Connections (buddies)

Open Lounge Phone has no directory and no cold calls. Nobody can ring you, or a phone in your home, unless you said yes first. Connections (we also call them buddies) are how you say yes to people outside your own household or team, on your server or any other.

Your address

Everyone has an address that looks like an email address: handle@server, for example ana@hub.openloungephone.app or jesse@phone.example.com. You’ll find yours under Connections → Your address, with a copy button and a QR code to show someone in person.

Share it the way you’d share a phone number: in person, in a message, written on paper. There’s no way to look people up, so nobody can find you unless you tell them.

You can change your handle (once a day, in your account settings). Your old one stays reserved for you for 90 days, so nobody else can pick it up and pretend to be you while your connections catch up.

Asking to connect: knocking

To connect with someone, knock on their address: Connections → Add by address, type their address and, if you like, a short note (“It’s Ana from book club”).

• They see your knock under Knocks for you and choose Accept, Decline or Block.
• You’re told when they accept. If they decline, you’re not told: the knock simply expires after 30 days, the same as if they never answered.
• The app always says “If that address exists, they’ll get your request.” It never tells you whether an address is real, so nobody can use knocking to find out who’s on a server.
• If two people knock on each other, they’re connected straight away.
• Knocking is limited (10 knocks a day, one waiting knock per person) so it can’t be used for spam.

What a connection lets you do

Once you’re connected:

• Call each other from the app, from your own desk phone, or from a Lounge phone you’re signed in to.
• Leave each other voicemail when a call isn’t answered.
• See each other’s availability, if you both choose to share it (below).
• Call their household’s phones, when they let you. When someone puts you on one of their household’s phones (their kid’s phone, say), it shows up under their name in your app and you can call it. The other way round, each connection in your list says which of your phones can call them (“Can call your Kid phone”); change that on the phone’s page.
• Join each other’s rooms when you’re invited (see Rooms & 3-way calls).
• See your history together: each connection has a timeline of your calls and the voicemail you’ve left each other. Keep our history chooses how long it’s kept: 30 days, a year or forever (your space can set a shorter limit).

It works the same whether they’re on your server or another one: servers talk to each other directly, and the call’s audio goes straight between the two of you whenever the network allows.

Sharing when you’re free to talk

Under Connections, Share my availability shows your connections whether you’re free: a green dot when you’re available, nothing when you’re not. It’s off until you turn it on, and only your connections ever see it. On a Lounge phone, MENU 5 Open to chat does the same for the people around you.

Putting a connection on a kid’s phone

A kid’s phone never has an address, so nobody can knock on it. To let a grandparent or a friend on another server call your child’s phone, connect with them yourself first, then on the phone’s Manage page choose them under Add someone you’re connected with and set what they may do (call the phone, be called, ring through quiet hours). They then see the phone in their own app. If you disconnect from them, they’re taken off the phone’s list automatically.

See Family & quiet hours for everything else a kid’s phone allows.

Disconnecting and blocking

• Disconnect ends the connection quietly: neither of you can call the other until someone knocks again and it’s accepted.
• Block a person to stop their knocks and calls for good (until you unblock them).
• Block a whole server under Connections → Blocked (type its name, like spam.example) if unwanted knocks keep coming from one place. Server operators can block a server for everyone on their server too.

Calling a business: public lines

Businesses and organizations can publish a public line, such as orders@acme.example, that anyone can call without knocking first. Use Connections → Call a public line and type its address. If everyone’s busy you’ll wait in line and see your place, with the option to leave a message instead. Kids’ phones can never call a public line. More in the workplace phone system guide.