Getting started with Epocra

What you get when you sign up

Your account comes with a number, and several ways to use it:

• An Epocra number. You do not have to give it out. It exists so that calls to the number you already use can be pointed at Epocra.
• Somewhere to take calls. The mobile app, or the desk phone you already have — Epocra runs on a standard SIP connection, so an existing handset can register to it without new hardware. Both make and take calls, and both get recorded and summarised the same way.
• Somewhere to read them. A desktop app for Windows and Mac, and a web portal, for going through transcripts and summaries on a bigger screen.

Use whichever of those you want; none of them is required. See Devices and desk phones.

Your Epocra number is in two places: the purple box at the top of Settings, reached by the gear icon in the corner of every tab, and near the top of your welcome email.

Two ways to start

You can begin with either, and add the second whenever you like.

Outgoing calls only — nothing to set up

Calls you place from the Epocra app are recorded straight away. Open the Keypad tab, dial, and you are done. Nothing about your carrier account changes, and the person you call sees your own number as usual.

This is the honest way to try the product. If you decide it is not for you, there is nothing to undo.

Incoming calls too — forward your number

For calls to you to come through Epocra, forward your existing mobile number to your Epocra number. That is one code dialled from your phone and takes about thirty seconds. It is reversible at any time with a second code.

See Forward your number for the exact code for your carrier, or the guided version at the setup page.

Permissions the app asks for

On first launch you are asked to agree to a short recording disclaimer, and then for three permissions. Two are needed for the app to work as a phone at all. The third is optional.

Required

• Microphone — so the app can place and take calls. Without it there is no call audio at all.
• Notifications — so an incoming call can ring you, and so you are told when a new recording is ready.

Optional

• Contacts — so calls show real names instead of bare numbers. Epocra copies contact names, phone numbers and companies to your account. You can decline and use Epocra normally; call history just shows numbers for people you have not added by hand.

If you allow contacts, Epocra keeps them up to date quietly. It syncs once when you sign in, and then re-checks every few minutes for as long as the app is open. It only sends anything when your phone book has genuinely changed, so nearly every check does nothing at all.

There is no background work while the app is closed, and nothing to tap. You can turn it off at any time under Settings › Privacy › Auto-sync phone contacts, and re-run an import by hand from the same place.

You are asked about contacts once. Whether you import or skip, Epocra does not prompt you again.

Your first call

1. Open the Keypad tab Dial a number, or start typing a name to look up a contact.
2. Make the call as normal A recording indicator shows while the call is being recorded. Bluetooth headsets, car audio and speakerphone all behave exactly as they do on any other call.
3. Hang up and wait a few minutes Transcription and the summary happen on our side, not on your handset, so you can put the phone in your pocket.

What arrives afterwards

Within a few minutes you get an email with the summary, and the same call is waiting in the app. Open the AI tab and pick the call to see:

• A written call summary and the key takeaways.
• Action items — things you agreed to do — which also collect in the Tasks tab so you can tick them off.
• The full transcript, with speakers labelled.

The same tab has AI Chat, where you ask questions about your calls in plain English instead of hunting for the right one. See AI Chat.

Every call also lands in Recents, and against the contact in Contacts.

Where to go next

Most people set forwarding up next, then decide which calls they would rather Epocra left alone.