How to make a Toronto apartment buzzer ring two phones
Toronto lobby panels store one phone number per unit, so a buzzer cannot ring two phones on its own. The fix is to give the building one number that rings several phones at the same time. BuzzMeBro provides a number local to your building and rings up to 4 phones together, so whoever is free answers and opens the door.
You live with someone. The buzzer rings one of you. That person is at work, on the subway, or asleep, and your guest is standing in the lobby pressing a number that rings a phone nobody is holding.
It happens in a King West condo and a Parkdale triplex for the same reason, and the reason is not your building.
Why the panel only holds one number
The panel in the lobby is a directory and a dialler. Each unit gets one row: a name, a code a visitor presses, and one phone number. When somebody presses your code, the panel places an ordinary phone call to that number. The whole chain is here.
There is no second field. A Mircom TX3 in a Yonge and Eglinton tower and a decades-old panel in an Annex walk-up agree on this. One unit, one number.
So every real answer to this question works the same way. You point that one field at a number that rings several phones. The options, compared.
The Toronto part: the number has to be local
This is the step people skip, and it is the one that fails silently. Most entry panels dial out on a building line that is restricted to local calls. Give the building a number outside its local calling area and the panel will simply not connect.
The GTA local calling area covers 416, 647, 437 and 942 in the core, and 905, 289, 365 and 742 around it. A number from any of those is usually a local call from a Toronto lobby. A 604 number you kept when you moved from Vancouver is not.
More on out-of-province numbers and Toronto buzzers.
What actually works
| Approach | Rings both phones | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| A number built to ring several phones, like BuzzMeBro | Yes, at the same time | A monthly cost, and one message to your building |
| Give the building one roommate's mobile | No | One person becomes the doorman for the apartment |
| Carrier call forwarding from that mobile | No, it moves the call | The first phone stops ringing when the second one starts |
| Google Voice | Sometimes | The door digit often fails, which is the part that matters |
| A landline in the apartment | No | A monthly bill for a phone nobody uses |
The last three are on the list because people try them, not because they work. Why Google Voice struggles at the door.
How to set it up
- Get a number that is local to your building BuzzMeBro asks for your postal code and finds a number inside your building's local calling area. If there is nothing available for your address, it says so before it takes a card.
- Add the phones Everyone you add confirms their own number by text first, so the buzzer never rings somebody who did not agree to it.
- Send your building one message Property management changes the number on your unit. This is the one thing only they can do, and it is a single line in an email.
- Test it from the lobby Press your own unit number. Every phone should ring. Answer on one and open the door once.
Most Toronto buildings make the change in two to five business days. Your old buzzer keeps working the whole time, so there is no gap where nobody can get in. What to send them.
What this costs
BuzzMeBro is $11.99 a month for the apartment, not per person. Up to 4 phones ring on one buzz. Cancel any time. Get your number.
Questions people ask
Can my Toronto building just put two numbers on my unit?
No. The panel stores one number per unit and there is no second field to fill in. Property managers get asked this constantly and the answer is the same in every building, because it is the hardware rather than a policy.
Do I need a 416 number?
No. What matters is that the number is a local call from your building, and the GTA local calling area includes 416, 647, 437, 942, 905, 289, 365 and 742. A number in any of those normally works from a Toronto lobby.
Will my landlord let me change the number?
Almost always, because you are asking them to update a field they already maintain. Changing which number a unit dials is routine work for a Toronto property manager. Changing the panel itself is not, and you are not asking for that.
What if my roommate moves out?
Remove them and add the new person. The number on the buzzer never changes, so the building is not involved and you do not go back to them a second time. That is most of why a shared number beats putting one person's mobile on the panel.
Does everyone need to install something?
No. The buzz arrives as an ordinary phone call on whatever phone somebody already has, and the door opens by pressing a digit during that call. BuzzMeBro is set up once in a browser and after that it is just your phone ringing.