How to add more than one phone number to an apartment buzzer

You moved in with someone, or you got a roommate, or you are tired of being the only person who can let a delivery in. So you asked the building to add a second number to the buzzer, and they told you it cannot be done.

They are usually right, and the reason decides which of the options below will work for you.

Why your buzzer only holds one number

The panel in your lobby is a telephone entry system. Inside it is a directory: a list of units, and against each one, a phone number to dial. In the Mircom TX3 user guide, each resident entry has a name, a dial code and one phone number field. DoorKing’s 1834 manual programs one phone number against each directory code in the same way. When a visitor enters your code, the panel places an ordinary phone call to that number.

A panel can hold hundreds or thousands of entries, which is where the confusion comes from, but that is many units with one number each. There is no second phone number field for your unit, so the property manager has nowhere to type your roommate in. Can two people be on an apartment buzzer? answers that question on its own, and how to add a roommate to your apartment buzzer walks through the roommate case.

What are the ways to get more than one phone ringing?

Every approach has the same shape. You give the building one number, and that number is responsible for reaching everyone. What separates them is one question: when someone buzzes, does everybody's phone ring, or does one phone ring and the rest wait?

The one built for a shared apartment

The approach that answers the question you asked is a number whose whole job is being your apartment buzzer number. You give it to the building once, and it rings the roommates who are set to ring, all at the same time. Whoever is free answers and opens the door.

That is what BuzzMeBro is. Your apartment gets its own local number, up to 4 phones ring together when someone buzzes, and the first person to answer gets the call. It costs $9.99 a month for the apartment, not per person, or $95.00 a year.

There is nothing to install for the people receiving buzzes. The buzz arrives as an ordinary incoming call, and you press the door digit the way you always have. You use the website to set it up and add people.

The free routes, and where each one breaks

These are worth knowing, and worth knowing the failure mode of before you spend a Saturday on one.

Google Voice: can ring several phones, but not a free option in Canada

Google Voice gives you a number and can ring the phones you link to it, so on paper it fits. Google’s own help pages say the free personal plan is only available in the US, which rules it out for most Canadian renters without workarounds.

Two more things to check if you can get it. With Screen calls turned on, Google Voice asks callers who are not in your contacts to say their name before connecting, and a lobby panel cannot do that. And the door opens on a keypad tone that has to travel back through the service to the panel, which you should test from the lobby before relying on it. The full breakdown is here.

A landline: one phone, and a bill for a line you rarely use

This is the setup many buildings were first programmed around. The buzzer calls your suite landline, and the landline can forward to a mobile. It is plain telephone service end to end, so the door digit has a simple path back to the panel.

You are renting the line purely to receive buzzes, and basic call forwarding sends the call to one other number. Any service that tries numbers one after another has the same problem as a rollover: the visitor waits through each attempt.

Carrier forwarding: one destination, and it forwards everything

If the buzzer already rings your phone, you can forward it to your roommate. Bell, for example, explains that its Call Forwarding sends calls from the first ring, so your own phone does not ring at all, and that forwarding to another mobile can use that phone’s airtime. It forwards every call you get, not only buzzes.

The no-answer version rings your phone first and forwards only if you do not pick up. That is a rollover again. And the day you turn it off, you are back to one phone.

Asking the building: free, and still one phone

If all you need is the buzzer ringing a different person, do this and pay nobody. It is a routine request and here is what to send them.

It does not solve the shared-apartment problem. Whoever is on the buzzer is still the only person who can let anyone in.

Which one fits your apartment?

• Two or more people need to let visitors in. You need a number that rings several phones at once. Forwarding and rollover both make the visitor wait for one phone before trying the next.
• One person lives there and the buzzer rings the wrong phone. Ask the building to change the number and pay nobody. This is not a problem worth a subscription.
• One person, often out. No-answer forwarding to a partner or a neighbour may be enough.

How to set it up, whichever route you take

1. Find out what your buzzer dials today Go down to the lobby, press your unit, and see which phone rings. If nothing rings, the stored number is wrong or disconnected, which is its own problem to fix first.
2. Get the number that will replace it Whatever it is, have it in hand before you contact the building, and make sure it is local to the building.
3. Test the door digit before you switch anything Call the new number from a mobile, answer it, and press the door digit. Listen for the tone on the calling phone. If a keypad press does not travel through the new number, it will not reach your panel either.
4. Send the building one email Give them your unit number and the new phone number, and ask them to update the entry panel directory and confirm when it is done.
5. Test from the lobby Press your own unit from the panel, check that every phone that should ring does, and open the door once. Do not assume it worked because the call came through.

What none of this changes

Your buzzer will still be a phone call. Every option here works by changing which number the panel dials, because that field is the part of the lobby panel you get to influence. A fix that does not involve that field is a new intercom, and that is a decision for your building. What each route costs.