, who set it up and watch live calls, and agents, who take calls.

Turn on the Call Center

The Call Center is available on selected plans. An admin turns it on with the Call Center setting in Business Config ("Allow agents to handle customer calls through the platform").

Then give each person a role:

• The Call Center Manager role for people who configure the Call Center and supervise.
• The Call Center Agent role for people who take calls.

Both are built-in roles: you find them in the Roles list, and you can't build your own manager or agent role. A person can be a manager or an agent, not both. You set roles in Users and Roles & permissions.

Once it's on, clicking Calls in the sidebar opens the Call Center.

For agents

The agent menu has three pages: Active (under Live), Dial, and History (under Records).

Be available to take calls

1. Open Active.
2. Click Set as Available. The page shows Ready for Calls.
3. When a call comes in, a card shows the caller. Click Accept or Reject.

The card tells you how the call reached you: Queue Call, Assigned Call (a manager gave it to you), or Transferred Call (a teammate passed it on).

After a call ends, you go back to Available automatically. While a call is assigned to you, you can't change your availability.

WARNING

If you miss several calls in a row, the system may set you Offline. Your manager chooses how many (Auto-offline on consecutive missed calls). Set yourself available again when you're back.

The Active page also shows how calls are being shared out right now (Call Routing), and your place in it, for example #2 in priority list.

Transfer a call

During a call, click Transfer. Pick an agent under Route To Agent and click Transfer, or pick a group under Route To Group and click Route.

Make a call

1. Open Dial (Make a Call).
2. If you are Available, click Go Offline to Dial first. You can't take incoming calls and dial out at the same time.
3. Under Select Contact, search by name or number, or pick someone from Missed Calls (missed calls from the last 24 hours that nobody has called back).
4. Pick the Business Number to call from.
5. Under Action:
   • If the customer has given call permission, click Call Now.
   • If not, send a Call Request (asks them to allow calls) or a "Call Us" Button (lets them call you). The 24-hour window must be open for these.

For managers

The manager menu has:

Page	What it's for
Agents	See every agent's status (Available, On Call, Offline). Set an agent online or offline. Organize agents into Groups. Click an agent to see their call stats.
Active Calls	Watch calls live: who is in the queue, ringing, or talking. Assign a waiting call to an agent, Transfer a call, End a call, or Monitor it.
History	All past calls, with filters, recordings and a detailed log for each call.
IVR Menus	Build phone menus ("Press 1 for sales...").
IVR Analytics	How callers move through your menus.
Settings	Routing, call hours, recordings and more.
Manager Guide	A built-in guide to the Call Center.

Listen in on a call

On Active Calls, click Monitor on a call. You hear both the agent and the customer. Neither of them can hear you. Click Stop Monitoring Session when you're done.

Get a sound when calls arrive

In Settings, turn on Enable Notification Tone so the manager dashboard plays a tone for every new call. You can pick your own audio and choose Loop While Ringing.

Choose how calls are shared out (routing)

In Settings, under Routing Strategy, pick one:

Strategy	How it works	Good for
Round Robin (Queue)	Calls go to available agents in turn, so everyone gets a fair share.	Teams where everyone does the same job.
Priority Based	Calls go to agents in an order you set. #1 gets the call if free, then #2, and so on. Or choose a group, and its team leads are tried first.	When a senior person should take calls first.
Receptionist	All calls go to one agent, or to one group.	A front desk that answers and transfers.

If no one is free, the caller waits in the queue and hears waiting music. The next agent who becomes available gets the oldest waiting call. Each business number can also have its own routing that overrides the business default.

Set call hours

In Settings, open a business number and turn on Custom Call Hours. Pick your Timezone, then set Weekly Operating Hours for each day: 24/7 Available, Custom Hours (up to two time slots), or Closed. Add special dates under Holiday Schedule. Click Save Call Hours.

Record calls

In Settings, open a business number and turn on Call Recording to record all its calls. You can play recordings from History.

• Retention Period is how long recordings are kept before they're deleted automatically. It's set by Midlr.
• To keep an important recording longer, a manager can lock it. Open the recording from History, expand Retention Lock, pick how long (for example 1 Month, 3 Months or 6 Months) and click Set Retention Lock. You can have up to 10 locked recordings at a time. Click Remove Lock to unlock one.
• All locked recordings are listed under Retention Locks in Settings.
• Recordings count towards your storage. When the limit is reached, Midlr stops recording new calls until space is freed. Existing recordings stay.

Build a phone menu (IVR)

An IVR plays a recorded message when a customer calls and lets them press keys to choose where to go, for example "Press 1 for sales, 2 for support".

1. Open IVR Menus and click New Menu.
2. Enter a Menu name and choose what it Applies to: one business number, or All Numbers (used when a number has no menu of its own).
3. Open the menu in the IVR Builder. Click a step in the side panel to add it, then drag between the dots to connect steps:
   • Call Start: where every call begins.
   • DTMF Menu: plays a recording and sends the caller somewhere based on the key they press. Set what happens if they press nothing.
   • Play Audio: plays a message, then moves on.
   • Assign to Agent: sends the caller to the Queue, a specific Agent, or a Group. Choose what happens If agent is offline or If agent is busy.
   • Hang Up: ends the call.
4. Click Save & Exit. Midlr checks the flow and lists anything you need to fix.
5. Choose when the menu runs: Always Active, When All Busy, When All Offline, or When Unavailable.
6. Click Activate. Menus you haven't activated stay as Draft.

You need audio files for your recordings. Pick them from your Media library or upload new ones.

In Settings, under Queue Waiting Audio, you can choose the music callers hear while they wait for an agent.

Related

• Chatting (the inbox)
• Sending messages
• Business numbers
• Users
• Team chat (for free internal calls between staff)