Overview

Live call routing connects phone calls to your On-Call team. When someone calls your dedicated number, the system handles the call according to your configuration.

Datadog On-Call supports two routing types:

• Direct call routing: Connects the caller to an active responder, following the escalation policy for the On-Call team. Enables real-time coordination during critical incidents.
• Voicemail routing: Prompts the caller to leave a voicemail, then converts the voice message to a page for the On-Call team. Useful for non-technical callers or third-party vendors who need to report issues without a live conversation.

Configuration

Basic route settings

Each live call route includes:

• Name: A descriptive label, such as “Production Incidents” or “Security Escalations.”
• Phone Number: The dedicated number provisioned by Datadog for this route.
• Region Code: The geographic region for the phone number (for example, US for the United States).
• Active Status: Whether the route is currently accepting calls.
• Routing Type: How calls are handled (see Routing types).

Keypad options

Keypad options offer callers a menu when they dial your routing number.

You can configure up to nine options per route. Each option maps a key (1-9) to an On-Call team and triggers that team’s paging process. To improve usability:

• Use option 1 for the most critical team or escalation path.
• Group related teams under adjacent keys.
• Keep menu prompts concise and clear.

Routing types

Datadog On-Call supports two routing types: direct call routing and voicemail routing.

Direct call routing

In direct call routing, the system follows the On-Call team’s escalation policy to connect the caller to the first available responder.

Responders must have valid phone numbers in their profiles; those without are automatically skipped.

Note: Responders must press 1 to accept a call.

Escalation logic

For direct call routing, escalation proceeds as follows:

• Multiple responders at the same level: All responders are called simultaneously. The first to answer is connected.
• Responder rejects a call: The system immediately escalates to the next responder.
• Responder has no phone number: The system skips the responder.
• Only one escalation level is defined: If the responder is unreachable, the caller is informed that no one is available, and the call ends.
• No responders have valid phone numbers: The caller is informed that no one is available, and the call ends.

Best practices

• Use multi-level escalation policies to avoid dropped calls.
• Add multiple responders at critical levels for redundancy.
• Test your routing setup regularly:
  • Test each keypad option to verify it routes to the correct team.
  • Simulate escalation behavior by rejecting or not answering a call.
  • Check that responders’ phone numbers are valid, reachable, and configured with appropriate voicemail settings.
  • Verify that calls successfully connect to available responders.

Voicemail routing

In voicemail routing, callers are prompted to leave a message. The message is transcribed and sent as a page to the On-Call team.

Best practices

• Confirm team members have notification preferences configured to receive pages.
• Test your routing setup regularly:
  • Test each keypad option to verify it routes to the correct team.
  • Confirm that voicemail recordings are properly captured and transcribed.
  • Verify that pages are created and sent to the correct team members.

Troubleshooting

Route issues

If your route isn’t accepting calls:

• Ensure the route is active.
• Confirm provisioning is complete.
• Verify the phone number is correctly configured.

Keypad problems

• Ensure keypad options are linked to a valid On-Call team, and test each option individually.
• Verify that your phone system supports DTMF (touch-tone) input.

Voicemail and page issues

If voicemail isn’t converting to pages:

• For direct call routing: If calls fall back to voicemail or fail to page, confirm that the On-Call team is properly configured and that team members have valid notification preferences in place.
• For voicemail routing: Confirm that your routing type is set to voicemail, the On-Call team is properly configured, and team members have valid notification preferences configured to receive pages.