How to Make Your Buzzer Ring Everyone in the Apartment
To make an apartment buzzer ring everyone, change the one number stored in the entry panel to a number that rings several phones at once. BuzzMeBro gives your apartment a local number that rings up to 4 phones at the same time when a visitor buzzes. Whoever answers first can speak to the visitor and open the door. The building updates its records once.
The buzzer rings one phone in your apartment. That phone belongs to whoever set it up, and right now they are at work, or asleep, or in the shower. Your food sits in the lobby while three reachable people hear nothing. This is fixable, and the fix takes about ten minutes.
Why does the buzzer only ring one person?
Apartment entry panels store one phone number per unit. Mircom TX3, Enterphone, DoorKing, Aiphone, they all work this way. A directory that holds a thousand entries holds a thousand units, not a thousand numbers for yours. When a visitor selects your name, the panel dials the one number on file and waits.
So whoever owns that number gets every buzz, and nobody else hears a thing. Why your buzzer only rings one number covers the mechanics, and 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, and that is the last thing the building ever has to do. When someone buzzes, every phone registered to your apartment rings 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 usually 9, but each building sets its own.
A buzz arrives as an ordinary incoming call. There is no app, and nothing for your roommates to install or learn. If a phone can take a call, it can answer the door. Setup happens once on the website. If you want the long version with every route compared, the full guide to adding more than one phone number to an apartment buzzer has it.
- Sign up and get your number Start at the signup page. BuzzMeBro checks whether a local number is available for your area. If none is available right now, your building goes on a waitlist instead of getting a number from the wrong city.
- Add every phone Enter the number of each person who should hear the buzzer, up to 4 phones per apartment. Roommates, your partner, anyone who actually lives there.
- 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, and offices handle those every week.
- Test it from the lobby Buzz your own unit. Every phone should ring at once. Answer one and press your building's door key to confirm the door actually 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. It is a relay, not a group ring. If your roommate forwards the buzzer to your cell for the weekend, the buzz now rings you alone and their phone goes silent. One phone still carries the whole apartment, just a different one. Landlines have the same limit, and a landline cannot ring two phones explains why.
A second number on the panel: a slow rollover, where it exists at all
Some panels can store a backup number for a unit, and most cannot. Where the option exists, it is a rollover, not a group ring. The panel dials the first number, lets it ring out for 20 to 30 seconds, then tries the second. Your visitor stands in the lobby through that whole first attempt, and couriers rarely stay for it. It is still one phone at a time, just in sequence.
Google Voice: free, but the door often will not open
Google Voice can ring several linked phones at once, which sounds like exactly the right fix. Two problems. Personal Google Voice is not offered in Canada, so getting an account here means workarounds from day one. Worse, the door opens because a keypad tone travels back down the call, and services that re-encode call audio often mangle that tone. You answer the buzz, press the digit, and the door stays shut. 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 when the courier has already left.
| Approach | Rings everyone at once? | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| BuzzMeBro | Yes, up to 4 phones together | $11.99 a month for the whole apartment |
| Rollover second number | No. The second phone starts 20 to 30 seconds after the first | Visitors who give up waiting, and most panels do not offer it |
| Call forwarding | No. One phone at a time | Every buzz still depends on a single phone being on and answered |
| Google Voice | Yes, but the door digit often fails in transit | You answer and the door stays shut. Not offered in Canada |
What happens when someone buzzes?
A visitor finds your name on the panel and presses call. The panel dials your apartment's number, the one you gave the building. Every registered phone rings as 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 just stops ringing.
There is a quieter benefit here. Lobby panels call many numbers, briefly, from a line nobody calls back, and that is exactly the pattern carrier spam filters flag. When a buzzer rings a single cell and the carrier flags that call, the buzz goes straight to voicemail and the visitor gives up. With several phones ringing at once, one filtered phone does not sink the whole buzz.
What does it cost, and who pays?
BuzzMeBro costs $11.99 per month or $109.00 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 $9.08 a month, 24% less than paying monthly.
Some households keep a landline alive just so the buzzer has somewhere to ring. If that is your situation, what a landline costs just for the buzzer does that math 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. That is the point, and also the reason to keep the list short. 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 in about a minute, and the building never needs to know, because the panel keeps dialing the same number.
Your buzzer is old technology, and it is not going to learn new tricks. It 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 whole apartment instead of the one person who happens to be in the shower.
Questions people ask
How many phones can ring at the same time?
Up to 4 phones per apartment. When a visitor buzzes, all of them ring at once as an ordinary incoming call. The first person to answer speaks to the visitor and can open the door, and the other phones stop ringing.
Do my roommates need to install anything?
No. A buzz arrives as a normal phone call, so any phone that can answer a call can answer the door. One person sets it up once on the BuzzMeBro website and adds each phone number. That is the whole job.
Does my building have to approve this?
Your building stores one phone number for your unit, and updating it is routine. Handing the office a BuzzMeBro number is the same request as handing them a new cell number after switching carriers. The panel treats it like any other phone number.
What happens when a roommate moves out?
You remove their phone from your apartment's list and the buzzer stops ringing them. The building changes nothing, because the panel keeps dialing the same number. Compare that with the usual mess, where the buzzer calls someone who left two years ago.
Can everyone on the list open the door?
Yes. Whoever answers the buzz presses the door key on their phone keypad, usually 9, though each building configures its own digit. Anyone you add can let a visitor in, so only add people who live there.