Calling

Overview

Whatomate supports WhatsApp voice calling with WebRTC-based audio bridging. Incoming calls are handled by an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system built using a visual drag-and-drop flow editor. The IVR plays greetings, collects DTMF input, makes HTTP callbacks, and routes callers to agent teams. Agents answer calls from the browser — no phone hardware required.

Visual Flow Editor

Drag-and-drop node-based IVR builder with 8 node types

Call Transfers

Route callers to agent teams with hold music

Call Hold

Put calls on hold with instant hold music and resume anytime

Call Recording

Record agent-caller audio as OGG/Opus, stored in S3

Outgoing Calls

Agents place outbound calls to contacts from the chat view, once the contact grants call permission

How It Works

1. A WhatsApp user calls your business number
2. WhatsApp sends a webhook with the SDP offer
3. Whatomate establishes a WebRTC peer connection and runs the IVR flow
4. The caller hears greetings, presses digits (DTMF) to navigate menus, and provides input
5. Based on the flow logic, the call is transferred to an agent team, routed to another flow, or hung up
6. An available agent accepts the transfer in the browser and speaks with the caller

IVR Flow Builder

IVR flows are configured from Settings > IVR Flows in the admin UI. The editor uses a visual canvas where you drag and drop nodes, then connect them with edges to define the call flow.

Creating a Flow

Each flow has:

• Name and optional description
• WhatsApp Account — which phone number this flow handles
• Active toggle — disabled flows are skipped
• Call Start toggle — marks this as the entry flow for incoming calls

Caution

Each WhatsApp account must have exactly one flow with "Call Start" enabled. This is the flow that runs when an incoming call arrives. If no flow is marked as call start, incoming calls will not have IVR and will be rejected. Enabling "Call Start" on a flow automatically disables it on any other flow for the same account.

Node Types

The flow editor provides 8 node types. Drag them from the palette onto the canvas, configure their properties in the side panel, and connect them with edges.

Greeting

Plays an audio message to the caller. The audio can be uploaded as a file or generated from text using TTS (text-to-speech).

Property	Description
Audio	Upload an audio file (OGG, MP3, WAV, etc.) — automatically transcoded to Opus
TTS Text	Type text to generate audio using Piper TTS
Interruptible	Config key interruptible — if enabled, the caller can press a digit to skip the greeting

The greeting node has one output (default) that connects to the next node.

Note

At playback time the player reads Ogg/Opus packets only, so every file under audio_dir (including hold_music_file and ringback_file) must already be Opus. Uploads through the UI are transcoded for you; files you drop in by hand are not.

Menu

Plays an audio prompt and waits for the caller to press a DTMF digit. Routes the call based on the digit pressed.

Property	Description
Audio / TTS	The prompt audio (e.g., "Press 1 for sales, press 2 for support") — config key audio_file
Timeout	Seconds to wait for input, config key timeout_seconds (default: 10)
Max Retries	Attempts on invalid/no input before following the max_retries edge (default: 3)
Options	Digit-to-label mappings (e.g., 1 → "Sales", 2 → "Support")

Output handles:

• digit:1, digit:2, etc. — one per configured option
• max_retries — followed once every attempt has been used up
• default — the fallback edge, used whenever no exact-match edge exists for the outcome

Connect each output handle to the appropriate next node.

Note

A timeout or an invalid digit does not produce its own edge — it simply consumes one attempt and replays the prompt. Only after max_retries attempts does the flow follow max_retries. If no options are configured, any digit is accepted.

The chosen digit is stored in the call context as last_menu_digit and as menu_<node id>, so later HTTP callback nodes can interpolate it.

Gather

Collects multi-digit input from the caller (e.g., account number, PIN). The collected digits are stored as a context variable for use in subsequent HTTP callbacks.

Property	Description
Audio / TTS	Prompt audio (e.g., "Please enter your account number") — config key audio_file
Max Digits	Maximum digits to collect, config key max_digits (default: 10)
Terminator	Character that ends input, config key terminator (default: #)
Store As	Variable name to store the input, config key store_as (e.g., account_number)
Timeout	Seconds to wait for input, config key timeout_seconds (default: 10)
Max Retries	Attempts before following the max_retries edge (default: 3)

Output handles: default (digits collected) and max_retries. As with Menu, a timeout just consumes an attempt — there is no timeout edge. The gather prompt is not interruptible.

