Frequently asked questions

Marble Song answers phone calls that are forwarded to us (for example, if you miss a call). We gather information from the caller based on your customized account settings, summarize the information, and then email you the summary along with key information so you can make an informed callback.

Many people hang up when you miss their call and they get sent to voicemail. With Marble Song, they don't get sent to voicemail. Your missed calls are answered by us, we greet them with your business name, and we engage in a back-and-forth conversation to get the information you need to know and we let them know you'll call them back. Your time is valuable. Instead of listening to long, rambling voicemails, why not get the information you need in an email?

Marble Song works via call forwarding. When you sign up, we generate a new phone number on our side. Then, you choose if you want to forward all calls to us ("unconditional forwarding"), or only the calls that you are unable to answer ("conditional forwarding"). We walk you through configuring call forwarding with your carrier, which is usually an easy process that takes less than 3 minutes. After the call forwarding is configured, the forwarded calls come to the new Marble Song phone number. We answer the calls, greet the caller and ask them questions based on your customized account settings, then we send you the summary of the call by email.

Calls forwarded to Marble Song are answered by an AI-powered automated assistant, not a person. However, the assistant has a natural-sounding voice and holds a real back-and-forth conversation. The assistant tells the caller that it is an automated assistant and that it will record and transcribe the call. That notice is a built-in compliance requirement, it plays on every call, and it cannot be changed or removed by a custom greeting. From there, the assistant finds out what the caller needs, asks any custom questions that you configured, collects their name and a good callback number, and lets them know you'll call them back. The assistant doesn't transfer callers to a live person — its job is to capture the details so you can make an informed callback.

No. Marble Song is built for businesses of every size, including sole proprietors. If you don't have a separate business name, just leave that field blank when you sign up, and the assistant will answer your calls with your own name instead. You can always change the assistant greeting in your account settings.

No. No app is needed. The call forwarding setup does not require an app. You also don't need an app to view your call history, transcripts, and recordings. All of that is available on our online dashboard.

English only, for now. The assistant greets your callers, holds the conversation, and asks your questions in English, and your summaries and transcripts come back in English. We may add other languages later, but we have not set a date for it.

Yes, you can keep your number. We'll generate a new phone number for your Marble Song assistant, and you choose which calls to forward to the Marble Song phone number. You can choose to forward all calls to us, or only the calls you miss.

Yes, we can help. Setting up call forwarding for most phone carriers is a very straightforward process that takes under 3 minutes. We've created a setup page that will walk you through setting up forwarding for most major US phone carriers. If you ever get stuck, you can also email us at [email protected].

Call forwarding usually takes less than 3 minutes. After signup, we'll walk you through the steps of setting up the call forwarding, and we're always available at [email protected] if you run into any issues.

Almost all phone carriers allow you to do that. It's called unconditional forwarding, and we can walk you through it after you sign up. You're in control of which calls you forward to Marble Song.

Yes. You're in control of the forwarding process through your phone/cell carrier. If you ever want to stop forwarding calls to Marble Song, you can simply disable the call forwarding that you set up originally. For most US-based phone carriers, there is a code you can dial from your phone to disable call forwarding (for example, some carriers allow you to dial *73 to disable forwarding). Some smartphones allow you to enable and disable call forwarding in your phone app settings. Talk to your carrier to get more details on how to disable call forwarding.

Don't worry, we'll still receive the forwarded calls because the call forwarding will happen at your telecom/phone carrier, before the call reaches your phone.

No. We don't touch your old voicemails. When you sign up for Marble Song, your missed calls go to us instead of your voicemail box, but your old voicemails stay where they are.

Yes, you can customize the greeting in your account settings page.

Yes. In your account settings, you can define up to 5 custom questions that the Marble Song assistant will always ask. Separately, you also have the choice to allow the assistant to automatically generate clarifying questions on its own. For example, if the caller says they have a problem with their water heater, the Marble Song assistant may ask if it's a gas or electric water heater.

Every call is capped at four minutes, and almost all calls finish well before that. Once the assistant has the caller's name, what they need, and a good callback number, it wraps up and ends the call on its own. On the rare call that does run long, the assistant begins wrapping up at around three minutes and closes politely before the four-minute mark. The cap keeps your costs predictable — the service is built to capture a request and callback details, not to hold long conversations.

