Ring for people you know, send strangers to the assistant

Dana keeps the books for about thirty small businesses. Her clients call her on her work number. New clients nearly always come by referral and email first. So when her phone rings from a number she doesn’t know, it’s rarely work. It’s someone selling a “business listing”, a recorded voice about her account, or a person saying they’re from the IRS.

She can’t switch her phone off, because the client with a payroll problem might be calling. And she doesn’t want to answer every stranger, because most of them aren’t clients.

Redtie now has a setting for exactly this. On any line you choose, people you know ring you as usual, and everyone else is answered by the AI assistant, which takes a message.

Start with a second number

This works best when your work calls come to a number that isn’t your personal cell. You give out the business number on invoices, your website and your van, so your personal number stays private, and if the business number ends up on a scam list, your family’s calls aren’t the ones affected. It also lets you set rules for work calls, like an assistant answering strangers, that would be wrong for your personal phone.

The scale of the problem is real. The robocall-blocking app YouMail estimates Americans got nearly 3.9 billion robocalls in September 2026, about 128 million a day, and that 46% of them were telemarketing or scams (YouMail).

What the setting does

Each Redtie line has a setting called Callers not in your contacts, with two choices:

• Ring me (the default). Every caller is handled the same way, just as before.
• Send to the assistant. A caller who isn’t in your contacts goes straight to the assistant instead of ringing you. People you know still ring you.

It works together with the line’s When it answers setting:

• Off: people you know ring only you; everyone else gets the assistant.
• After no answer: people you know ring you first, and the assistant picks up if you don’t; everyone else gets the assistant straight away.
• Always: the assistant already answers every call, so this setting has no effect, and it’s grayed out.

Who counts as someone you know

Redtie treats a caller as known if their number is:

• in your Redtie contacts. A number Redtie saved automatically from an earlier call doesn’t count until you give it a name. Otherwise every repeat robocaller would count as “known”.
• a number you called from Redtie in the last 30 days, so the plumber you rang this morning can call you back.
• one of your own verified cell numbers.

Hidden or private numbers count as not in your contacts. And if Redtie can’t finish the check quickly (within 0.8 seconds), the call rings you.

Numbers you’ve blocked are still rejected before any of this happens.

What the caller hears

The caller hears your line’s normal assistant greeting, the same as on a line set to answer every call. The assistant says it’s an AI assistant, asks who’s calling and what they need, and takes a message. Unless your instructions for the line say otherwise, it also asks for a callback number and reads it back to check it.

The caller is never told about the rule. Nobody hears “you’re not in my contacts”.

What you get

• A summary of the call, by email, or by text with a link if you opt in. The email says the caller wasn’t in your contacts, so it didn’t ring you.
• A “Not in your contacts” label on the call in your Activity in the web console, so you can see why the assistant took it.
• Quiet on the junk. When the assistant judges a call to be spam, or the caller never says a word (common with robocalls), you don’t get a summary for it. It’s still listed in your Activity.

If a stranger turns out to be someone you want to hear from, add them to your contacts. Next time, they ring you.

How to set it up

1. Sign in to the web console at phone.getredtie.com.
2. Under Lines, pick the line.
3. In the Assistant section, set When it answers to Off or After no answer.
4. Under Callers not in your contacts, choose Send to the assistant.
5. Check your contacts. Add the people who should always reach you, and give a name to any numbers Redtie saved automatically that you want to ring through.

It’s a setting on the line, so it applies to every call to that line. You turn it on in the web console or in the Mac desktop app (from version 0.8.6), and it then applies wherever you answer that line’s calls. The iPhone and Android apps don’t show the switch yet.

When not to use it

This setting is for a line where the people who matter are mostly people you already know. It’s the wrong choice when new people are the point.

• The number on your ads, listings or website. If you advertise a number to win new customers, almost every good call is from a stranger. Sending them all to the assistant means a new customer never reaches you live. Keep that line on Ring me, with When it answers set to After no answer, so you get the call first and the assistant catches the ones you miss.
• When you’re waiting on a call from a new number. A new tenant, a doctor’s office, a pharmacy, a bank, or a buyer you’ve never spoken to will reach the assistant unless they’re in your contacts. Add them first, or switch back to Ring me for the day. Offices often call from a hidden or different number, which goes to the assistant even if you saved their main one.
• If you never save contacts. Then almost everyone is a stranger, and the line behaves like one where the assistant answers every call.

A simple pattern: one line for existing clients or tenants with Send to the assistant, and a separate line for new business with Ring me. Each line is its own number with its own settings.

What it won’t do

This helps screen scam, spam and robocalls. It won’t catch all of them, and here’s why.

• Caller ID can be faked. The FTC warns that scammers can make any name or number show up on your caller ID (FTC). If a scammer fakes a number that’s in your contacts, that call rings you like any other call from that contact.
• A familiar voice can be faked too. The FTC warns that scammers can clone a family member’s voice from a short audio clip. Its advice: don’t trust the voice; call the person back on a number you know is theirs (FTC).
• Some calls still ring you. The assistant has usage limits, such as how many times one number can reach it in an hour. When a limit is hit, the call rings you instead of being dropped.
• Calling a number back makes it known. If you return a missed call from a scammer, that number counts as someone you called for the next 30 days, and rings you.
• Strangers aren’t all scammers. A real customer who isn’t in your contacts gets the assistant, not you. That’s the trade.

The red flags stay the same whoever answers. Only scammers insist on payment by wire transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency or a payment app, and you shouldn’t press any number on a robocall to speak to a live operator (FTC). For calls on your other phones, ask your carrier what call-blocking or call-labeling services it offers. The FTC notes that call blocking might block some calls you want (FTC).

Where Redtie fits

Redtie is a work phone line with an AI assistant built in.

• A separate business number in the area code you choose, so your personal cell stays private.
• You choose when the assistant answers, line by line: Off, After no answer, or Always.
• Spam is labeled, and you aren’t pinged about it.
• Block a number from its call details.
• Up to five lines on one account, each with its own settings. Current pricing is in the pricing section.
• A 7-day free trial when you sign up on the web.

What it isn’t:

• It isn’t scam protection. It helps you screen calls, with the limits above.
• It’s for calls. Redtie can text you the summaries if you opt in; it doesn’t text your callers.
• It may not support 911 or other emergency calls (terms). Keep your regular phone for emergencies.

Try it on one line

Pick the line where most good calls come from people you already know. Save those people as contacts, turn on Send to the assistant, and read the summaries for a week. If a stranger you wanted got through to the assistant, save them, and they’ll ring you next time.

See how Redtie works as an AI receptionist for small business, or read should you answer calls from unknown numbers?