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The simulator

The simulator is a pretend phone network. It lets you run campaigns, bots and hand-overs on your own computer with no carrier and no cost. It is on by default when the call service runs with TELEPHONY_DRIVER=sim.

What it is

Section titled “What it is”
  • Virtual people. Any number that starts with +1 555 and is not a test phone is a pretend person. For example +1 555 300 0000 to 0199. They answer, talk and hang up on a timer.
  • Browser test phones. +1 555 200 0001, 0002 and 0003 are phones you answer yourself in a browser tab.
  • A stand-in AI. The bots talk to fake-live, a scripted program on port 7459, not to a real AI.
  • A simulated carrier. With no carrier added, a carrier of kind Simulator is created for your company.

The simulator refuses every other number. A call to a number outside +1 555 fails with a not-found answer, so it can never reach a real phone.

If your workspace uses real carriers, the simulator is off. The page says “The simulator is switched off because this workspace uses real carriers.”

Do this: use the test phone

Section titled “Do this: use the test phone”
  1. Open /dev/test-phone in your browser. The screen is titled “Be a person’s phone”.
  2. Under Pick a test number, choose one of the three numbers, or type another in the +1 555 2xx range.
  3. Press Go online.
  4. Start a campaign or a bot call that dials that number. The page rings.
  5. Press Answer. The browser asks for your microphone.
  6. Talk. Press Hang up when done. Decline refuses the call.

To test an inbound number, use Call a number, enter your inbound number and press Call. See inbound numbers. The This session panel shows whether the AI is “Ready” or “Not set up”.

An online phone that stops answering gets a few seconds, then counts as no answer.

Do this: set the pretend people

Section titled “Do this: set the pretend people”
  1. Open Setup, then Numbers and carriers, then Simulator — local testing only.
  2. Under Who picks up, set how many out of every 100 calls are answered by a person (answer %), by voicemail (machine %) and busy (busy %). The rest ring out. The three must add up to 100 or less.
  3. Under How long, set the ring time and how long a person stays on.
  4. Write what they say when they answer, when they leave, their replies one per line, and the voicemail greeting.
  5. Press Save simulator. New calls use it.

The top of the section shows how many test phones are online, how many calls are live and how the pretend calls went so far.

What it proves

Section titled “What it proves”

That the parts work together: the dialer’s pacing, the compliance check before each call, call states, hand-overs from a bot to a Verifier to a person, recording, events and the screens. These run through the simulator in automated tests and in your own tries.

What it does not prove

Section titled “What it does not prove”
  • Anything about real carriers, caller ID trust, SIP or the audio path through FreeSWITCH.
  • How a real AI sounds, understands or follows the rules.
  • Answering-machine detection on real voicemail. In the simulator it works because the stand-in AI’s transcript says so.
  • The audio quality, delay or drop-outs of a real call.