Stored variables can be used in HTTP callback URL and body templates as {{variable_name}}.

HTTP Callback

Makes an HTTP request to an external API during the call flow. Useful for looking up caller information, validating input, or triggering actions in other systems.

Property	Description
URL	The endpoint URL, config key url (supports {{variable}} interpolation)
Method	method — GET (default) or POST
Headers	Custom HTTP headers, config key headers. Values are interpolated too.
Body Template	body_template — request body with variable interpolation (e.g., {"phone": "{{caller_phone}}"})
Timeout	timeout_seconds — request timeout (default: 10)
Store Response As	response_store_as — variable that receives the raw response body

Built-in variables available for interpolation:

• {{caller_phone}} — the caller's phone number
• {{call_id}} — the WhatsApp call ID
• {{last_menu_digit}} and {{menu_<node id>}} — the last Menu selection
• Any variable set by a previous Gather node

Output handles: http:2xx and http:non2xx. Network/transport errors also follow http:non2xx. Wire up a default edge as a catch-all if you don't want to branch.

Transfer

Routes the caller to an agent team. Once the transfer starts, hold music plays while agents are notified.

Property	Description
Team	The agent team to transfer to

When a transfer executes:

1. Hold music plays for the caller
2. A transfer notification appears for all online agents in the target team
3. The first agent to accept connects to the caller via WebRTC audio bridge
4. If no agent accepts within the transfer timeout, the call is terminated

Output handles: if the node has no outgoing edges it is terminal — the call ends when the transfer does. If you do connect outgoing edges, the node blocks until the transfer resolves and then branches on completed, no_answer, or abandoned, letting the flow continue (e.g. offer a voicemail prompt when nobody answers).

Goto Flow

Jumps to a different IVR flow. This is a terminal node. Use this to split complex IVR trees into reusable modules (e.g., a shared "Account Verification" flow).

Property	Description
Target Flow	The IVR flow to jump to

The target flow starts from its entry node. The caller's context variables carry over, and the jump is recorded on the call's IVR path for audit.

Note

A missing or invalid flow_id, a target that cannot be loaded, or a target whose Active toggle is off all log an error and end the call. There is no return stack — when the target flow finishes, the call finishes.

Timing

Branches the call based on business hours. Configure a weekly schedule with per-day enable/disable and start/end times.

Property	Description
Schedule	schedule — an array of { "day": "monday", "enabled": true, "start_time": "09:00", "end_time": "18:00" } entries

Output handles:

• in_hours — current time is within the configured schedule
• out_of_hours — current time is outside the schedule

Caution

The timing node has no timezone property — it evaluates against the server's local time. Set the process timezone (the TZ environment variable; docker/.env.example ships TZ=UTC) to match your business hours.

A day missing from schedule, a disabled day, or an unparseable start_time/end_time (which must be HH:MM) all route to out_of_hours. The end time is exclusive.

Hangup

Plays an optional goodbye message and terminates the call. This is a terminal node — it cannot have outgoing edges.

Property	Description
Audio / TTS	Optional goodbye message

Building a Flow

1. Click Add Flow and give it a name, select the WhatsApp account, and enable "Active" and "Call Start"
2. Drag nodes from the palette at the top onto the canvas
3. Click a node to configure its properties in the right panel
4. Connect nodes by dragging from an output handle (bottom/right of a node) to the input (top) of another node
5. The first node added becomes the entry node (marked with a green indicator). You can change this by deleting and re-adding nodes
6. Click Save to persist the flow

Example Flow

Below is a screenshot of an example IVR flow built in the visual editor:

Call Transfers

When a caller reaches a Transfer node:

1. Hold music plays for the caller
2. A transfer notification appears for all agents in the target team
3. The first agent to accept connects to the caller
4. The call is bridged — both parties hear each other through the browser

Note

Transfer timeout is configurable (default: 120 seconds). If no agent accepts, the call is terminated.

Call Hold

During an active call, agents can put the caller on hold by clicking the Hold button (pause icon) in the call panel. Hold music plays immediately to the caller with seamless audio continuity — no gaps or clicks.

• Hold: Stops the audio bridge between agent and caller, starts playing the configured hold music file on loop
• Resume: Stops hold music and restores two-way audio instantly

The hold button toggles between pause (hold) and play (resume) icons, with an amber highlight when the call is on hold. The status text in the call panel shows "On Hold" while held.

