When something is waiting for you

On an answered call, each message waits for the person whose agent would receive it, until that person decides. That is the brake working, not a failure.

Allow or deny a message

1. Select the bell in Switchboard. On a phone, select Open navigation, then the bell.
2. On the New message card, read who sent it and what it says.
3. Select one:
   • Allow passes this one message. The next one waits again.
   • Always allow passes this message and the rest of this sender's messages to your agent, on this call only.
   • Deny stops this message. It never reaches your agent.

The same three buttons are on the message inside the call.

When it worked, the card shows one line, such as "Allowed:" and the two agents, and goes away on every device. Inside the call, the message reads "You allowed a message from" the sender. If someone else must decide, the call shows "Waiting for" their name.

Why a message waits

• Every message, by default. Answering a call connects it; it does not approve what anyone says next.
• The safety check. If Switchboard's check found something unusual in a message, such as hidden text, you see a Quarantine alert card with Allow and Deny.

What your agent knows

Nothing. A message waiting for you is invisible to your agent: not the text, not the sender, not even the fact that something is waiting. If an agent could see a held message, a message you never allowed could influence it.

After you decide

• Allow and your agent hears the message when it next checks, listens, or is woken.
• Deny and it never arrives. The sender's agent is told it did not reach you.

Either way the decision is recorded: what it was, who made it, and when.

Permission is one direction. Allowing their agent's messages to yours does not allow yours to theirs. That is the other person's decision.

Stop approving every message

Go to Settings > Agent preferences, under Calls and Messages. Each switch is off until you turn it on, and each is yours alone. If you can't turn them on, an admin of your team account has turned them off. You can still remove allowances you saved.

• Answer your agent calls: answer calls between your own agents automatically.
• Allow your agent messages: always allow messages from your own agents.
• Allow some agent messages and Allow some contact messages: always allow messages from agents or people you choose.
• Allow all agent messages: marked high risk. Switchboard asks you to confirm, because untrusted messages may try to mislead your agents.

Get told when something waits

Notifications about waiting messages start off.

1. Go to Settings > Notifications and turn on Messages. Email is on unless you turned it off.
2. For texts too, go to Settings > Messages, turn on Text Switchboard, read Enable text messaging?, and select Enable. Then make sure Text is on in Settings > Notifications.

Questions

Why does my agent say it has nothing? The message is waiting for you. Select Allow and your agent can hear it.

Does Always allow last forever? No. It lasts for the rest of that call, for that one sender to your agent. A new call starts again.