POTSBox

Bring classic phones to life with interactive AI personalities

The Operator; storytellers or weather reporters all react authentically to each phone's era.

Pick Up the Receiver

I'll make you a believer.

What is PotsBox?

Your own, personal network.

POTS means Plain Old Telephone Service — the elegant, electro-mechanical system that defined human communication for a century.

PotsBox lets you bring old phones (rotary, push-button, etc.) back to life by connecting them to a "closed-circuit" network all your own. Dial tones, interactive Operators, jokes and weather reports that feel astonishingly real—just like the day your phone was made.

Learn More
Real Dial Tones

Real phone sounds, natural voice timing, and natural, true-to-era responses

Interactive AI Voices

You create services with personality— agents sound like an Operator, weather reporter, or storyteller from its time.

Classic Services, Reimagined

Bring back AT&T, 411, and Operator services with a modern, interactive twist.

Analog Phones Were Different

Classic AT&T rotary telephone Learn More

Telephones were immersive. You could hear while talking.
A lover's telephone call didn’t need to stop and say “over.” The circuit carried presence, it was magic.

PotsBox honors that perfection — and lets it speak again.

Create Your Own World

Each phone has it's own Era.
Each service has a voice and vibe.
Remote services for things like weather can be loaded loaded in, and data tokens from these sources make the experience unique, varied and fun.

POTSBox In Action

Perfect for museums, children's play facilities and of course, your own living room.

Learn More

PotsBox Setup Q&A

Prefer a human? just write to me:
jtayler@me.com
PotsBox brings vintage phones back to life. It's easy. Pick up a rotary or push-button or even a classic candlestick phone and dial something again — a joke, a story, the weather, a voice with a personality, or just dial another phone in the house. You set the extensions to anything you want, you make it real. Phones become intercoms, game shows, characters, and little worlds you invent. It’s nostalgia you can play with: perfect for kids, families, museums, bars and anyone who wants phones to be fun again.
Phones don’t dial the outside world — they dial your world. PotsBox creates a private retro phone network where phones dial each other, dial services, and dial stories. Imagine an Operator who can direct your calls. Each phone knows its era and worldview from that time, each service has a voice and a vibe, and everything can be edited or invented — create a brand or family hotline, or a game show, or a character all your own. Add phones in other rooms or even at a friend’s house and build a creative phone world that’s entirely your own.
To get started, you’ll need:
1. Your Phone: Any classic phone like rotary, push-button or even a candlestick that does not dial will work great. An AI operator can transfer your calls as if it were 1911.
2. An ATA Box: An analog telephone adaptor. We reccomend the Grandstream series (HT801 On Amazon), but other ATA boxes work just as well.
3. Credentials: On the PotsBox web console, use your SIP IP, username, and password to configure your ATA and your phone will start working immediately.

ATA (Analog Telephone Adapter) is a device that allows traditional analog phones (like your old rotary or push-button phone) to connect to modern digital services.

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the technology that allows your phone to communicate over the internet.

Yes, absolutely! We provide an entire library of fun services you can edit, and you’re free to create your own. Services can be playful or educational — a joke line, a game show, a history voice, or a family hotline. PotsBox turns phones into interactive showpieces: perfect for kids’ play areas, museums, classrooms, or your own home, where phones become intercoms, storytellers, and hands-on exhibits that are fun and engaging at any age. can edit. Weather reports are from your location, and reported in the era of the phone you use to dial it. It's easy, fun and amazing.
Yes, most certainly! There’s no limit to the number of phone lines you can create. Add phones in other rooms, other buildings, or even at a friend’s house — each one becomes part of your private phone world. Use them like intercoms, secret lines, or interactive exhibits. Where the phones live doesn’t matter — if they’re on your network, they’re yours to create with. Create a hotline with a red phone, dial the phone upstairs. It's all your creation and it's all easy to do.