Weave Call Forwarding: After-Hours Calls to an AI Receptionist

Weave call forwarding runs through a feature called Call Routes, and the specific step that sends a call anywhere outside Weave is Forwarding Number. Most dental offices build it under a Phone Hours step's Closed branch, so calls forward to an AI receptionist only when the front desk is closed, with a second route handling calls nobody answers during the day.

Get the caller ID setting wrong on that one step, and your AI receptionist can still answer the phone while quietly losing the ability to recognize a returning patient. That single dropdown is the difference between a forwarding setup that works and one that looks like it works, and the stakes are real: a missed after-hours call from a new patient is worth roughly $5,000 in first-year production if it converts.

Before You Start

Where it lives. The current setup is in the Weave app (desktop or web, at app.getweave.com) under Settings (gear icon, top right), then Phone, then Call Routes. The Weave mobile app can create Overrides and choose which routes ring a phone, but the full Call Routes canvas is a desktop and web feature.

Who can do it. Weave's own help articles do not fully agree on which role is required. The safe answer, across every article, is a Super Admin. Multi-location practices need Parent Account access specifically: a Super Admin on one location alone cannot edit call routes.

What you need before you start. The destination number for your AI receptionist, and a clear sense of your actual office hours, including lunch breaks, since each break gets its own branch in Weave's Call Routes canvas.

If your Weave screens still show Main Line or Departments instead of a visual Call Routes canvas, you are on an older layout. Ask Weave Support to confirm the equivalent steps before following the walkthrough below. Enamly's own team configures this forwarding step with a practice directly during onboarding, so you are never doing this alone the first time.

How to Set Up Weave Call Forwarding to an AI Receptionist

After-hours forwarding: the setup most dental offices use

This is the core pattern: calls ring the front desk during office hours and go straight to the AI receptionist once the office is closed. It is the same coverage gap a traditional after-hours answering service is built to fill, except here the AI receptionist can check real availability and book the visit instead of taking a message.

1. In the Weave app, click Settings, then Phone, then Call Routes. Select the route your main number follows, or click Create Call Route.
2. If the route has no Phone Hours step yet, click the plus icon and add one. Check the boxes for your open days, add any breaks, and click Done. Weave's default is Monday through Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM, so set yours to match your real schedule.
3. Under the Closed branch that Phone Hours creates, click the plus icon and add a Forwarding Number step.
4. Configure the step: select or enter the AI receptionist's number, set Ring Duration, and set Forwarded Caller ID to the caller's own number, not your office number. More on why below.
5. Click Save Changes. Weave does not save automatically.
6. Test the route using its internal extension before pointing your real number at it.

Forwarding when nobody answers during office hours

If you want unanswered daytime calls to overflow to the AI receptionist instead of ringing out, build this under the Open branch: a Call Group step that rings the front desk, followed by a Forwarding Number step.

Set the ring timing on the Call Group itself, at Settings, Phone, Call Groups, by dragging each device's slider. Weave counts roughly 6 seconds per ring, so about 3 to 4 rings works out to somewhere around 18 to 24 seconds before the call rolls to the AI receptionist.

Forwarding for holidays and closures

Weave's Phone Hours are a weekly pattern, not a date-based one, so a one-off closure needs a different feature: Overrides. Go to Settings, Phone, Overrides, click Create Override, choose Forward Call, and enter the AI receptionist's number with optional start and end times. A yellow banner appears across your Weave desktop app whenever an override is live, so you always know it is active.

The Caller ID Setting That Decides Whether Your AI Receptionist Actually Works

Weave's Forwarding Number step lets you choose whether a forwarded call shows your office number or the caller's own number, and Weave's own help article labels the office number "(Recommended)." For an AI receptionist, pick the opposite: the caller's number.

The caller's number is how an AI receptionist like Enamly recognizes a returning patient and puts the right callback number on every task it hands to your team. If Weave passes your office number instead, every forwarded call looks identical to the AI receptionist, no matter who is actually calling. Confirm it by placing a test call from your own cell phone and checking what number shows up on the other end.

Gotchas That Silently Stop Calls From Reaching Your AI Receptionist

A handful of Weave behaviors cause forwarding to quietly stop working, weeks after you set it up:

• "Ring until answered" removes your safety net. That ring-duration option blocks any step from being added after it. Use a fixed duration and add a Voicemail step behind the Forwarding Number step instead.
• Voicemail is a dead end. Weave calls it a "Terminal Step." No routing can happen after it, so a Forwarding Number step has to sit above Voicemail in the route, never below it.
• An active Voicemail Override bypasses everything. Weave allows only one override per location, and a leftover lunch or holiday voicemail override silently blocks every call from ever reaching your forwarding step. Check for a stray override before you assume forwarding is broken.
• Adding a Phone Hours or Phone Tree step in the middle of a route wipes everything below it. Build your Phone Hours step first, then add the branches underneath it.
• Nothing saves automatically, and Undo is total. Clicking Undo Changes erases every unsaved edit since your last save, and that cannot be reversed.
• Each phone number follows exactly one route. Every published number, including second lines and tracking numbers, needs to sit on the route that has your AI receptionist forwarding configured, or those calls skip it entirely.

