Summary

Alta's Test Call lets you dry-run a voice assistant the moment you finish editing it — either as an in-browser Web Call (no phone dialed) or as a real Phone Call to a number you choose. You can pass sample values for any {{prospect.*}} variables in your prompt or first message, so the assistant behaves the way it will in production.

Who this is for

Anyone building or tweaking a voice assistant in Alta — outbound caller, inbound receptionist, web chat/voice widget — who wants to hear how it sounds and check the logic before sending a single live call.

Before you start

You're editing an assistant (Assistants → open the assistant → Edit). The Test Call button sits in the assistant editor toolbar.
Your assistant config has to be valid. Test Call runs form validation first — if any required fields are missing, the popover won't open and the form will surface the errors.
You have credits on the account. Test calls draw from your normal credit balance and show up on the Credit Usage page under Test Call.
For a Phone Call test, you need at least one phone number provisioned in Alta (Settings → Phone Numbers) to call from. For a Web Call, you only need browser microphone permission.

Open the Test Call popover

Open the assistant you want to test.
In the editor toolbar, click Test Call (phone icon).
The popover opens with two tabs: Web Call and Phone Call. Web Call is selected by default.

Option A — Web Call (test in your browser, no phone dialed)

Use this when you just want to hear and stress-test the assistant. Nothing is dialed; the call runs in your browser tab.

Stay on the Web Call tab.
Email (optional). If you paste a real prospect's email, Alta will try to enrich the prospect and inject those properties into your prompt variables — useful for sanity-checking how the assistant handles a fully enriched record. Leave it blank to test with raw variable values only.
Fill in any prompt variables that appear below Email. Alta auto-detects every {{prospect.*}} tag in your prompt and First Message and renders one input per variable (e.g. First Name, Company, Role).
Click Start Web Call. Your browser will prompt for microphone access — accept it.
Talk to the assistant. Close the popover (or end the call from the in-browser controls) when you're done.

Option B — Phone Call (Alta dials a real number)

Use this to test the assistant's behavior over a real PSTN connection — voice quality, carrier handoff, voicemail detection, and how it sounds on the device the prospect would actually pick up.

Click the Phone Call tab.
Call From — pick the phone number Alta should dial out from. The dropdown shows every number you've provisioned in Alta. If the list is empty, provision a number in Settings first.
Phone Number * — the number to call. Required. It's validated as a mobile number; you'll get an Invalid phone number error if it's malformed.
Email (optional). Same enrichment behavior as Web Call: if you provide an email, Alta tries to enrich the prospect and pre-fills the variables it can find.
Fill in the remaining prompt variables (everything detected in your prompt and First Message except email and phoneNumber, which are taken from the fields above).
Click Start Phone Call. You'll see the toast "Test call initiated. Might take a few minutes to receive the call" — the popover closes automatically. The target phone will ring shortly.

Tips and common pitfalls

The Test Call button does nothing when clicked. The form has validation errors. Scroll the editor — the offending field will be highlighted. Fix it, then click Test Call again.
"You must select a phone number to call from..." You're on the Phone Call tab without picking a value in Call From. Either pick one, or switch to the Web Call tab if you just want to hear the assistant.
"Phone number is required" / "Invalid phone number". The Phone Number * field is empty or not a valid mobile number. Include country code (e.g. +15551234567).
Start button is greyed out with an "out of credits" tooltip. Your account credit balance is at zero. Top up from the billing page — every test call consumes credits, same as a production call.
The assistant doesn't know my name / company. Either you didn't pass the variable in the popover, or your prompt references a variable name that doesn't exist on the enriched record. Variables shown in the popover are exactly the {{prospect.*}} tags from your Prompt and First Message — if a value isn't there, the variable stays empty during the call.
Where do test calls show up afterward? In the Calls table for the assistant, tagged with Test Call. Recording is enabled by default for test calls, so you can replay the audio and read the transcript like any other call. They also count toward the Test Call row on the Credit Usage page.
The phone never rings. Carrier delivery can take a minute or two. If it never arrives, check the Calls table — a failed call will show a status and error message you can troubleshoot from.