Docs / Phone system

Calling features and feature codes

This chapter covers what people do with their phones beyond plain calls: do not disturb, call forwarding, voicemail, ring groups, paging and intercom, call parking and pickup, call recording, hot desking, phone keys that light up, hold music and transfers. It starts with the full list of feature codes, the star codes people dial from any phone of the tenant.

Feature codes

Feature codes work from every phone, softphone and browser softphone of the tenant. Where a code is followed by a number, dial both in one go, for example *72916125550199 to forward every call to 9 + 612 555 0199.

Queue agent and supervisor codes are explained in Call centre, the keys inside a conference room in Conference rooms and the switchboard, and *27/*28 in Forcing open or closed.

A forwarding target is dialled the way the person would dial it from their own phone. An outside number therefore includes whatever your outbound routes expect: with a "9 for an outside line" route, forwarding to 612 555 0199 is *72916125550199. After setting a forward, the phone reads the number back.

Do not disturb, forwarding and business hours overrides set from a phone are saved like changes in the console, and show in Change history as made by "phone".

Do not disturb

*76 switches do not disturb on and off; the phone says "do not disturb activated" or "de-activated". The person can also tick Do not disturb in the portal, and an administrator in the Call handling card of the extension.

While it is on, the person's phones do not ring. Callers are treated as if the line were busy: they go to the busy forward if one is set, otherwise to voicemail with the busy greeting, otherwise they hear a busy tone. A person on do not disturb is also skipped by ring groups (their phones count as busy).

Call forwarding

There are three forwards, each set and cleared on its own:

The target can be another extension or an outside number. Without a busy or no-answer forward, those calls go to voicemail. Set them from the phone, from the portal (Forward every call to, When I am busy, forward to, When I do not answer, forward to), in the console on the extension's Call handling card, or with onyx ext calls acme 101 --always 916125550199.

Good to know:

• A chain of forwards stops after five steps, so two people forwarding to each other cannot loop forever; the caller hears a fast busy tone.
• When an outside caller is forwarded to an outside number, the forwarded call shows the tenant's main number, not the original caller's number. Without a main number the caller's own number is passed on, which many carriers refuse.
• Forwarded calls to outside numbers count against Call limits (toll fraud). If international calls are allowed only for some extensions, international forwards are refused, because a forwarded call has no calling extension.

Onyx Voice has no separate follow-me list yet. To ring a desk phone and a mobile together, make a ring group with the extension and the mobile number as members; to try the desk first and the mobile after, use the no-answer forward.

Voicemail

Every extension has a voicemail box unless Voicemail is turned off on it. Its PIN is set when the extension is created and shown in the console (Voicemail PIN).

Listening to messages

• Dial *97, or dial your own extension number, and enter your PIN. The spoken menu offers new and saved messages and the mailbox options.
• Dial *98 from any phone to reach any box: enter the box number, then its PIN.
• In the user portal, play and delete messages in the browser; see The user portal.
• By e-mail, if the extension has an E-mail and the server can send mail (below).

Phones show a message waiting light while there are new messages.

What callers hear

A call rings the person's phones for Ring for (seconds), then goes to voicemail with the "unavailable" greeting. A busy line or do not disturb goes to voicemail with the "busy" greeting. Callers can listen to their message before saving it. A message can be up to 5 minutes long and must be at least 2 seconds; a box holds up to 100 messages.

When voicemail is off, an unanswered caller hears that nobody is available, and a caller to a busy line hears a busy tone.

Greetings, name and PIN

People record their unavailable and busy greetings and their name from the mailbox options in the *97 menu; greetings can be up to 2 minutes. Recording greetings in the portal is not available yet.

Change the PIN in the console (Voicemail PIN on the extension) or with onyx ext set acme 101 --pin 482913.

Voicemail to e-mail

New messages are e-mailed as a WAV attachment to the extension's E-mail, with the subject "New voicemail from" the caller and the length. The message also stays in the mailbox.

The server needs a mail server to send through. On Server settings, in the Voicemail e-mail group, fill in and Save each of:

Then send a test from the server's shell: onyx mail test [email protected]. If the test fails, check the port, the encryption and the password against what your mail provider documents. Many relays only accept a sender address of their own domain; set Mail sender to one. All settings are listed in Server settings reference.

Voicemail as a destination

Wherever the console asks where a call goes (a phone number, a menu option, a ring group's "if nobody answers"), you can choose Voicemail of 101. The caller goes straight to that box and hears its unavailable greeting. Only boxes with voicemail on are offered.

Ring groups

A ring group is one number that rings several people.

1. On Extensions & numbers, click Add and choose Ring group. The form suggests a number from 600.
2. Enter the Name, for example Sales.
3. How it rings: Ring everyone at once, or Ring one after another, in order.
4. Members: extensions, or outside numbers written as your users dial them (for example 916125550199), separated by commas. Up to 50.
5. Ring time (everyone at once): how long all members ring together, in seconds.
6. Ring time per person (in turn): how long each member rings when they ring in turn.
7. Name prefix: put in front of the caller's name, for example Sales: , so members know which group was called.
8. If nobody answers: where the call goes next, for example a voicemail box or another number.
9. Click Create ring group.

