Ring Your Mobile and Still Get Voicemail: Why Call Forwarding Breaks It
A common setup that quietly does not work: forward the business number to a mobile, then wonder why voicemail never arrives and why the mobile ring time cannot be changed. Here is what is happening and the setup that does what you want.
Last reviewed: September 2026
Why a forward loses your voicemail
When a call is forwarded to an external mobile, the call leaves the Click2Call platform. From that moment your mobile's own no-answer timer applies, and if nobody picks up it is your mobile carrier's voicemail that answers, not ours.
Two things follow, and both surprise people:
- The Call Ringing Time on your line does not control how long the forwarded mobile rings. That setting governs your line, not a call that has already left.
- Adding a voicemail step after the forward does nothing, because the call is gone before it gets there.
If you are trying to build a flow like *ring the app, then ring my mobile, then take a message*, plain Call Forwarding cannot deliver it.
The setup that works
Use Simultaneous Ring instead. It rings the mobile alongside your app while keeping the call on our platform, so our voicemail can still answer.
- Go to Voice then Line Manager, and click the number you want to change.
- Open Incoming Calls then Call Forwarding, and turn off any busy, no-answer or unreachable rules pointing at your mobile. While a no-answer forward is active, unanswered calls go to the mobile instead of voicemail.
- Open Incoming Calls then Simultaneous Ring. On Simultaneous Ring #1, tick Enable, enter your mobile number, and choose when it applies. You can set a delay in seconds so your app rings first and the mobile joins a few seconds later. Up to ten numbers can ring together.
- Open Incoming Calls then Voice Mail. Set Call Ringing Time (in seconds) to cover the whole ring period you want before voicemail answers, and enter an address in Send a copy of my voicemail messages to the following email address.
Two things worth knowing
Simultaneous Ring gives you one total ring period rather than a separate count for the app and then the mobile. You choose how long everything rings before voicemail takes over, not a precise handover between devices.
Check your mobile's own voicemail delay as well. If your carrier answers after 15 seconds and you have set a 25 second ring time here, your carrier will take the message before our voicemail gets the chance. Either raise the carrier delay or turn its voicemail off.
Still not behaving?
Email [email protected] with the number you are working on and what you hear when you test it. We can look at the line configuration directly and tell you what is actually set.