How to add a roommate to your apartment buzzer

Somebody moved in. Maybe a roommate, maybe a partner, maybe you took over a lease. The buzzer still rings one phone, that phone belongs to one person, and now that person is the only one who can let anyone into the apartment.

It sounds small until the week they go away and you spend it walking down to the lobby for every delivery.

Why the building cannot just add them

A dial-out lobby panel stores one phone number per unit, not one per person. In Mircom’s TX3 user guide, a resident entry has a name, a dial code and a single phone number field. When someone enters your code, the panel dials that number. There is no second field to put your roommate in, which is why property managers say no even when they are being helpful. The longer explanation is here.

What actually works: a number for the apartment, not a person

The version that holds up over a whole lease is a number that belongs to the apartment rather than to whoever currently answers the buzzer. BuzzMeBro does that: the apartment gets its own local number, you give it to the building once, and up to 4 phones ring at the same time whenever someone buzzes. Whoever is free answers and presses the digit. It is $9.99 a month for the apartment, split however you like.

The part that matters for roommates is that nobody owns it. It is not on anyone's phone plan or tied to anyone's Google account, and when someone moves out you remove them without the number changing or the building being involved again.

How do you add a roommate, step by step?

1. Get a number for the apartment Start at the signup page with your postal code. BuzzMeBro checks that a local number is available for your building before you add a card.
2. Add your roommate’s phone Type in their mobile number. They do not have to accept an invitation or install anything. They get a text explaining why their phone will ring, and everyone already on the apartment gets a text that a phone was added.
3. Give the building the new number once Ask your property manager to store it for your unit. This is the message to send.
4. Buzz yourself from the lobby Both phones should ring at the same moment. Answer one, press the door digit, and check the door releases.

After that, the next roommate is the second step on its own. The building never hears about it.

Does the number have to be local to the building?

It should be. Many lobby panels dial out on a building line set up for local calls, and long-distance numbers are a separate setting the building may not have turned on. If the stored number is your roommate’s cell from another province, the buzz can fail before it reaches them.

In Toronto, a number in the GTA local calling area normally works, so the area code itself does not matter. Do you need a 416 number explains the rule. BuzzMeBro only hands out numbers that are local to your building, and tells you before payment if none is available yet.

The three free routes, and where roommates outgrow them

Take turns being the number: free, and one of you is always on duty

Email the building and ask them to change the number. It costs nothing and it works if one of you is home most of the time.

Every swap needs the building to make a change, and whoever holds the number is the doorman until they hand it over.

Forwarding: sends your whole phone, or arrives late

Plain call forwarding sends every call you get to your roommate, and your own phone does not ring at all. No-answer forwarding rings you first and forwards only if you do not pick up, which puts a full ring-out between the buzz and your roommate's phone. A courier on a timer may not wait through that.

Google Voice: rings you both, but its free plan is US-only

Google Voice can ring linked phones and needs one of you to own the account. Google says its free personal plan is only available in the US. And the door digit has to travel back through the service to the panel, so test it from the lobby before you rely on it.

What to do when a roommate moves out

This is the step that gets forgotten, and it has a real consequence. If the buzzer rings a phone belonging to someone who no longer lives there, that person can still let people into your building.

• If the buzzer rings their personal number, email the building and change it the week they leave, not the month after.
• If you are using forwarding, turn it off. Forwarding survives a move-out silently.
• If you are using a Google Voice or shared account, remove their phone and change the password if they had it.
• If you are on a service built for apartments, remove them from the apartment. The number stays, and everyone else keeps working.

How many people you can add

BuzzMeBro rings up to 4 phones per apartment. The limit exists because the product is for the people who live in one unit, not for a business. If you need more than that, you are looking at a building-level system, and that is a conversation with your property manager.