Members that are extensions ring their phones only: their own voicemail, forwarding and no-answer settings do not apply inside a group, and a member on do not disturb is skipped. Members cannot be other ring groups, queues or menus. A short number that is not an extension (four digits or fewer) is refused as a likely typo.

To change a ring group, open it, edit the Settings card and click Save; calls use the change right away. For agents who log in and out, waiting music and announcements, use a call queue instead (Call centre).

Paging and intercom

Paging groups

A paging group makes several phones answer on speaker at once, for announcements.

1. Click Add on Extensions & numbers and choose Paging group (suggested from 400).
2. Enter the Name and the Phones to page: extensions, separated by commas (up to 100).
3. Tick Two-way (people paged can talk back) if they should be able to answer; otherwise it is announcement only.
4. Click Create paging group.

Dialling the group's number opens the speaker of every desk phone of those extensions. Phones already on a call are skipped, forwarding is ignored, and browser softphones are not paged. To change the members, delete the paging group and create it again.

Intercom

*80 followed by an extension calls that person's desk phones and asks them to answer on speaker at once, for example *80102. It rings for up to 20 seconds; browser softphones are not called.

Paging and intercom send the auto-answer request that Yealink, Grandstream, Poly and Cisco phones understand. Whether a phone really answers by itself also depends on the phone's own intercom setting; if it just rings, look for "auto answer" or "allow intercom" in the phone.

Call parking

Parking puts a call on hold where anyone in the company can pick it up.

1. During the call, transfer it to 700 with the phone's transfer key (or ##700 on a phone without one).
2. The engine parks it in the first free slot from 701 to 720.
3. Anyone dials that slot number to pick the call up.

If nobody picks it up within 120 seconds, it rings back the person who parked it for 30 seconds. Parked callers hear the standard hold music.

To see which slot a call went to, give desk phones Park slot keys (they light while a call is parked in that slot), or use the switchboard in the portal, which shows parked calls; see Conference rooms and the switchboard. The park number and slots are the same in every tenant and cannot be used as extension numbers.

Call pickup

• *8 answers any phone of the tenant that is ringing right now.
• ** followed by an extension answers that extension's ringing call, for example **102. An Extension (BLF) key for 102 shows when it rings.

Call recording

Calls are recorded when any of these is on:

Calls that reach someone as a member of a ring group or a queue are not recorded by that person's own setting or by the phone number's setting. Queue calls are recorded by the queue's own switch; ring groups have no recording switch yet. See Call recordings.

A call is recorded once, however many times it is transferred. Recordings are found, played, downloaded, held and deleted on Recordings, which also sets how long they are kept; see Call recordings.

Onyx Voice does not play a "this call may be recorded" notice by itself. If your law requires one, put it in your auto attendant greeting or queue announcement. There is no key to start or stop recording during a call yet.

Hot desking

A hot desk is a shared phone. Anyone logs in to it and, until they log out, it calls and rings as them.

To make a phone a hot desk, click Make hot desk next to it in the extension's Phones card, or Make it a hot desk on Desk phones. The phone keeps its own extension (for example a "Desk 3" extension) for when nobody is logged in. Browser softphones cannot be hot desks.

To log in, dial *55 on the desk phone, enter your extension and press #, then enter your voicemail PIN. Three wrong PINs end the call. From then on the desk:

• calls with your name, number and outbound caller ID, and records your calls if your extension records;
• rings for calls to your extension, together with your other phones, and no longer rings for the desk's own extension;
• opens your voicemail with *97, logs you in to your queues with *45, and gives you supervisor codes if you have them;
• keeps its own emergency caller ID, because that number says where the phone is.

Dial *56 to log out. Logging in at another desk moves you there, and someone else logging in at your desk logs you out. Desk phones set up by Desk phones re-read their settings so their screen shows who is logged in.

Logging in by phone needs a voicemail box: a person with voicemail off cannot use *55. An administrator can log anyone in or out on Desk phones with Log in… and Log out. onyx hotdesk list shows who is logged in where.

Phone keys (BLF) and presence

Desk phones set up by Onyx Voice can carry programmable keys. On Desk phones, click Keys next to a phone, then Add a key for each:

Click Save keys; a phone that is online gets them at once. Key 1 is always the person's own line.

An Extension (BLF) key can also watch feature states:

• *76102 lights while 102 is on do not disturb. It only shows the state; 102 switches it with *76.
• *27500 lights while business hours 500 is forced closed, and *28500 while it is forced open. Pressing these keys switches the override, which makes them handy on a receptionist's phone.

Presence of everyone in the company, with drag-and-drop transfer, is in the portal switchboard for operators; see Conference rooms and the switchboard. More on keys per phone model in Desk phones.

Hold music

Callers on hold, waiting in a queue or waiting in a conference room hear the tenant's hold music: the standard music that comes with Onyx Voice, or music you uploaded. Parked calls always hear the standard music. Uploading and choosing music is in Hold music.

Transfers

Desk phones and softphones transfer calls with their own transfer key, blind or attended. On a phone without one, dial ## and the number during the call for a blind transfer, or *2 and the number for an attended transfer (you talk to the other person first, then hang up to complete it).

Echo test and speaking clock

• *43 answers, plays a short instruction and then repeats everything you say. Use it to check a phone's audio and delay without calling anyone.
• *60 reads the date and time in the tenant's time zone.