Meta Tech ProviderFrance
An AI receptionist for businesses in France, in French and English.
thinnest answers your calls day and night in French or English, books appointments and tables, takes messages and hands urgent cases to you. Bring the number you already have.
AI call answering
What does an AI phone agent do for a business in France?
It answers the calls you would otherwise miss: at the counter, on a roof, in the lunch service, after the last client has gone. It deals with them the way a good receptionist would, with a booking, a message or a hand-over to you, and it keeps a transcript of every call.
A French artisan, a small clinic or a family restaurant often has one phone and no one free to answer it. A caller who reaches a voicemail rings the next firm. An agent that answers at once, asks the right questions and leaves you a clear message keeps the job, and does so during the long lunch break as well.
- Bookings go into your calendar through Cal.com, or into your own system through its API.
- Questions about opening hours, menus, services and directions are answered from your website and documents.
- Every call has a transcript and an outcome. More on how it works on the AI receptionist page.
Voices
Can the agent speak French, and what about English-speaking callers?
Yes. Voice agents speak French and English in American, British, Australian, Indian and other accents, and you choose each voice from a searchable library and listen before you pick. Replies on WhatsApp and website chat run in 37 languages, and French and English are among them.
Voice agents also speak German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch and Arabic, among others, so a Dutch holiday guest in the Dordogne or an Arabic-speaking client in Marseille can be answered in their own language. Arabic is a voice language only; replies on chat and WhatsApp are not available in Arabic. Dutch likewise is voice only.
To be straight about the limits: we claim French, not a regional variety of it, so we make no promise about a Canadian or Belgian accent, or about regional languages such as Breton, Corsican or Occitan, and we claim no Arabic dialect. Choose "vous" in the instructions unless your brand is deliberately informal, and have a native speaker who does not work for you ring the agent before you connect your number.
Data
Where is my data stored, and what about the RGPD?
Each workspace keeps its data in the region it is set up in. We support region deployments for enterprise customers.
Calls are processed partly in other countries, with speech recognition in the EU and the voice and the language model in the US, under transfer safeguards. That does not settle your own duties under the RGPD and the French data protection law, whose supervisory authority is the CNIL. The privacy policy sets out the detail.
Health data needs a second look. Article L1111-8 of the Public Health Code requires a host of health data on digital media to hold a certificate (the HDS certification), according to the ANS, the French digital health agency, for data collected during prevention, diagnosis, care or social follow-up. We have not verified whether a clinic's appointment calls fall inside that scope, and we do not claim an HDS certificate, so ask your adviser before health calls go near the agent. It may rule the product out for you. Read the official text, as read on 25 October 2026; not legal advice.
Your number
Can I keep my existing French number?
Yes, if the number lives on a Twilio, Telnyx or Plivo account you hold: connect the account and the agent answers that number. We don't sell French numbers.
- Number with another phone provider? Port it to one of those accounts, or forward your calls to a number you hold there. Forwarding after hours or at lunchtime is the easiest first step.
- Transfer to a person and voicemail detection work on Plivo and Telnyx numbers. An imported Twilio number answers and records, but can't transfer or detect voicemail.
- Telnyx calls only the countries switched on in your outbound voice profile, the US and Canada by default, so add France before making outbound calls.
Examples
Which businesses in France is it built for?
Businesses whose phone rings while they are busy with a customer: artisans, restaurants, clinics, garages, estate agents and holiday-let hosts, many of them with foreign customers.
01 — Nantes
Roofing firm
Storm-damage calls taken in full, the address and urgency noted, and a quote visit or a callback offered for the same afternoon.
02 — Lyon
Bouchon restaurant
Table bookings by phone, menu and allergen questions answered from the menu you upload, and group requests passed to the manager.
03 — Marseille
Estate agency
Viewing requests qualified, the budget and the district noted, and the details handed to the right agent.
04 — Toulouse
Garage and MOT centre
Appointments for the technical inspection and the service booked, the car and the plate noted, and waiting-time questions answered.
05 — Bordeaux
Wine estate with a tasting room
Visit and tasting bookings taken in French or English, group size and language noted, and shipping questions answered from your price sheet.
06 — Paris
Physiotherapy practice
Appointments booked and moved, cancellations offered to the next patient, and prescription questions handed to the front desk. Read the note on health data above first.