Yes. It runs automatically 24/7, ready to answer any calls you forward to it. There is no change in cost based on date or time.

Yes. That's not a problem.

Your assistant is built to spot spam and bot calls and to cut them short on purpose, so they use as few of your minutes as possible. When spam screening is turned on in your settings (it's on by default) and a caller turns out to be a sales pitch, a recorded message, a survey, or anything else unrelated to your business, your assistant stops asking your questions and politely ends the call instead of working through the whole list. Every call your assistant identifies as spam is clearly flagged as suspected spam in your call history. By default we don't email you about those calls — there is little point interrupting your work for a robocall — so they simply sit in your call history for whenever you want to look. If you would rather hear about them anyway, you can switch emails for suspected spam calls back on in your settings. Your assistant errs on the side of staying on the line: if it isn't sure, it treats the caller as a real customer, because missing a real customer costs you far more than a few extra seconds with a robocall. One more thing works in your favor: if you forward only the calls you miss, your own phone rings first — usually for twenty seconds or more — before the call comes to us. Many bots and spammers hang up inside that window, so many junk calls never reaches your assistant at all.

Yes. You can turn the feature on or off at any time in your account settings page.

Yes. If a call reaches your Marble Song assistant and is answered, the time it lasts counts toward your minutes — including a call your assistant flags as suspected spam. However, with spam screening, we keep those calls as short as we can: your assistant ends a spam call as soon as it's sure, and because you're billed by the second, a spam call that's ended early uses only the seconds it actually lasted.

Most call summaries are delivered within 30 seconds after the call ends.

You can provide up to 5 different email addresses for Marble Song to send the summary to. The summary will be sent to all of the email addresses at the same time.

Not at this time. Call summaries are delivered by email, and every call is also on your online dashboard. Most phones show new email as a notification, so a summary still reaches you in the field. You can send the summaries to up to 5 email addresses.

Yes, you can listen to the call recording on our online dashboard. The call transcript is included in the email summary, and can also be viewed on the dashboard. The call recordings are kept for 14 days.

Check our pricing page for pricing details. Your plan includes 100 call minutes each month, and we don't charge for additional time until you go past those 100 minutes. Separately, your phone carrier may also charge you for any minutes your callers spend on a call with Marble Song. Check with your phone carrier for those charges.

By the second. Each call is measured from when your assistant answers until the call ends, and we add up the exact seconds — we never round a call up to the next minute. The time your own phone spends ringing before a call is forwarded to us doesn't count. Your plan includes 100 minutes each month, and any time beyond that is billed at the per-minute rate on our pricing page, still counted by the second. The length of every call is shown in your call history on the online dashboard.

Your $20 base is billed at the start of each month. Any minutes beyond the 100 included are totaled once that month closes and appear on your next invoice — so additional minutes from your first month show up on the invoice at the start of your second month, alongside that month's $20 base. It's one invoice, not two separate charges. If you cancel, any additional minutes you've used since your last invoice appear on a final invoice.

Yes. There's no contract and no cancellation fee. To cancel, sign in to your online dashboard, go to your Account page, and click Manage billing. Your service keeps running until the end of the billing period you've already paid for, and your Account page shows the date your access ends. Fees you've already paid are non-refundable, so there's no partial refund for the rest of the month.

Nothing changes right away. The assistant keeps answering your calls, and your summaries and dashboard keep working, until the end of your current billing period. You won't be charged another monthly base fee, but any minutes beyond the ones included in that last period will appear on a final invoice after it closes. When your access ends, the assistant stops answering calls sent to your Marble Song number, and your dashboard is no longer available. Before that date, turn off call forwarding with your phone carrier. We can't change your carrier settings for you, and calls that are still forwarded to us after your access ends won't be answered by the assistant. If you want to prevent additional calls from going to Marble Song after you cancel, you should immediately disable call forwarding. Our setup page shows how to turn forwarding off, and if your missed calls don't go back to your voicemail afterward, your carrier can help you turn voicemail back on. We hold your Marble Song number for a limited time after your access ends (just in case you want to resubscribe); after that, it may be released and assigned to someone else. If you restart your subscription before then by signing in to your dashboard, you keep the same number and can simply turn forwarding back on. If you'd like us to delete your account data, email [email protected].