Steps checked against Weave's own Call Routing Guide and Forwarding Number step documentation, October 2026.

Does Weave Have an AI Receptionist?

Yes. Weave acquired TrueLark in 2025 for $35 million and has since rebuilt it into a native Call Routes step called AI Voice Receptionist, currently sold as early access. It books directly into Open Dental, Dentrix, and Eaglesoft, with usage managed in monthly credit increments per location, and Weave has not published a standalone price for it.

Weave requires its own AI step to have a fallback, such as a Call Group or Voicemail, directly beneath it in the route. A third-party AI receptionist connects through the same Forwarding Number step this guide covers instead, and books directly into a wider set of practice management systems; see Enamly's integrations page for the full list.

For a full side-by-side on features, PMS support, and pricing approach, see our comparison of Weave's AI Receptionist against Enamly.

Already Using Weave's AI Receptionist? How to Switch

Switching away from Weave's own AI Voice Receptionist step does not mean leaving Weave as your phone system. The entire change happens inside one call route: you remove the AI Voice Receptionist step and replace it with the Forwarding Number step this guide already walked through.

Before you cancel

Weave's Terms of Service state that an Order with a stated Subscription Term binds you to pay for that full term "whether you use the Service, or not," and that terms of one year or longer auto-renew unless you give Weave 30 days' notice before the term ends.

If your Order has no stated term, you need to cancel at least 30 days before your next billing date to avoid being charged again. Cancellation terms for the AI Receptionist add-on specifically are not published separately; your order form governs those.

What to keep before you switch

Export what you need before the add-on ends. Weave's Call History screen offers a "Download Recording" option per call and a spreadsheet export of your call history. AI call transcripts live under Calls, then Call History, filtered to the AI Receptionist user, with a line-by-line transcript available per call. A bulk transcript export is not documented, so pull anything you want to keep manually.

Weave's own Terms also note that recording stays enabled on your account "until you either discontinue the use of the AI Voice Service or actively contact a Weave representative" to turn it off, so decide what you want your recording setting to be after the switch.

Call recordings and transcripts are patient data, so handle the export the same way you would any other PHI; see our HIPAA compliance checklist for AI dental receptionists for what to verify with any vendor touching that data.

The switch, step by step

1. Export your call history and any recordings or transcripts you want to keep. Screenshot your current call route as a rollback reference.
2. In the same route, remove the AI Voice Receptionist step from the Open or Closed branch, and add a Forwarding Number step pointed at the new AI receptionist's number. Set Forwarded Caller ID to the caller's own number, then click Save Changes.
3. Review Settings, Messaging, Manage Auto-Messages for any auto-reply still set to "AI Receptionist (SMS)." You may want your prior missed-call text turned back on.
4. End the AI Receptionist add-on through Settings, Subscriptions, AI Receptionist, Manage Subscription, following whatever notice period your order form requires.

On the receiving end, an AI receptionist like Enamly is built and tested on its own number first, so patients are completely unaffected while you test. Most practices are ready to test within 48 to 72 hours of their kickoff call, and forwarding only switches over once the practice confirms it sounds right.

When staying with Weave's AI Receptionist makes sense

If your practice is already deep into Weave's broader platform, chat and text automation included, and your PMS is one of the three Weave currently books directly into, staying put avoids any switching cost at all. The honest tradeoff is PMS breadth: Weave's direct booking currently covers Open Dental, Dentrix, and Eaglesoft, with some other systems limited to SMS-only or appointment requests rather than full booking.

Test Your Weave Call Forwarding Before Patients Do

Run three test calls before you trust the route with real patients:

1. Call during open hours and let it ring out. It should reach your AI receptionist after the number of rings you configured.
2. Call after hours. The AI receptionist should answer immediately, with no ring delay.
3. Call from a personal cell phone and ask what number shows up on the other end. It should be your cell number, not your office number. That confirms the caller ID setting from earlier is correct.

Key Takeaways

• Weave call forwarding runs through the Forwarding Number step inside Call Routes, built under a Phone Hours step's Closed branch for after-hours coverage.
• Set Forwarded Caller ID to the caller's own number, not your office number, or your AI receptionist loses the ability to recognize returning patients.
• Overrides handle one-off holidays and closures; Phone Hours only handle a repeating weekly schedule.
• Weave's own AI Voice Receptionist is sold as a separate add-on, currently early access, and switching away from it is a one-step change inside the same call route.
• Always run the 3-call test, open hours ring-out, after hours, and a cell-phone caller ID check, before trusting forwarding with real patients.

Dr. Bethel Ozumba, known as Dr. B-Bay, is the Founder and CEO of Enamly. He practiced as a general dentist and built his own practice to $1.3M in its first year before selling it in 2025 to build AI infrastructure for dental practices full time. Read more about Dr. B-Bay.