Hold music is configurable per organization from Settings > Organization > Calling. The default file is set in config.toml via hold_music_file.

Note

RTP sequence numbers are maintained across bridge and hold music transitions, so the caller's audio client never drops packets or experiences glitches during the switch.

Call Recording

When enabled, calls are recorded during the agent-caller bridge phase. Recordings are saved as OGG/Opus files and uploaded to S3.

To enable, add to your config.toml:

[calling]
recording_enabled = true

[storage]
type = "s3"
s3_bucket = "your-bucket"
s3_region = "us-east-1"
s3_key = "AKIA..."
s3_secret = "..."

Caution

Recording is S3-only. With recording_enabled = true but no S3 client configured, recording is silently skipped — nothing is written to local storage.

Recordings are accessible from the call log detail view, which generates time-limited presigned URLs for playback.

Note

Only the agent-caller conversation is recorded. The IVR portion (automated prompts before an agent connects) is not recorded.

Outgoing Calls

Agents can place outbound WhatsApp voice calls to a contact directly from the chat view. WhatsApp requires the consumer to grant call permission before an agent can dial them — so the flow is: request permission → wait for the consumer to accept → place the call.

Call Permission Flow

1. The agent sends a call permission request to the contact
2. The contact receives an interactive WhatsApp prompt and taps Accept (or Decline)
3. Once accepted, the agent can initiate the WebRTC call

Permission records track one of four states: pending, accepted, declined, or expired. Calling must be enabled for the organization (see Enabling Calling per Organization).

Endpoints

Both endpoints require the outgoing_calls permission (write to request, read to check).

Request permission

POST /api/calls/permission-request

{
  "contact_id": "uuid-of-contact",
  "whatsapp_account": "account-name"
}

Sends the permission prompt to the contact via the WhatsApp Messages API and stores a pending permission record. Response:

{ "status": "success", "data": { "permission_id": "uuid" } }

Check permission

GET /api/calls/permission/{contactId}?whatsapp_account=account-name

Queries the current permission status directly from the WhatsApp API. Response:

{ "status": "success", "data": { "status": "accepted" } }

Note

Permission grants can also arrive out of band — for example when Meta shows the consumer a call prompt on its own, or when a request was sent outside your configured calling hours. When the consumer replies to accept or decline and no prior request record exists, Whatomate creates the permission record from the reply so the grant is captured rather than dropped.

Placing the Call

POST /api/calls/outgoing

{
  "contact_id": "uuid-of-contact",
  "whatsapp_account": "account-name",
  "sdp_offer": "<browser WebRTC SDP offer>"
}

The browser generates a WebRTC offer; the server answers with an SDP answer and bridges the audio. Hang up with POST /api/calls/outgoing/{id}/hangup.

Call Logs

All calls (incoming and outgoing) are logged with:

• Caller phone number and contact name
• Direction, status, and duration
• Who disconnected the call (client, agent, or system)
• IVR flow traversal path (shown as a step-by-step trace)
• Agent who handled the call
• Recording playback (if enabled)

Filter logs by status, direction, account, or IVR flow.

Configuration

Add to your config.toml:

[calling]
audio_dir = "./audio"                  # Directory for IVR audio files
hold_music_file = "hold_music.opus"    # Hold music file (relative to audio_dir); this is the default
ringback_file = "ringback.opus"        # Ringback tone for outgoing calls (no default — falls back to hold music)
max_call_duration = 300                # Max call duration in seconds (default 300)
transfer_timeout_secs = 120            # Seconds to wait for a team to accept a transfer
per_agent_timeout_secs = 0             # Global default: seconds to ring each agent before rotating (0 → falls back to 15; a team's own setting overrides this)
recording_enabled = false              # Enable call recording to S3
udp_port_min = 10000                   # WebRTC UDP port range start
udp_port_max = 10100                   # WebRTC UDP port range end
public_ip = ""                         # Public IP for NAT (required on cloud/AWS)
relay_only = false                     # Force all media through TURN relay

# ICE servers (STUN/TURN) for WebRTC connectivity
[[calling.ice_servers]]
urls = ["stun:stun.l.google.com:19302"]

[[calling.ice_servers]]
urls = ["turn:your-turn-server:3478"]
username = "user"
credential = "pass"

TURN with HMAC shared-secret credentials

Instead of a static username/credential, you can point Whatomate at a coturn server running in use-auth-secret mode (the TURN REST API). Whatomate then generates a fresh, short-lived credential for every client — no long-lived password is ever handed out.

