What is a SIP address?
A SIP address is how one internet phone service reaches a person on another. It looks like an email address with sip: in front of it.
The short answer
A SIP address has the form sip:name@example.com. SIP, the Session Initiation Protocol, is the standard internet phone services use to set up a call. The part before the @ says who you are calling; the part after it says which service answers calls for that name.
How a call finds the address
The caller's phone service looks up the domain after the @ to find the service that takes calls for it, connects to that service, and asks it to ring the person. The person's service then rings every phone and app they are signed in on.
A SIP address and a phone number
A phone number is reached through the telephone network, from any phone. A SIP address is reached from internet phone services, apps and desk phones that support SIP. A call between two SIP addresses does not cross the telephone network at all. Many services give a person both.
- A phone number: dialled from any phone
- A SIP address: called from an internet phone service or app
- Both can ring the same phones, if the service connects them
With YunZheng Voice
Every YunZheng Voice number has a SIP address of its own, in the form sip:+999…@voice.yunzheng.space. When "Accept calls from other internet phone services" is on, anyone whose service can place SIP calls can call it, and it rings every extension you have added to the number, in the browser, on desk phones and in phone apps at once. Turn the setting off and only callers inside YunZheng Voice reach the number.
Questions
- Is a SIP address a phone number? No. It is an address for internet calls; a phone number is for the telephone network.
- Can I call a SIP address from a mobile phone's dialler? Usually not. It needs an app or a service that places internet calls.
- Is a SIP address private? It works like an email address: anyone who knows it can try to call. YunZheng Voice lets you turn off calls from other services.
Try it
Make and take calls on your extension from any browser, listen to voicemail, and keep a number of your own that rings every device you choose. Free for personal use.
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