Our intercom only calls one phone. Can all of us still let people in?

Most call-box intercoms are programmed with a single number per unit, so by default only one roommate's phone rings. The fix is either to route that one number somewhere everyone can act on it, or to use an app that lets multiple people answer the same intercom from their own phones. A shared landline rarely helps because someone still has to be home to pick it up.

Is sharing the lobby keypad code with roommates and guests a security risk?

It can be. One common door code passed around to roommates, partners, and their friends never expires and is impossible to trace. If your building supports per-person codes, those are safer because you can change or remove one without re-issuing everyone. Check your lease, since some buildings prohibit sharing the main entry code at all.

What happens when a roommate moves out?

Whatever access they had should end with the lease. If you relied on one shared code, change it. If each person had their own passcode or app access, just remove theirs and leave everyone else's intact. Planning for turnover up front saves a scramble later.

Blog / How to Share Apartment Intercom Access With Roommates

How to Share Apartment Intercom Access With Roommates

By Ty · 2026-07-16

You and your roommates share one front door, but the intercom only rings one phone. So when your friend is waiting in the lobby and the roommate whose number is programmed is at work, nobody can let them in. Packages get marked undeliverable, guests stand outside texting the group chat, and the running joke becomes “whose turn is it to go down and open the door.”

The problem is not any one person, it is that a single intercom line was never built for a household of three or four adults who all have their own guests, deliveries, and schedules. You need a way for any roommate to let someone in, no matter whose phone the intercom calls. (If you are in Canada and know this as the buzzer, the share buzzer access guide covers the exact same fix.)

How to fix it

The goal is for every roommate to be able to open the front door, even when the others are out. Here is how the common approaches compare.

Option	Pros	Cons
Share one lobby keypad code with everyone	Anyone can walk visitors in	Never expires, leaks easily, many buildings ban sharing it
Program a shared landline for the unit	Rings a common phone	Useless when no one is home, and most people don’t keep a landline
Each roommate’s cell on the building panel	Everyone answers their own guests	Most call boxes allow only one number per unit, so this usually isn’t possible
Group chat “who’s home” coordination	Free	Constant pestering, and it fails the moment nobody is home
Lowkey	Every roommate answers the same intercom from their own phone, plus per-person passcodes	Quick one-time setup with your building

A shared code is the quickest stopgap, but it never expires and you cannot tell who used it. If you want each roommate to let their own people in from anywhere, routing the one intercom to everyone is the cleaner fix. For how that routing actually works, see forwarding your intercom to your phone.

Where Lowkey helps

Lowkey is built for a unit with more than one person on the lease. It takes the single intercom call your building places and rings every roommate who is on the app, so whoever is free can let the visitor in from their own phone, wherever they are. You give your building one virtual number to program for the unit, then each roommate gets their own access, and you can hand out 4-digit passcodes for the keypad to a recurring guest, a partner, or a dog walker without sharing anything permanent. The activity history shows who got let in and when, so there is no mystery about who opened the door at 2 AM. There is nothing to install, and it works with any intercom that dials out to a phone number, which covers most apartment and condo systems.