Conversational Calls

Anima supports two voice-call modes. Pick the mode based on who should drive the live conversation: Anima’s hosted loop, or your own agent over WebSocket.

Modes

Mode	How to start	Who drives the conversation	Best for
REST hosted	`POST /v1/voice/calls`	Anima attaches a server-side conversation loop after dialing	”Call me now” demos, scripted follow-up calls, quick production calls
WebSocket BYO agent	Voice WebSocket / SDK connection	Your agent runtime accepts calls, streams events, and sends speech/control messages	Custom agents, complex routing, external memory, custom tool orchestration

Both modes use the same voice pipeline, phone identity, call records, transcripts, guardrails, and plan caps. The agent speaks with its configured voice — the catalog is multilingual (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Dutch), so see the Voice Catalog to browse and set one.

REST hosted calls

Use REST when you want one HTTP request to start a call and let Anima handle the live response loop.

curl -X POST https://api.useanima.sh/v1/voice/calls \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ak_..." \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "agentId": "agt_...",
    "to": "+15551234567",
    "greeting": "Hi, this is my Anima agent. I am calling from my own number."
  }'

Anima attaches the hosted conversation loop after dialing. The first spoken line comes from greeting; deeper behavior comes from the agent configuration and the hosted voice loop.

WebSocket-controlled calls

Use the Voice WebSocket when your own agent runtime needs full control over the call — you bring the brain (your own LLM) and Anima handles the voice I/O.

const conn = anima.calls.connect({ agentId: "agt_..." });

conn.on("message", (message) => {
  if (message.type === "call.transcription") {
    console.log(message.data?.text);
  }
});

conn.createCall("+15551234567", {
  greeting: "Hi, this is my Anima agent.",
});

The WebSocket path is the right choice when you need custom memory, custom tool routing, multi-agent handoff, or external application state during the live call.

What Anima handles

Number ownership and call placement
The voice pipeline (speech-to-text, speech, barge-in)
TCPA consent attestation, plan-cap, and voice spend gates (RND scrubbing, DNC scrubbing and calling-hour windows stay with you)
Call lifecycle records
Transcripts and post-call artifacts
Webhooks for call lifecycle events

What your app still owns

The lawful basis and consent record for contacting the recipient
Reassigned Numbers Database scrubbing — Anima does not query it for you
Do-Not-Call registry scrubbing, federal and state
Calling hours in the recipient’s local time — Anima does not check the clock
Agent behavior and escalation policy
Any business-specific data used during the call
Follow-up workflows after the call ends

Before your agent places its first call, enable outbound by completing the one-time consent attestation in Settings → Outbound Calling & SMS (Starter plan and above) — see Compliance guardrails.

Getting Started

Framework Toolkits

Platform

Agent Identity & A2A

Security

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Protocols

SDK Reference

Resources

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Blog

Conversational Calls

Conversational Calls

Modes

REST hosted calls

WebSocket-controlled calls

What Anima handles

What your app still owns

​Conversational Calls

​Modes

​REST hosted calls

​WebSocket-controlled calls

​What Anima handles

​What your app still owns

​Related docs

Conversational Calls

Modes

REST hosted calls

WebSocket-controlled calls

What Anima handles

What your app still owns

Related docs