Diverting your business number to an AI receptionist takes about a minute, costs nothing to set up, and needs no engineer, no new SIM and no app. Most people put it off because "sorting the phones" sounds like a job. It's a short code dialled from your own handset.

Here are the actual codes, what each one does, and the two decisions worth getting right before you dial.

What diverting actually does

Call diversion — call forwarding, same thing — is a feature built into every UK mobile and landline network. It redirects incoming calls from your number to another number, and it happens on the network, before the call ever reaches your handset.

Two consequences matter. First, your customers never see a new number: they ring the number on your van, your website and your Google listing exactly as before. Nothing on your marketing changes, ever. Second, because it's the network doing the work, it keeps working when your phone is dead, out of signal, or sat in the van overnight. That's the opposite of an app-based solution, which needs your phone alive to do anything.

The decision that actually matters: all calls, or only the ones you miss?

This is the only real choice, and most people get it right first time once it's laid out.

Divert everything. Every call goes straight to RingSorted. Your phone never rings. Good if you're on the tools, driving all day, or you've simply decided the phone isn't going to run your day any more. You read messages when you choose.

Divert only what you miss. Your phone rings first. If you don't pick up within a set number of rings — or you're already on a call, or you're out of signal — the call diverts. You get first refusal on everything, and nothing falls through when you can't answer.

Most businesses want the second one, and it's the one people set up wrong, because "divert when I don't answer" is actually three separate conditions on the network: no answer, busy, and unreachable. Set only the first and a caller who rings while you're mid-call gets your voicemail instead. Set all three and you're covered.

The codes — mobile (EE, O2, Vodafone, Three)

These are standard GSM codes and work the same on all four UK networks. Dial them from the phone whose number you're diverting, exactly as you'd dial a number, and press call. You'll get a confirmation message back within a second or two.

Replace NUMBER with your RingSorted number (it's in your console, and we text it to you when you sign up).

  • Divert everything: **21*NUMBER#
  • Divert when you don't answer: **61*NUMBER#
  • Divert when you're on another call: **67*NUMBER#
  • Divert when your phone is off or out of signal: **62*NUMBER#

For the "catch what I miss" setup, dial the last three — 61, 67 and 62. That's the combination that actually covers real life.

To turn diversion off again:

  • Cancel one type: ##21#, ##61#, ##67#, ##62#
  • Cancel everything at once: ##002#
  • Check what's currently set: *#21#

That last one is worth knowing. If calls are behaving oddly, *#21# tells you exactly what your phone is currently doing rather than making you guess.

Setting the ring time before it diverts

By default, most networks divert after about 15 seconds — roughly four rings. That's usually about right. If you want longer or shorter, add the seconds to the end of the no-answer code:

**61*NUMBER**20# — divert after 20 seconds.

Networks accept 5 to 30 seconds, in steps of 5. Under 10 seconds and you'll barely get your phone out of your pocket. Over 25 and callers start hanging up before the divert fires, which defeats the point — a caller who gives up at 20 seconds never reaches your receptionist at all. Fifteen to twenty is the sweet spot for most people.

If you'd rather not dial codes

Every network has this buried in an app or settings menu, and it does exactly the same thing:

  • iPhone: Settings → Apps → Phone → Call Forwarding. Note this only offers divert everything — for the conditional diverts you need the codes above.
  • Android: Phone app → menu → Settings → Calls → Call forwarding. Most Android handsets do expose all four conditions here.
  • Your network's app: EE, O2, Vodafone and Three all have it somewhere under call settings.

The codes are faster and more reliable, and they're the only way to set the conditional diverts on an iPhone.

Landlines

Landline diversion works the same way but the codes differ slightly by provider, and — this is the part that catches people — it usually isn't free. Many landline providers charge for the forwarded leg of the call, and some require the feature to be enabled on your account first.

On BT, *21*NUMBER# sets it and #21# cancels it. Sky, Virgin and most VoIP providers do it through your online account rather than by dialling. If you're on a VoIP or cloud phone system, do it in the provider's control panel — that's both free and more flexible than network-level diversion.

Worth ringing your provider to ask what forwarding costs before you set it up on a landline. On mobile it's typically included in your minutes; on a landline it sometimes isn't.

Test it before you rely on it

Two minutes, and it's the step everyone skips.

Set the divert, then ring your business number from a different phone — not the one you diverted, which can behave strangely calling itself. You should hear RingSorted answer in your business's name. Leave a message, hang up, and check your inbox. It should be there within seconds.

If nothing diverts, dial *#21# to see what's actually set. The usual culprit is a typo in the number, or having set **61* only and testing by declining the call — declining registers as busy, which is **67*, not no-answer. That's why you set all three.

What happens to the call after it diverts

RingSorted answers in your business's name, in a natural voice, within a couple of rings. It asks the questions you've told it to ask — what the job is, the address, whether it's urgent — and a written message lands in your inbox: who, what, where, how urgent, and their number.

On the Plus and Unlimited plans, when a caller genuinely needs a person, it transfers them straight through to a number you choose. That number is yours — your mobile, your partner's, whoever's on call. It's a transfer to you, not a handover to a room full of our staff, because there isn't one. On the entry-level Lite plan there's no transfer at all: every call becomes a message.

If you want an actual staffed team answering as your business, that's TNS365, the company behind RingSorted, and it's a different service. We'd rather say so than let you find out later.

A note on diverting to a service you haven't heard

Don't take our word for how it sounds. Before you divert anything, ring 0330 9123 365 — that's RingSorted answering our own line. Leave a message and see exactly what your customers would get.

Then start a free trial, and dial three short codes. Your diversion is reversible with ##002# at any time, so the whole thing costs you a minute to try and a second to undo.