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A phone call test runs your agent over real telephony, so you can validate what a web call can’t: carrier audio quality, network latency, DTMF menu navigation, and live call transfers. Run one as a final check before you take the agent live.
Phone testing needs a phone number attached to your agent. The test call runs whichever agent version the number is bound to: a specific version number, a tag, Latest Published, or Latest Created. Because Latest Created resolves to your newest version, published or not, you can dial a draft agent without publishing it first.

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Place an outbound test call

Have Retell call your phone so you can talk to the agent.
Newer workspaces have to pass identity verification before Retell will place an outbound call, including a test call. If yours hasn’t, the number’s page shows a verification prompt in place of the call button. See identity verification.
1

Attach an outbound agent to a number

On the Phone Numbers page, open a number you own and set your agent as its Outbound agent. Pick the version you want to test here: a numeric version, a tag, Latest Published, or Latest Created for your current draft.
2

Make the call

On the number’s detail page, click Make an outbound call, enter your phone number, and place the call. Set any dynamic variables in the same dialog so they render on the test call.

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Test with an inbound call

1

Attach an inbound agent to a number

On the Phone Numbers page, open a number you own and set your agent as its Inbound agent.
2

Dial the number

Call that number from your own phone. The call connects to the attached agent.

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What to check on a phone call

A phone call is where telephony-specific behavior shows up:
  • DTMF and press-digit: whether the agent navigates or responds to keypad input.
  • Call transfers: whether a warm or cold transfer connects. Transfers to a phone number can’t be tested over a web call.
  • Voicemail and IVR detection: whether the agent recognizes a machine and takes the action you configured. Detection only runs on phone calls, so this is the one behavior a web call can’t approximate at all.
  • SMS: whether a send-SMS step delivers, which also needs a real number.
  • Carrier audio and latency: how the agent sounds and how it handles delay over the network.
For example, if your agent transfers billing questions to a human and reads out a reference number for the caller to enter, place a phone test call, trigger the transfer, and confirm the handoff connects and the digits register.
After a test call, ask Conductor to review it and suggest fixes.

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Next steps