Wondering two things: easiest way to configure assistant that will press buttons on keypad depending on instruction from the caller (if you want to return press 1, if you want to talk to customer service press 2, etc etc) --> saw something on DTMF functions so guessing it is this when being transferred following pressing an option or being placed on hold, how do I configure the assistant so it doesn't talk until someone is on the other end of the line

Use Vapi’s

dtmf

tool to press keypad buttons based on caller input, and configure silent transfers by setting

firstMessage

to an empty string and using assistant hooks or transfer settings to keep the assistant silent until someone picks up..[ https://docs.vapi.ai/tools/default-tools](https://docs.vapi.ai/tools/default-tools)

use DTMF to make the assistant press keypad buttons (like “press 1 for sales”). Just enable the dtmf tool and call it with the right digits. When transferring or on hold, use transferCall and stop the assistant from speaking until someone actually answers.

@Hilal @ UnitZero AI does transferCall work for when the assistant is transferring someone so that it switches models or does it work if the assistant is the one being transferred. I am interested in when the assistant is being transferred so that the call doesn't timeout and it automatically hangs up. I essentially just want the assistant to be able to wait on hold without saying anything for an indefinite amount of time

There’s no way in Vapi to keep the assistant silently on hold indefinitely. But — Vapi does have a fallback feature: if a transfer fails, the assistant can now come back and resume the call using the fallbackPlan setting in warm transfer.

Checking if this is resolved/solved for you?

I guess what I'm just wondering is: Will my assistant wait on hold? If calling customer service, once it presses the correct keypad button for transfer, will it wait properly on hold?

Vapi can wait on hold after pressing keypad buttons, but proper hold behavior like, waiting during transfers or resuming if unanswered requires manual setup using Twilio conferences and webhooks, as it’s not handled automatically..

Is it possible to simply maximize silenceTimeoutSeconds to 3600 and then have the assistant say some form of idle message which will reset the timeout seconds?

You can set

silenceTimeoutSeconds

to 3600 in Vapi, but idle messages won’t reset this timer, they only re-engage the caller, so true timer resets would need custom logic..