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A standard Call Transfer connects the caller straight through to the destination. A Warm Transfer goes a step further: your agent places the caller on hold, dials the destination, privately briefs the person who answers on the conversation so far, and only connects the caller once that person accepts the handoff. If they decline — or never pick up — your agent returns to the caller and continues the call.

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How a Warm Transfer Works

1

Caller is placed on hold

The caller hears hold music while your agent reaches out to the destination. You can supply your own hold music or use the built-in default.
2

Agent dials the destination

The agent calls the destination from your Warm Transfer Rules. The same destination formats as regular transfers are supported: US phone numbers, pbx: / ext: extensions via a SIP Registration, and SIP addresses.
3

Private briefing

When the destination answers, your agent introduces itself, summarizes the conversation so far, and can answer questions about the call — all without the caller hearing any of it.
4

Accept or reject

The human accepts or rejects the transfer with their keypad or verbally (see below).
5

Calls are connected

On acceptance, the caller is bridged to the human and your agent drops out of the call. On rejection, the agent takes the caller off hold and continues the conversation.

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Accepting or Rejecting with the Keypad (DTMF)

At the end of the briefing, your agent tells the person who answered:
“Press 1 on your keypad to accept the transfer, press 9 to reject it, or let me know verbally.”
  • Press 1 — accept. The caller is connected immediately.
  • Press 9 — reject. The agent returns to the caller and follows your rules for what to do next (for example, trying a different destination or taking a message).
  • Respond verbally — saying something like “send them through” or “I can’t take this right now” works too.
Keypad confirmation is especially useful when the transfer lands on a busy team member or in a noisy environment — one keypress completes the handoff without any back-and-forth with the agent.
Keypad input isn’t limited to warm transfers: callers can also trigger regular transfers by pressing keys (for example, “press 1 for sales”). See Keypad (DTMF) Rules for how to set that up.

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Enabling Warm Transfer

Open your agent’s settings — in the Dashboard under your agent’s settings page, or in the Connect app in the agent editor — and find the Warm Transfer section.
SettingDescription
Enable warm transferTurns the feature on for this agent.
Warm Transfer RulesPlain-language rules describing when to warm transfer and to which destination — for example: “If the caller asks for billing, warm transfer to ext:1002.”
Hold Music (optional)An MP3 or WAV file (max 4 MB) played to the caller while on hold. Upload one in the agent settings, or via the API with Upload Hold Music. Defaults to built-in hold music if left blank.
Pass through caller numberWhen on (default), the destination sees the original caller’s number as the caller ID. When off, your agent’s number is shown instead.
Warm Transfer availability is controlled per organization. If you don’t see the Warm Transfer section in your agent settings, contact your administrator or service provider.

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Example Warm Transfer Rules

If the caller has a billing dispute, warm transfer to ext:1002.

If the caller asks for Eric, warm transfer to +15125551234.
First confirm with the caller that they would like to be transferred.

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What Happens If…

  • The destination doesn’t answer or is busy — the agent takes the caller off hold, lets them know, and continues per your instructions (for example, trying another destination or taking a message).
  • The human rejects the transfer — same as above; the agent returns to the caller.
  • The caller hangs up during the briefing — the agent informs the human before ending the consultation call, so nobody is left waiting on a dead line.

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Use Cases

  • Escalations: brief a support lead on the issue before connecting an upset customer.
  • Sales handoffs: pass a qualified lead to a rep along with everything the caller already shared.
  • Screening: let on-call staff accept or decline a call with one keypress before the caller is connected.