Only ring for people you know

Each Redtie line now has a setting called Callers not in your contacts. Leave it on Ring me, the default, and every call rings you as it does today. Switch it to Send to the assistant, and people you know still ring you while strangers don’t. Their calls go straight to the AI assistant.

Who counts as someone you know

A caller rings you if any of these is true:

• they’re saved in your contacts, meaning ones you added yourself or synced in (not the ones Redtie creates automatically from past calls);
• you called them from that line in the last 30 days;
• they’re calling from a verified cell number.

What happens to everyone else

The assistant answers and takes a message, and you get an email summary of the call. These calls carry a Not in your contacts label, so you can see why they didn’t ring. If the contact lookup is slow or fails, the call rings you instead, so a slow lookup doesn’t send someone you know to the assistant.

Where to find it

The setting is in each line’s settings in the web console at phone.getredtie.com and in the Mac app, version 0.8.6. It isn’t in the iPhone or Android apps yet.

Tip: the setting works when the line’s When it answers setting is Off or After no answer. If it’s set to Always, the switch is greyed out, because the assistant is already answering everyone.

It’s a simple way to help screen calls on a number you give out widely. For the longer version, with how to set it up and when not to use it, read Ring for people you know, send strangers to the assistant.