When you’re so fed up with playing phone tag that you’re finally going to do something about it, call forwarding is one of the best things you can do. With this feature activated, you can redirect calls from any landline or mobile phone to another number—so you’ll never have to miss an important call when you’re away or using a different phone again. 

While many people think call forwarding is only for businesses, this handy feature is available to anyone with a landline or mobile phone. Of course, sometimes there is a catch, which is that certain systems still require you to punch in a number manually to forward each call. 

However, there’s also a workaround. Namely, if you decide to make your public phone number a virtual one, then you can simply automate everything and even change your number whenever you want.

This is fairly easy to do with a virtual number, but if you don’t have one just yet, you can start by testing out how to forward calls the old-fashioned way. 

Old-School Dial *72

If you ever worked at a reception desk, you might already know that most landlines can forward calls. This process can vary depending on your service provider and location, but for calls in North America, it probably looks something like this: 

To activate call forwarding, simply dial *72, followed by the number you’re intending to forward calls to.

Although this method is pretty easy, it can be a hassle if you need to change the forwarding number frequently. For example, if you have an office landline that you want to forward to a cell number but you’re not at your office (or your office is closed), you’ve already run out of luck. 

To make matters worse, it might be the case that your service provider doesn’t offer this feature or charges fees on top of your normal plan to activate it. 

Therefore, while the old method can still get the job done at times, it’s not always practical or economical—especially when the alternative is to have an online number that can have its call-handling abilities modified or upgraded at any time. 

The Better Call Forwarding Option: Virtual Phone Numbers

Essentially, virtual numbers are phone numbers that aren’t tied to any specific phone line or device. These numbers exist in the cloud, can be changed at practically any time, and aren’t even limited to just one number. 

There are a few main reasons why someone would want a virtual number.

  1. Seamless Remote Work: With virtual numbers, you can forward calls from your office number to your mobile device, ensuring you never miss an important call, no matter if you’re at home, on the road, or even right there at your office.
  2. Efficient Customer Service: Imagine having a dedicated customer service number that can be forwarded to different team members based on availability, ensuring that customers always get the assistance they need. By setting up call forwarding rules to distribute incoming calls, that’s exactly what you can do. 
  3. Your travel desk: With a virtual number, you and your family can forward your home number to a temporary destination. This is a great solution for those times when you’re away and nobody will be home to answer the phone. 
  4. Quick custom routing: Since a virtual line operates via software, it’s easy to change settings and create your own rules for routing. For instance, you can set it up to forward calls to a cell number only during business hours, or you can have calls go to your voicemail after calling (and failing) to connect with a colleague’s phone number first.
  5. Private hotline: If you want to take calls on your cell phone but don’t want to share your personal phone number, you can set up and give out a temporary number that forwards calls to your cell. In this case, the caller won’t even know that you’ve kept your real number private. 

The methods for setting up call forwarding will depend on where you host your virtual number. Two good options are Nextiva for businesses, and Google Voice for personal users.

Forward Calls with Nextiva—Best for Businesses

If you’re interested in an extremely versatile and feature-rich virtual number for work purposes, a business VoIP service like Nextiva is a good bet. Nextiva has different plans based on the number of users and features you require, and they all include access to call forwarding. 

With Nextiva, you can choose to forward all calls or just certain calls in particular. You can decide to forward calls when you’re busy or when you can’t answer them. You can even forward calls within a specific region, which is useful when an entire office is on vacation or out of service, for example.

To set up any of these features, all it takes is logging into your Nextiva dashboard and enabling them as a user or admin (for system-wide changes).

Forward all calls

Nextiva keeps things simple for those interested in setting up automatic call-forwarding. Just dial *72 and enter the 10-digit phone number you want to forward calls to, followed by the # key. To deactivate call forwarding, dial *73.

Forward calls when busy

These settings may vary for users and administrators.

  • Admins: First, navigate to Users > Actions > Voice Settings > Forwarding > Call forward (busy). Next, enter the extension or phone number you intend to forward calls to. If you want to send calls to voicemail, enter *55 and the extension of the voicemail box.
  • Users: From the NextOS user home page, select Voice >Forwarding > Call forward (busy), and then enter the forwarding number.

Forward unanswered calls

  • Admins: Navigate to Users > Actions > Voice Settings > Forwarding > Call forward (unanswered), then enter the number you want calls forwarded to.
  • Users: Select Voice > Forwarding > Call forward (unanswered), then enter the forwarding number.

Forward specific calls (Admins only)

  • Admins: First, navigate to Users > Actions > Voice Settings > Forwarding > Call forward (selective). Next, enter the forwarding number and configure the other settings to specify the numbers and situations in which your service should forward calls.

Location forwarding (Admins of businesses with multiple locations only)

  • Admins: From your Nextiva dashboard, navigate to Communication > Phone System > Voice Overview > Manage Locations > Locations. Next, hover over the location and click Actions > Voice Settings. Remember that you’ll have to set a location’s working hours and holidays before you can configure the forwarding number to use when they’re not in the office.

For additional help with the many features associated with its call forwarding settings, be sure to check out Nextiva’s support articles.

Forward Calls with Google Voice—Best for Individuals

Your organization might already be using Google Voice as a VoIP service—in which case you would need to have admin access to set up call forwarding—but call forwarding works great on personal Google Voice accounts, too.

Follow the instructions below to set up call forwarding on your desktop or mobile device.

On your computer:

  1. Log into your Google Voice account.
  2. Click on the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner.
  3. Select Calls from the menu on the left.
  4. Under Call forwarding, click on Forward when unanswered.
  5. Choose whether you want to forward calls to all callers, contacts only, or a custom list.
  6. Click on Add forwarding number and enter the phone number you want to forward calls to. You can add multiple numbers if needed.
  7. Click on Save.

On your mobile device:

  1. Open the Google Voice app.
  2. Tap on the hamburger menu button (three horizontal lines) in the top-left corner.
  3. Select Settings.
  4. Tap on Calls.
  5. Under Forwarding, tap on Forward when unanswered.
  6. Choose whether you want to forward calls to all callers, contacts only, or a custom list.
  7. Click on Add forwarding number and enter the phone number you want to forward calls to. You can add multiple numbers if needed.
  8. Click on Save.

Once forwarding is set up, give yourself a ring from a different number to test that your calls are being forwarded to the correct number.

One of the standout features of Google Voice is that you can set up different forwarding rules for different times of day and different days of the week. You can also set up a simultaneous ringing feature, which means your Google Voice number and your other phone numbers will ring at the same time when someone calls you.

Be sure to check Google Voice’s help documents to see which settings work with your account.

Finally, once you’ve set up call forwarding with a virtual number, be aware that you may begin to wonder how you ever managed to go without it. As long as staying connected is your goal, using a virtual number is your solution—and you’ll never have to miss another important call again.