07 — Nice
Villa-rental concierge
Guests asking about arrival times, keys and parking answered in French, English or Dutch, at any hour, and urgent cases passed to the caretaker on duty.
08 — Lille
Driving school
Prospective pupils asking about the code and driving lessons answered, lessons booked, and the instructors spared the phone while they teach.
Outbound calls
What are the rules for AI sales calls in France?
You are responsible for following them, and they changed on 11 August 2026. Since that date, according to the CNIL and the DGCCRF, a business may phone a consumer for commercial canvassing only with their prior consent, and the Bloctel opt-out list has ended.
What the official pages say, as read on 25 October 2026 on the CNIL's website (its sheet dated 10 June 2026) and in search summaries of the DGCCRF's guide, whose page we could not open: consent must be free, specific, informed and unambiguous; a pre-ticked box or acceptance of general terms is not enough; the consent should name the caller, the kind of goods or services and its one-year validity, and say it can be withdrawn at any time. You must be able to prove it, and the CNIL says to keep the proof for at least three years. The exceptions are press subscriptions, non-commercial calls such as charities, and calls about a contract in force and its subject. Canvassing for energy renovation, adaptations of homes for loss of independence and the personal training account (CPF) is banned outright.
For consumers who consented, calls are allowed Monday to Friday, 10:00 to 13:00 and 14:00 to 20:00, and not at weekends or on public holidays unless the person expressly agrees to other times. A call that follows an explicit request for information is allowed within five working days and only about what was asked. The DGCCRF also limits how often you may retry; we did not read the figure, so read its guide. For calls to professionals the CNIL says you must inform the person and let them object simply and free of charge, and a legitimate interest can support a call that relates to their profession; its sheet gives no hours for them.
The CNIL's phone sheet excludes automated calling systems, which it treats in another sheet: for consumers prior consent, for professionals information and a way to object. We could not verify how an AI voice agent is classified, so plan on the stricter view. The product gives you tools: a do-not-contact list you keep, calling hours you set for each campaign on the called person's clock, an opening line you write and a transcript of every call. It does not collect or check consent. Answering your own inbound calls is different from canvassing, and most businesses start there. Read the official text; not legal advice.
Recording
Can I record calls with the AI agent in France?
With information to the caller, and only if you need it. The CNIL says people on the line must be told, in two steps: a sentence at the start of the call and a way to the full notice, and told of their right to object before the call ends. Recording is off by default in the product, and it is a switch per agent.
That comes from the CNIL's guidance on listening to and recording calls at work, read on 25 October 2026; the page says it is out of date and being updated, so check for a newer version. It says recording should be occasional and proportionate, not systematic unless a law requires it, and that recordings are kept six months at most unless a text or special reason says otherwise. The transcript and outcome of every call are kept in the product without a recording.
Separately, Article 50(1) of the EU AI Act asks that people interacting directly with an AI system are told so, unless that is obvious from the circumstances. It applies from 2 August 2026, according to a law-firm summary published on 10 September 2026; read the Regulation itself. A one-sentence opening line, such as "this is the automated assistant of" your business, covers both points for most callers. Not legal advice.
Does it work on WhatsApp for customers in France?
Yes. The same agent answers on WhatsApp, website chat and the phone, with replies in 37 languages (French and English among them) and a shared inbox where your team can take over.
We found no reliable national figure for how many customers in France prefer WhatsApp for business, so we will not quote one; ask your own customers. Marketing messages need care: the CNIL says prospecting by electronic means to consumers rests on prior consent, with an exception for your own customers and similar products, and that professionals must be informed and able to object. The CNIL page we read lists e-mail, SMS-MMS and automated calls and does not mention messaging apps, so whether a WhatsApp marketing message counts is a question for your adviser. See the WhatsApp Business API and the WhatsApp AI agent. Read the official text, as read on 25 October 2026; not legal advice.
Agencies
Can a French agency resell it under its own brand?
Yes. White label comes with every paid plan: your brand, your domain, your email sender, your sign-in page and your own prices.
Your clients pay you through your own card checkout, buy your plans and set up automatic top-up. You build their receptionists; they see only your brand. See white label for agencies.
Billing
Do you bill in euros?
No. International workspaces, France included, are billed in US dollars by card. Checkout runs through a merchant of record that handles sales tax and VAT, and your bank converts the charge. Prices are on the pricing page.
Answer every call, in the caller's language
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