Teach Zinley to answer

This is where you decide who Zinley is on the phone — how it opens, how it sounds, what it does with a stranger, and when it's allowed to interrupt you. Set it once globally, and override it per line when a number needs its own personality.

Or just talk it through

You don't have to fill in forms. At the top of Personality & voice there's Set it up by talking — a two-minute voice chat with your agent. Talk however you like: how you want it to sound, what it should never promise, when it should call you. It turns the conversation into suggested settings, and you review everything before it's saved.

Global settings vs. per-line overrides

Your phone settings live at two levels:

• Global — the defaults every line uses.
• Per line — one number's own version, for when Work should sound different from Personal.

Overrides are per section, not all-or-nothing. There are four sections, and each one inherits from global independently:

So a line can use its own voice while still inheriting your global inbound rules. Edit a field on a line and that section stops inheriting; leave it alone and it keeps tracking whatever you change globally.

Identity — the greeting

Choose how Zinley opens with someone — the First-call greeting:

• Improvise — it improvises a friendly opener with people it hasn't met.
• Professional — brief and businesslike.
• My own words — write the exact opening line yourself, up to 300 characters.

Voice & persona — how it sounds

• Voice — 30 voices to choose from. Each one has a preview: tap play and hear the same sample line before you commit, so you can compare them fairly.
• Personality — free text describing the vibe (up to 200 characters), e.g. "friendly, a little dry, never pushy."
• Response style — Concise, Conversational, or Detailed.
• Custom instructions — the long-form brief: anything specific Zinley should know or do on calls, up to 4,000 characters.
• Primary language — the language it speaks by default. It still adapts to regular callers over time.
• Reasoning model — how hard it thinks during a call. Which models you can pick here depends on your plan; see Plans & limits.

Inbound handling — what it does with callers

• Unknown callers — plain-language instructions for people Zinley doesn't recognize (up to 200 characters), e.g. "screen calls first — ask who's calling and why," or "be warm, take a message, don't commit to anything."
• Message detail — Basic (who called, what about) or Thorough (full context, names, numbers, next steps).
• Call transfer — on or off. When on, add the numbers Zinley is allowed to transfer to (up to 20). Anything not on the list won't be dialed.
• Auto-block after a call — On, Suspicious only, or Off. Determines whether Zinley adds a caller to your block list once the call ends. Every auto-block can be undone; see Trusted & blocked callers.
• Escalation phone — a number Zinley can call you on when something genuinely can't wait.
• Notification email — where post-call summaries land.

Escalation is a phone call to you, not a notification. Only set it if you want your phone to ring for urgent things. Leave it empty and Zinley sticks to summaries.

Two settings that apply everywhere

These are account-wide — they cover phone and email, so you set them once on your global agent settings, not on an individual line.

When it acts for you

How Zinley handles an action that reaches out into the world — sending a reply, booking a slot, promising a callback.

• Show me first (the default) — Zinley collects what it wants to do into a proposal and waits for your approval. You'll find these in Inbox and on the relevant Topic.
• Just do it — it acts immediately and tells you afterwards.

Temporary instructions

Standing rules with an expiry date, so you don't have to remember to remove them. Type the rule, pick an Expires date, and add it.

• Type @ to mention someone from People so Zinley knows exactly who the rule is about — "If @Tri calls about the meeting, offer next Tue afternoon."
• It applies on every call and email until the date you set, then disappears on its own.
• Remove one early with the ✕ next to it.

Set it up by talking

You don't have to fill in every field by hand. Ask Zinley in chat or by voice:

"Answer my calls a bit more formally, and always take a thorough message."

"For my Work line, use a different voice and don't transfer calls to anyone."

It'll apply the change and tell you what it set.

Your agent's contact card

The name, tagline, bio, theme, avatar, and public link people see when they look your agent up live on the Agent Contact Card — see Agent contact card.

Related

• Phone lines — which line uses which settings.
• Trusted & blocked callers — who gets the full agent, who gets refused.
• Making & receiving calls — how these settings play out on a real call.
• Agent contact card — your agent's public front door.
• Email settings — the same decision autonomy, on the email side.