API docsAgent tools

Chrome extension

Call and email contacts from the extension

In short

How do I make a call or send a Gmail message with Reply's Chrome extension?

Turn Cloud Calls on in the Reply web app and rent a number, then dial from the extension's Dialer, from a contact's Call action or from a call task, and close the conversation with a resolution and notes. Calls need the extension running as a separate window or side panel, not as a popup. The same extension is what puts Reply Template and Reply Sequence into Gmail's composer, so there is no second plugin to install.

Goal

Two channels driven from the browser: a logged phone conversation that feeds your calls and SMS records, and a Gmail message written with your Reply library behind it.

Preconditions

Cloud Calls enabled in the Reply web app and at least one rented number on the account, with funds in the wallet: calls bill to telephony spend, not to search credits. The person you are dialing needs a valid phone number and must not be blacklisted. For the Gmail side, be signed in to the Google account you use with Reply and have the extension running.

Steps

  1. Switch the extension out of popup mode before you dial. In Settings, set the view to a separate window or Chrome's side panel; while it runs as a popup the call action is disabled and says "Please switch to external view in Settings to make calls".
  2. Reach the phone from whichever point suits: Dialer in the top menu takes any number, the Call action on an open contact dials the number on their record, and a task of type Call dials from inside the task itself.
  3. Choose the outgoing number when more than one is offered. With several rented numbers, Reply can match the area you are calling, and where it cannot you are told so; "This country/area has not been covered by 'Local dial' yet. You can proceed with an international call.", and can go ahead anyway. Turn Record call on beforehand if you want the audio kept.
  4. Finish the conversation, then fill the Log a call window: pick a Call resolution from the default set or from resolutions your team created, and add Call notes while it is fresh.
  5. Close it with the action that matches what happened. Log the call records the conversation and leaves the task open; Log & follow up records it and opens a new task; Log & complete task records it and closes the task; Log, complete & follow up does both and books the next touch. Where the call belongs to a sequence, the Finish the prospect in sequence switch stops that person's remaining steps. A confirmation names the person whose call was logged.
  6. Log a conversation that happened outside Reply the same way; the resolution window accepts a call it did not place, so the record stays complete.
  7. For email, open Gmail in the same browser and click Compose. The composer gains two Reply controls: Reply Template inserts a template from your library and can save what you have written back into it, and Reply Sequence puts the recipient into one of your sequences without leaving the draft.
  8. Hover a sender in your inbox or on a new message to create or edit them as a Reply contact, with the address and name already filled in.

Expected result

The dialer connects and the timer runs; after logging, the conversation appears on the contact with its resolution and notes, and a recording if you kept one. In Gmail, an inserted template lands as the body of the draft and a recipient added to a sequence becomes an enrolled contact.

Verification

Open the contact in the web app: the call shows in their activity with the resolution you chose, and any follow-up you created is on the Tasks page with its due date. For the Gmail side, check that the person you added from the composer now appears in the sequence you picked.

What happens next

Call resolutions roll up into the reporting you read in statistics, and a sequence you added someone to from Gmail runs under its own schedule. Queued call tasks are covered in Work tasks in the Chrome extension.

Common mistakes

  • Blaming the microphone for a refusal that happened before dialing. Messages such as "Cloud calls feature is disabled.", "You must rent a phone number to make cloud calls." and "You don't have enough funds in your wallet to make a call." are account conditions and are fixed in the web app, not in the browser.
  • Dialing a record with an empty or malformed number. The action is grayed out with "Phone field is empty" or "Contact phone number is invalid", and a blacklisted person is refused outright.
  • Treating a mid-call failure as a Reply fault. "Permission to use microphone was denied by the browser", "Line is busy or contact declined call" and "Phone number was not connected. Possible reason: wrong phone number" all describe what the line did.
  • Hunting the Chrome Web Store for a separate Gmail add-on. The Gmail buttons ship inside this extension; installing it once covers both surfaces.
  • Losing a half-written log by navigating away: leaving the window discards an unsaved call log, and you are asked to confirm first.

Build with Reply

  • REST API: docs.reply.io – pull call activity and templates into your own reporting
  • Agent skills: agents.reply.io/skills – skills that draft the message before you open the composer