Nest one call flow inside another
Build once, reuse everywhere. The reason a single after-hours flow can sit behind six numbers without being copied six times.
Nesting is what turns call flows from per-number configuration into something you can actually maintain. One "after hours" flow, nested from six numbers' own flows, means your holiday message is a one-minute change rather than six.
The discipline that makes it work is naming. A shared flow called "After hours — India" gets reused; one called "Flow 3" gets duplicated by the next person who needs the same thing.
Before you start
- A reusable flow, published rather than left in Draft.
- A parent flow to nest it from.
Steps
Build the reusable part as its own flow
"After hours", "overflow to AI", "holiday message" — anything more than one number should share.
Name shared flows for what they do
Include the market or the purpose. The name is the only documentation a flow has.
Add a Call flow step where you need it
It nests the other flow at that point in the sequence. Execution continues inside the nested flow, and the steps below in the parent are only reached if the nested one does not terminate.
Check the nested flow is Published. A draft flow nested inside a live one is a gap in your call handling that nothing will report.
Publish the nested flow
A draft flow nested inside a published one is a gap in your call handling. Check the state of both.
Change it in one place
Editing the shared flow changes every flow that nests it. That is the return, and it is why the dependency list exists.
Avoid nesting in circles
A flow that eventually nests itself is a loop. Keep shared flows simple and terminating, and do not nest a flow that itself nests three others.
Check it worked
Change something small in the shared flow — the voicemail wording, say — and ring two different numbers that nest it. Both should reflect the change. That confirms the whole arrangement in about two minutes.
The parts people get wrong
- Nesting is what makes a holiday message change a one-minute job across every number you own.
- Read the dependency list before editing a shared flow. By design it will be behind several numbers.
The ones people actually ask
The nested flow is not running.
It is probably still in Draft. A draft flow nested inside a published one is a gap in your call handling and nothing will report it. Check the state of both.
What happens to the steps below the nested flow?
They are only reached if the nested flow does not terminate. Execution continues inside the nested flow, so if that flow ends with voicemail or hang up, nothing below it in the parent will ever run.
Can a flow nest itself?
Do not build it. A flow that eventually nests itself is a loop. Keep shared flows simple and terminating, and avoid nesting a flow that itself nests three others.