Giving Pepper a phone line

Pepper can answer real phone calls: it picks up when you ring it (and say your passphrase), and takes messages and voicemail from anyone else. For that, Pepper needs a phone line it can control from software. There are five ways to get one.

Short version: if you have a spare Android phone (Pixel preferred), use the Android bridge. That's the phone, with your SIM in it, plugged into the Mac. It reuses a phone plan you already pay for, adds no bill, and is the one we run. Renting an internet phone number (SIP) for a few dollars a month would avoid the hardware, but that setup is researched, not built.

Why the Android bridge is the defaultCopy Anchor Link

• It keeps your existing number.
• Pepper hears the call and speaks into it digitally, and dials, answers and hangs up through software. Nothing is clicked on a screen.
• The Mac sets up and starts everything over USB. After the phone restarts, one command on the Mac (scripts/phone/pepper-phone.sh start-shizuku) brings it back; nothing has to be tapped on the phone.
• The weak point: the app on the phone that makes the bridge work is three weeks old (October 2026) and relies on hidden Android internals. scripts/phone/pepper-phone.sh status checks every part and says what's wrong.

Other ways that don't work (checked October 2026)Copy Anchor Link

• A Mac on its own can't carry cellular call audio over Bluetooth. macOS 27 won't act as a hands-free device.
• Ordinary Android apps (Tasker, automation apps) can dial and answer, but Android blocks them from call audio. The Android bridge gets around that with Shizuku, a helper app that lends other apps system-level permissions, without rooting (unlocking the phone's operating system).
• "LTE modem" USB sticks: it's unclear whether AT&T approves them for voice calls (VoLTE), and their audio is poor.
• Google Voice: the policy forbids automated calls, and the old workarounds no longer work.

If you'd rather not move your own SIM into the bridge phone, give it a line of its own. Any plan with unlimited talk works for the Android bridge or the car kit. Pepper needs voice minutes, not data.

Yearly minute cards (for example 400 minutes for about $100) run out quickly on a line Pepper uses, so we don't recommend them.

Carrier terms. "Unlimited" voice is usually written for conversations between people. AT&T's current wireless terms, for example, let the carrier take action if more than about 1,000 minutes a month go to anything other than conversations (forwarding, conferencing and the like), and they exclude telemarketing and broadcast use. A personal assistant taking your calls is light use, and making ordinary calls for you would be too, but no carrier explicitly approves it. Staying under 1,000 minutes isn't a guarantee. Read the agreement for your own account.

Calling people with an AI voice. In the US, the FCC (the communications regulator) treats AI-generated voices as "artificial" under the telephone consumer protection rules, so a call to someone's mobile generally needs their consent first. Pepper calling people is planned, not built; today the bridge only places the test call. When Pepper can make calls, the plan is for Pepper to call businesses on your behalf, or people who expect the call, and only when you ask it to.

Rates as of October 2026, before taxes:

Pepper's call server is FreeSWITCH. There is no guide for this yet.

The full research, with dated test reports and links: docs/research/2026-10-20/16-cellular-line-bridge.md. Bridge app: sparkcyf/android-voice-sip-agent. Shizuku: shizuku.rikka.app.