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This eats me alive. Either I'm missing something here or the rest of the mobile world is just plain ignorant to technology. Why the hell in 2014 can I not use my phone to simply TRANSFER a call?

Currently on AT&T cell plan, attempting to have someone answer a call on one cell phone, talk to the person, then transfer (blindly or attended, whichever), over to me on my cell phone. I'm not talking about 3 way call, the person who initiates a 3 way call can't hang up or all parties get dropped, so that's not an option. It just blows my mind that this isn't an option from what I can tell unless you buy a PBX like phone system (virtual or otherwise) and then the call is held via an internet connection, so quality issues are a possibility when running over AT&T cell towers.

Is there a way to simply transfer a call. You'd think their would be an app that used a call server to facilitate the transfer with some back-end magic. I realize this may very well be a limitation of the ancient standards that are phones that our cell providers keep selling us everyday. Any suggestions. Cheap, simple, reliable?

Nope. Wasn't included in the feature list when the specs were laid down, so a lot of the needed infrastructure just plain isn't there.

So I'm not sure exactly how this would work, but I would mess around with Google Voice and Google hangouts on the phones themselves. I know you can transfer a call between phones on the same GV account by pressing * during a call. I also know you can have multiple people on a hangout and the hangout app on iOS can make and receive phone calls from a GV number. I know that's not exactly a "How to" but it's a start and what I would try to begin with if I was trying to do what you're describing. You could add something like an Obitalk to the equation for even more flexibility. Good luck!

There are software PBX solutions which allow you to do easy call transfers using mobile apps on smartphone, but they aren't exactly cheap and probably not something you're looking for... Other than that - try out some free VoIP apps, maybe you'll find something that works similarly...

Land lines never had that functionality...

I didn't know about pressing star during a GV call. I make all my calls via GV already, I'll have to try that out.

JohnC wrote:

There are software PBX solutions which allow you to do easy call transfers using mobile apps on smartphone, but they aren't exactly cheap and probably not something you're looking for...

You can actually set up your own VOIP PBX using 100% Open Source software if you've got a static IP to host it on. I've never done it myself, but I know someone who did. I do agree it is almost certainly not something the OP would want to do though, I looked into it (briefly), and it looked pretty daunting.

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

Land lines never had that functionality...

Actually yes they do. "3 way calling with transfer" has been offered for many years. It can be initiated by hookflashing if the feature is enabled by your telco. I have some customers that use this all the time since transferring a call to another outside line takes 2 lines on a PBX.

homerdog wrote:

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

Land lines never had that functionality...

Actually yes they do. "3 way calling with transfer" has been offered for many years. It can be initiated by hookflashing if the feature is enabled by your telco. I have some customers that use this all the time since transferring a call to another outside line takes 2 lines on a PBX.

Heh. I should've remembered that. I used to work in the telco industry (but it has been a very long time).

homerdog wrote:

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

Land lines never had that functionality...

Actually yes they do. "3 way calling with transfer" has been offered for many years. It can be initiated by hookflashing if the feature is enabled by your telco. I have some customers that use this all the time since transferring a call to another outside line takes 2 lines on a PBX.

Yep. I still have a wired phone I got free from USWest (before it was QWest, before it was CenturyLink, so it's almost 20 years old now) with dedicated buttons for a bunch of the star-features (last call return, etc) and one of them is for 3-way calling.... and most of the few times I used it, I used it precisely this way.

UberGerbil wrote:

homerdog wrote:

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

Land lines never had that functionality...

Actually yes they do. "3 way calling with transfer" has been offered for many years. It can be initiated by hookflashing if the feature is enabled by your telco. I have some customers that use this all the time since transferring a call to another outside line takes 2 lines on a PBX.

Yep. I still have a wired phone I got free from USWest (before it was QWest, before it was CenturyLink, so it's almost 20 years old now) with dedicated buttons for a bunch of the star-features (last call return, etc) and one of them is for 3-way calling.... and most of the few times I used it, I used it precisely this way.

It's not actually a service code since you do it mid-call. Just hook flash and you get dial tone to add the next call. Most phones have dedicated flash (recall) buttons.

Also there's a difference between 3 way calling and 3 way calling with transfer. Without transfer all callers get disconnected if you hang up. I am a PBX installer otherwise I promise I wouldn't know such esoteric things

homerdog wrote:

It's not actually a service code since you do it mid-call. Just hook flash and you get dial tone to add the next call. Most phones have dedicated flash (recall) buttons.

I'm sure you're right. All I know is that phone has been on my wall for a couple of decades, and it has dedicated buttons for various functions like last call return (which I still remember as *69) and various other things US West included in my "deluxe" landline package back in the day... and one of those buttons was "3 Way Calling." But I haven't pressed any of them in years. (I haven't even used the phone -- there is a wireless one right next to it; it remains due to inertia and the fact that it has a nicely visible flashing light that indicates if it has rung since the last time its caller ID was cleared).

homerdog wrote:

Usacomp2k3 wrote:

Land lines never had that functionality...

Actually yes they do. "3 way calling with transfer" has been offered for many years. It can be initiated by hookflashing if the feature is enabled by your telco. I have some customers that use this all the time since transferring a call to another outside line takes 2 lines on a PBX.

Learned something new. Cool. I stand corrected.

UberGerbil wrote:

I haven't even used the phone -- there is a wireless one right next to it; it remains due to inertia...

They are useful during a power outage.