A computing system of an answering service answers an incoming call from a calling party on behalf of a called party, and allows an agent to converse with the calling party. Contact with the called party is established while the incoming call from the calling party is still in progress, and a signal is received from the called party for the called party to monitor the incoming call without joining in. Upon detecting a disconnection of the monitored incoming call between the agent and the calling party, the called party is notified that the incoming call has ended and the agent and the called party are allowed to converse with each other over the called party call regarding the incoming call from the calling party.