Priority Callers and Availability Rules, Explained

Priority callers are the people you have said should always reach you — family, your office, your doctor. Availability rules are when you are reachable at all. The concierge applies both: priority callers are put through, everyone else is qualified first, and when you have said you are unavailable, the concierge takes it from there.

Why both exist

One rule alone is not enough. If you only had priority callers, an unavailable evening would still be interrupted by them. If you only had availability rules, a genuine emergency from your family would wait behind your dinner setting. The two together express what you actually mean: these people, at any time; everyone else, on my terms.

An example

You set availability to unavailable during a Tuesday meeting, with your partner and your child’s school as priority callers. During the meeting, three calls arrive. Your partner rings through. An unknown number meets the concierge and comes back as a message. A supplier calling about an invoice comes back as Follow-Up Needed. You were interrupted exactly once, by the person you chose.

The concierge does not overrule you

It is worth being precise about this: the concierge is not weighing up whether a caller seems important enough. It is applying rules you set. If it puts someone through, that is because you said to. If it takes a message, that is because you said to. The judgment is yours; the consistency is its contribution.

Related questions

• What happens if an emergency comes from a number I never listed?
• Can availability follow a schedule rather than a switch?
• How does this differ from Do Not Disturb with allowed contacts?