The Conversations tab is where every call and every text your team sends or receives lands in one log. Before you can use any of it, you need a phone number attached to your CRM. That happens in Settings, Connections, and it takes about a minute.
One number powers both calls and texts. Calls work the instant you pick it. Texting needs the carrier verification covered in the SMS chapter.
Step 1: Add a phone number in Settings
Go to Settings, Connections. You will see two grouped cards: Phone numbers and Block phone numbers. If no number is configured yet, the Phone numbers card says Get started with calls and texts and shows a Start now button on the right.
Tune your phone number (in Connections)
Once the number is added, click into it from Settings, Connections, Phone numbers. Everything in this section, the friendly name, the forwarding number, the recording toggles, and automatic lead creation, all live on the same phone number page. Set them once and every call the CRM handles from now on follows these rules.
Name it and point it somewhere
Give the number a Friendly name so your team knows what it is (Main Line, Tour Line, After Hours). Then set a Call forwarding number. Any inbound call the CRM cannot answer rings this number, usually a director's cell, so a real person picks up instead of a family hitting voicemail.
Turn on call recording
Recording lives on the phone number itself, not on the Calls tab. Open Settings, Connections, Phone numbers, click the number, and scroll to the Call recordings card. Flip on both the record toggles and both the announcement toggles. We strongly recommend keeping all four on.
Recording laws vary by state and country. Some places are one party consent (only you need to know). Others are two party consent, which means every person on the call has to be told it is being recorded. If anyone on the call is in a two party state, you are legally required to announce it. That is why we recommend leaving both announcement toggles on, always.
Automatic lead creation
This one lives in the same Connections screen as your phone number, but it is not on the number itself. Look for the small gear icon on the Phone numbers card header and click it. That opens the Automatic lead creation panel.
Turn it on and the CRM will turn qualifying inbound calls into real lead records for you, no data entry. You pick the minimum required properties. If the call captures all of them (from AI transcription or manual entry during the call), a lead is created automatically. If it does not, the call still shows in the Calls tab as a Maybe for you to review.
What the other cards on this page do
The number that powers Calls and SMS. Add one, and calling works the same minute. Texting waits on carrier verification.
Spam or a wrong-number lead that keeps texting back. Add the number here and the CRM stops accepting inbound calls or texts from it.
Where Calls and SMS live
Once your number is live, the Conversations item in the left nav expands into two sub tabs. Calls is every phone call, in and out. SMS is every text, in and out. Same table shape, different columns.
Calls: every dial, in and out
The Calls tab is a full log of every phone call placed or received on your main line. Each row shows who was contacted, how the call was handled, and when. You can filter, download, and act on any row without leaving the tab.
| Contact | Stage | Number | Status | When | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maybe: Henry Young | N/A | (555) 106-1042 | Answered | 4m 5s·Jul 25, 11:22pm | |
| Maybe: Hank Green | N/A | (555) 107-1049 | Answered | 4m 5s·Jul 25, 8:57pm | |
| Liam Adams | Tour Scheduled | (810) 820-1920 | No answer | -·Jul 25, 5:50pm | |
| Bob Moore | New | (129) 725-9325 | Failed | -·Jul 25, 5:16pm | |
| Benjamin Wilson | New | (120) 406-5557 | Left voicemail | -·Jul 25, 1:05pm | |
| Nora Brown | Application Sent | (824) 775-2524 | Answered | -·Jul 23, 5:07pm | |
| Liam Hall | Enrolled | (911) 717-4975 | Answered | -·Jul 21, 5:31am |
After a call is answered or a voicemail is left, Camber reads the transcript and suggests 1 to 2 follow up tasks in the details panel with a Call, Email, SMS, or To do chip. Missed calls get an automatic Call back suggestion. Click Review and create task or Call now / Review and sendto skip straight into the compose flow.
Open any call and click Create task to add a follow up for your team, automatically linked to the lead. If the caller is not saved as a lead yet, convert them first, then the task option unlocks.
SMS: every text, in and out
The SMS tab is a complete log of every text sent or received. That includes manual sends, sends from a lead profile, sends fired by automations, and inbound replies. Same filter, download, and row actions as Calls.
| Contact | Number | Status | Message | Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Potential lead | (555) 100-1000 | Received | I received your flyer and want | Jul 25, 11:30pm | |
| David Kowalski | (784) 981-4243 | Failed | Hi David Kowalski, this is a q | Jul 25, 10:11pm | |
| Potential lead | (555) 101-1007 | Received | Hi! I saw your website and I'm | Jul 25, 7:57pm | |
| Charlie Khan | (192) 093-9395 | Delivered | Hi Charlie Khan, this is a qui | Jul 25, 6:17pm | |
| David Moore | (076) 463-7731 | Delivered | Thanks for your interest! Can | Jul 25, 3:32pm | |
| Katie Brown | (173) 150-5727 | Received | Can you text me the address fo | Jul 25, 12:33pm | |
| David Green | (138) 316-4602 | Delivered | Reminder: we have openings thi | Jul 22, 9:56am |
When an inbound text arrives, Camber suggests 1 to 2 next steps in the details panel: a task title, an assignee, and an action chip (Call, Email, SMS, or To do). Review and create, or jump straight into the compose flow.
If the sender is not in your CRM, click Convert to lead. Playground reads the thread and pre fills name, phone, email, and any other detail it heard, each with a confidence indicator.
Turning a stranger into a lead
When a call or text comes in from a number that is not yet in your CRM, Playground flags the row as Maybe: Name, or New Lead Detected if it could not guess a name. Click through the demo below to see exactly what that looks like.
Playground reads the call transcript or text thread and pre fills name, phone, email, and any other details it heard. Every prefilled field shows a confidence badge so you can double check before saving.
For phone calls, the details panel includes an AI generated summary and the full transcript. Review the conversation before you decide to convert or dismiss.
The red bell: notifications on every page
No matter what screen you are on, the bell icon in the top right is your catch all. A red dot means something new landed, a missed call, an inbound text, an email reply, or a fresh application. Click the bell and the Notifications panel slides out on the right so you can triage without leaving the page you were working on.
Shows the number, when it hit, and the location. If Playground could not match it to a lead, you will see New lead detected. Click it to convert on the spot, voicemail transcript included.
Inbound text from a stranger opens Convert to lead with the message already pulled in. From an existing lead, it drops you into their profile so you can reply.
A reply from a lead. Clicking opens their profile so you can continue the thread in their timeline.
A fresh application landed. Shows the applicant and the location. Click to jump to the lead and keep the enrollment moving.