Off-Hook

A phone is off-hook the moment you lift the handset and the line goes live — the state where everything on this site actually matters. This log is where we put the material that doesn't fit a guide: field notes, vendor changes we catch between formal updates, and the occasional argument about how call audio ought to work.

Ground rules match the rest of the site: every entry is dated, vendor claims carry the day we read them, and nothing here is a paid placement. When an entry changes what a main guide says, we update the guide and note it — the guides are the record, the log is the margin notes.

Entries

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  Two noise filters, one call: when suppression stacks fight 2026-09-20

  Aircall warns about it in its docs, Dialpad engineered an auto-off around the same pressure, and every virtual-device filter setup guide ends with the same instruction. The case for exactly one noise filter per call direction — and how to choose which layer gets the job.

On the desk (coming entries)

Topics currently in the queue, in the order the notes pile suggests: what softphone release notes don't say about audio (a reading guide), a plain-language tour of why your Bluetooth headset sounds fine right up until you unmute, and a running changelog of built-in noise features across the six apps our cornerstone matrix tracks. If a vendor ships something noteworthy before we get there, the matrix gets the update first.

Want the systematic version instead of the margin notes? Start with VoIP background noise: why calls pick it up and how to fix it — it's the page everything else on this site hangs off.