How to Make Your Buzzer Ring Everyone in the Apartment

The buzzer rings one phone in your apartment. That phone belongs to whoever set it up, and right now they might be at work, asleep or in the shower, while the rest of you hear nothing. This is fixable, and your part takes about ten minutes plus one email to the building.

Why does the buzzer only ring one person?

Dial-out entry panels store one phone number per unit. In Mircom’s TX3 user guide, each resident entry has a single phone number field, and DoorKing’s 1834 manual programs one phone number against each directory code. A directory that holds a thousand entries holds a thousand units, not a thousand numbers for yours. When a visitor selects your unit, the panel dials the one number on file.

So whoever owns that number gets every buzz. How apartment buzzers work covers the whole system. The short version: you cannot add more numbers to the panel, so you have to make the one number do more.

How do you make every phone ring at once?

You give the building a number that fans out. BuzzMeBro gives your apartment its own local phone number. The building stores it in the entry panel like any other number. When someone buzzes, the phones on your apartment that are set to ring all ring at the same time, up to 4 of them. Whoever picks up first talks to the visitor and presses the door key on their keypad. That key is often 9, but each building sets its own.

A buzz arrives as an ordinary incoming call. There is no app for your roommates to install or learn. If a phone can take a call, it can answer the door. Setup happens on the website. For every route compared side by side, the full guide to adding more than one phone number to an apartment buzzer has it.

1. Sign up and get your number Start at the signup page with your postal code. BuzzMeBro checks whether a local number is available for your building before you pay. If none is available yet, you are told before any card is taken, rather than given a number from the wrong area.
2. Add every phone Enter the number of each person who should hear the buzzer, up to 4 phones per apartment. Nobody has to accept an invitation. Adding a roommate covers the details.
3. Hand the number to your building Ask your property manager or condo office to put it on your unit's directory entry. It is the same request as giving them a new cell number. What to send.
4. Test it from the lobby Buzz your own unit. Every phone set to ring should ring at once. Answer one and press your building's door key to confirm the door releases.

Do the free options work?

Partly, and each one falls short somewhere specific. If you are choosing between them, the failure mode matters more than the price.

Call forwarding: it moves the buzz instead of multiplying it

Forwarding sends your calls to one other number. Bell, for example, explains that its Call Forwarding sends calls from the first ring, so the original phone does not ring at all. If your roommate forwards the buzzer to your cell for the weekend, the buzz rings you alone. One phone still carries the whole apartment, just a different one. Why a landline cannot ring two phones.

A second number on the panel: a rollover, where it exists at all

If your panel offers a backup number for a unit, check how it works. A rollover dials the first number, lets it ring out, then tries the second. Your visitor stands in the lobby through that whole first attempt, and a courier on a timer may leave. It is still one phone at a time, in sequence.

Google Voice: rings linked phones, but its free plan is US-only

Google Voice can ring several linked phones, which sounds like the right fix. Two problems. Google says the free personal plan is only available in the US, so getting one in Canada means workarounds from day one. And the door opens because a keypad tone travels back down the call, so any internet calling service needs testing from the lobby before you trust it with the door. Google Voice and apartment buzzers goes through it in detail.

One honest carve-out. If you live alone and the panel already has your cell on file, you may not need anything. This article is for the shared apartment, where one phone hears the buzzer and everyone else finds out after the visitor has gone.

What happens when someone buzzes?

A visitor finds your unit on the panel and calls it. The panel dials your apartment's number, the one you gave the building. Every registered phone that is set to ring gets a normal incoming call at the same moment. Whoever answers first speaks to the visitor, presses the door key, and the door releases. Everyone else's phone stops ringing.

There is a quieter benefit. Phones screen and filter calls in ways that differ from person to person, and a panel’s number is easy to catch by accident. When a buzzer rings a single cell and that phone screens it, the buzz goes straight to voicemail. With several phones ringing at once, one screened phone does not sink the whole buzz.

What does it cost, and who pays?

BuzzMeBro costs $9.99 per month or $95.00 per year, and the price covers the apartment, not each person. Four roommates pay the same total as one person living alone, so split it the way you split the internet bill. Paying yearly works out to $7.92 a month, 21% less than paying monthly.

Some households keep a landline alive just so the buzzer has somewhere to ring. If that is you, check whether your building really needs a landline before you renew it.

Who should be on the list?

Everyone who lives in the apartment, and nobody who does not. Anyone whose phone is registered can answer a buzz and open the door from wherever they are, so know who is downstairs before you press the door key. Who should be on the apartment buzzer has the longer answer, including subletters and dog walkers. When someone moves out, you remove their phone yourself, and the building never needs to know, because the panel keeps dialing the same number.

Your buzzer dials one number, and that is all it will ever do. So make that one number the smart part. Sign up, add everyone's phone, hand the number to your building once, and the next buzz reaches the roommates who are set to ring instead of the one person who happens to be in the shower.