Can an apartment buzzer ring two phones at once?
An apartment buzzer cannot ring two phones by itself, because the lobby panel dials one stored number per unit. It can ring two phones if you point that stored number at a service that fans the call out. The distinction that matters is simultaneous ringing, where both phones ring together, versus rollover, where the second only rings after the first goes unanswered.
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The short answer is that the buzzer itself cannot. The useful answer is that it does not need to.
What the lobby panel is actually doing
When a visitor enters your unit’s code, a dial-out entry panel looks your unit up in its directory and places a phone call to the number it finds. In Mircom’s TX3 user guide and DoorKing’s 1834 manual alike, each unit’s entry holds one phone number. One row, one number, one call. This is why.
So the question stops being about the buzzer and starts being about the number. If the number you gave the building rings two phones, then pressing your unit rings two phones.
Simultaneous ringing versus rollover
This is the part worth getting right, because both get described as ringing more than one phone.
| Simultaneous | Rollover | |
|---|---|---|
| What happens | Both phones ring together | First phone rings out, then the second starts |
| Time to the second phone | None | The whole first ring cycle |
| Visitor experience | Normal call | Ringing, a pause, then more ringing |
| Typical source | A service built to ring a group | No-answer forwarding, or a backup number on the panel |
A rollover reads fine in a feature list. In a lobby it means the person at your door listens to your phone ring out and then hears ringing start again. A courier working against an app timer may leave before the second phone rings.
What can actually ring two phones together?
A few things can, and they are not equally good at the part that matters. Ringing two phones is the easy half; passing the door digit back to the panel afterwards is the half that decides whether anyone gets in.
A buzzer number: rings several phones, opens the door
BuzzMeBro gives your apartment its own local number. You hand that number to the building once, which is a single email to your property manager. When someone buzzes, up to 4 phones ring at the same time, and whoever answers first gets the call and can open the door. It is $9.99 a month for the whole apartment.
Nobody has to install anything to receive a buzz. The call arrives like any other call, and you press your building digit as usual.
Google Voice: rings linked phones, but not a free option in Canada
Google Voice can ring the phones you link to it. Google says its free personal plan is only available in the US. If Screen calls is on, it asks callers who are not in your contacts to say their name before connecting, which a lobby panel cannot do. And the door tone has to travel back through the service to the panel, so test it from the lobby before relying on it. Worth reading before you commit to it.
A business phone line with a ring group: works, and it is a phone system
Business phone services commonly offer ring groups that ring several phones at once. You are also setting up and paying for a small business phone system to answer your front door, and configuring one takes longer than fifteen minutes. Test the door digit through it the same way.
What cannot do it: plain carrier call forwarding. Bell, for example, describes its Call Forwarding as sending calls on from the first ring, so your own phone does not ring at all, and its No Answer Transfer as ringing your phone first and forwarding only if you do not answer. Either way, one phone rings at a time.
How can you tell which one you have got?
- Put both phones side by side Off silent, screens up, somewhere you can watch both at the same time.
- Have someone press your unit in the lobby Or go down and do it yourself, with the second phone left with someone upstairs.
- Watch which phone lights up first If both light up together, you have simultaneous ringing. If one rings out before the other starts, you have a rollover.
- Let it ring until it stops, once Time it. That tells you how long your panel lets a call last, which is the budget your setup has to work inside.
From our own door
- A buzz rings the people on the apartment who are set to ring, up to 4 phones at the same time, and whoever answers first handles it.
- The door digit is a tone the panel has to hear. When one press does not open a door, adding short pauses before the digit, or sending it twice, can; we built that fallback into our setup test.
- A phone’s voicemail never answers a buzz on our service: if one phone is off, the others still ring and can open the door.
Questions people ask
Can I get my buzzer to ring three or four phones?
Yes, with a service that fans the call out. BuzzMeBro rings up to 4 phones in one apartment at the same time. Plain carrier forwarding cannot do this, because it forwards to a single destination.
Why does the second phone ring so late?
Because it is a rollover, not simultaneous ringing. The system waits for the first phone to ring out before trying the second one.
Does simultaneous ringing cost more?
It depends on the service rather than being a premium tier. What matters is how the service is built: plain forwarding sends a call to one place, while a group ring dials every phone together.
Will both phones be able to open the door?
Whichever phone answers can open the door, as long as the service passes keypad tones back to the panel. The other phones stop ringing at that point, the same as any other call.
Sources
- Mircom, TX3 Telephone Access System User Guide - Keypad Configuration
- DoorKing, Model 1834 80 Series Telephone Entry System Installation/Owner’s Manual
- Bell, How to use Call Forwarding on my mobile phone
- Google (Google Voice Help), Identify Google Voice subscription types
- Google (Google Voice Help), Screen your Google Voice calls