Important Note: This feature is available in Preview for selected accounts in the United States.
Talkdesk Trusted Calling authenticates manual outbound calls with a third-party call authentication provider before the calls route to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This reduces the likelihood that a call is marked as spam or fraud, and it can display a business name or reason for calling on the recipient's device, improving answer rates.
Table of Contents
Understanding Trusted Calling
Across the industry, legitimate outbound calls increasingly go unanswered because they appear as unknown or unmarked on the recipient's device. Carrier algorithms and mobile handset applications also flag some of these calls as spam or fraud, triggering automatic call blocking, even when the call is fully legitimate.
The STIR/SHAKEN framework (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited / Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information using toKENs) was introduced to combat caller ID spoofing, but it has well-documented limitations in practice. As a result, businesses, including Talkdesk customers, can miss reaching end clients for reasons entirely outside of their control.
Trusted Calling closes that gap. Admins connect a supported call authentication provider such as First Orion, TNS, or TransUnion, to their account. When an agent places a manual outbound call from a selected number, Talkdesk calls the provider's authentication API and waits up to 500 ms for a response before routing the call. The call routes to its destination regardless of whether the authentication succeeds or fails. Authentication enhances trust in the call but never blocks it.
Key Features
- Provider selection: Admins choose a supported call authentication provider, First Orion, TNS, or TransUnion, and enter the credentials that the provider requires.
- Non-blocking authentication: Talkdesk waits up to 500 ms for the provider's response, then routes the call regardless of the outcome.
- Numbers: Talkdesk will authenticate both Talkdesk-native, Bring Your Own Carrier (BYoC), and Verified Caller ID (VCID) phone numbers when outbound calls are placed.
Use Cases
- Improving answer rates: Organizations that place frequent manual outbound calls, such as banks or collections teams, use Trusted Calling to display a verified business name and reduce the chance that recipients ignore the call as spam.
- Reducing spoofing and fraud flags: Organizations affected by number spoofing use Trusted Calling to verify their identity with carriers and reduce false spam or fraud labeling.
- Protecting legitimate outreach: Organizations that lose business because calls are mislabeled use Trusted Calling to restore trust with recipients on manual outbound calls from their Talkdesk numbers.
- Meeting partner requirements: Organizations already working with a supported provider for branding or number reputation management use Trusted Calling to connect that relationship directly to their Talkdesk outbound calls.
Prerequisites
- Permissions: Admin role.
- An active account with one of the supported providers (First Orion, TNS, or TransUnion), set up directly with that provider. This includes any business verification steps the provider requires.
- Provider-specific credentials, such as an API key and secret key, or an enterprise ID, depending on the provider selected.
Note: This feature applies to manual outbound calls only. For more information, please contact your Talkdesk representative via the Talkdesk Customer Care Portal.