[[calling.ice_servers]]
urls = ["turn:your-turn-server:3478"]
secret = "your-coturn-static-auth-secret"   # matches coturn's `static-auth-secret`
credential_ttl = 86400                        # credential lifetime in seconds (default: 86400 = 24h)

When secret is set, Whatomate derives credentials on each request following the coturn REST convention: the username is the credential's Unix expiry timestamp (<expiry>, or <expiry>:<username> if you also set username), and the credential is the base64-encoded HMAC-SHA1 of that username keyed by secret. The generated pair is returned by GET /api/calls/ice-servers for browser peer connections and is also used server-side when the IVR bridge builds its own peer connection.

On the coturn side, enable:

use-auth-secret
static-auth-secret=your-coturn-static-auth-secret

Note

credential_ttl only applies when secret is set. If omitted or <= 0, it defaults to 86400 seconds (24 hours). Static username/credential servers ignore it.

Caution

On cloud providers (AWS, GCP, etc.), you must set public_ip to your server's public IP address. Without it, WebRTC candidates will advertise the private IP and calls will fail to connect. If running in Docker, use --network=host or map the UDP port range.

Caution

When using relay_only = true, do not set public_ip — it can cause ICE negotiation errors. The TURN server handles all media relaying.

Enabling Calling per Organization

Calling is enabled per-organization in the database. Set calling_enabled = true on the organization record to allow calls for that org.

Text-to-Speech (IVR Greetings)

Whatomate uses Piper for offline text-to-speech generation. When admins type greeting text in the IVR flow editor, the server generates OGG/Opus audio files using Piper + opusenc. This is optional — you can also upload pre-recorded audio files directly.

Install Dependencies

Piper requires the espeak-ng shared library at runtime, and opusenc is needed to convert WAV output to OGG/Opus:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt install espeak-ng opus-tools

# Fedora
sudo dnf install espeak-ng opus-tools

Install Piper

# Download Piper binary (Linux x86_64)
wget https://github.com/rhasspy/piper/releases/download/2023.11.14-2/piper_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
tar xf piper_linux_x86_64.tar.gz
sudo mv piper/piper /usr/local/bin/

Download a Voice Model

Piper voices are available at huggingface.co/rhasspy/piper-voices (mirrors at OHF-Voice). Each voice has a .onnx model file and a .onnx.json config file — both are required.

Choosing a voice:

• Browse voices and listen to samples at rhasspy.github.io/piper-samples
• Voices come in quality levels: low, medium, and high — medium is a good balance of quality and speed
• For US English, en_US-lessac-medium is recommended (~60MB)

mkdir -p /opt/piper/models

# Download model and config
wget https://huggingface.co/rhasspy/piper-voices/resolve/main/en/en_US/lessac/medium/en_US-lessac-medium.onnx \
  -O /opt/piper/models/en_US-lessac-medium.onnx
wget https://huggingface.co/rhasspy/piper-voices/resolve/main/en/en_US/lessac/medium/en_US-lessac-medium.onnx.json \
  -O /opt/piper/models/en_US-lessac-medium.onnx.json

Configure TTS

Add to your config.toml:

[tts]
piper_binary = "/usr/local/bin/piper"
piper_model = "/opt/piper/models/en_US-lessac-medium.onnx"
# opusenc_binary = "opusenc"  # defaults to finding in PATH

Test TTS

echo "Press 1 for sales, press 2 for support." | piper \
  --model /opt/piper/models/en_US-lessac-medium.onnx \
  --output_file test.wav
opusenc --bitrate 24 test.wav test.ogg
# Play: aplay test.wav  OR  ffplay test.ogg

Tip

Generated audio files are cached in the audio_dir (default: ./audio) using a SHA256 hash of the text. The same text always reuses the existing file, so regeneration is instant after the first run.

Firewall & Network

For WebRTC to work, ensure the following ports are open:

Port	Protocol	Purpose
10000–10100	UDP	WebRTC media (configurable via udp_port_min/udp_port_max)
3478	TCP/UDP	TURN server (if using relay)

Tip

If direct UDP connectivity is unreliable (e.g., behind strict NATs), set relay_only = true and configure a TURN server. This routes all media through the TURN relay at the cost of slightly higher latency.