Extension Presence Overview

Presence is the status an extension broadcasts to signal whether its user is reachable. (An extension is the internal number assigned to a user’s phone and Cloud Voice App sign-in.) Out of the box, everyone in your organization can glance at another person’s presence before placing a call, so colleagues can tell who is free without having to ask.

Available statuses

Cloud Voice ships with six built-in presence statuses:

• Available: the user is online and open to calls and messages.
• Away: the user has stepped away from their desk.
• Business Trip: the user is traveling for work.
• Do Not Disturb: the user does not want to be interrupted and will not receive calls.
• Lunch Break: the user is on their lunch break.
• Off Work: the user’s working day has ended.

You can run with these defaults as they are, or tailor them to match how your organization works. To adjust the presence list, see Customize Extension Presence in System Preferences.

Tip

You do not have to design your presence list up front. Start with the six defaults, then customize them later from System Preferences once you know what your team actually needs.

What presence controls

Presence is more than a label. Each status carries its own set of call-handling rules, which you configure per presence. When a user’s status changes, the following behaviors switch over with it:

• Presence information: a description that explains what the current status means.
• Call forwarding: send internal and external calls to different destinations depending on the active status.
• Ring strategy: change how a user’s devices ring for each status.
• Ring timeout: set how long devices ring before timing out for each status. This does not apply to Do Not Disturb.
• Ring the Mobile Number Simultaneously: decide whether the user’s mobile phone rings at the same time as their extension.
• Accept push notifications: decide whether the Cloud Voice App mobile client delivers push alerts such as missed calls and voicemails.
• Agent Status Auto Switch: automatically adjust the user’s queue agent status when they belong to a call queue.
• Voicemail greetings: play a different voicemail greeting for each status.

Note

You configure these rules once per status. After that, simply switching status applies the whole set at once, so there is no need to re-edit forwarding or ring rules each time someone leaves for lunch or heads home.

For the details behind these options, see Presence Settings and Change Voicemail Greetings.

Caution

While a user is set to Do Not Disturb, the system blocks every incoming call to that extension. If someone forgets they are in this status, their phone never rings and callers are diverted (to voicemail, or wherever call forwarding sends them). Check that a user is not stuck in Do Not Disturb before you troubleshoot reports of “missing” calls.

How presence changes

There are two ways an extension’s presence can change: manually or automatically.

Manually

An administrator can set the presence of specific users from the PBX (Private Branch Exchange, your hosted phone system) management portal. Users can also change their own presence from the Cloud Voice App, either by pressing a function key or by dialing a feature code.

Note

A function key is a programmable button (on a desk phone or in the Cloud Voice App) that you assign to a single action, here switching to a chosen presence. A feature code is a short code the user dials on the keypad to perform the same switch. Pick whichever is quicker for the device the user has in hand.

To learn more, see:

• Manually Switch Extension Presence
• Switch Extension Presence by Function Key
• Switch presence from the Cloud Voice App web, desktop, or mobile client.

Automatically

Presence can also follow a schedule, switching on its own according to your Business Hours and Holidays.

Tip

Automatic switching suits statuses that track the clock, such as Off Work in the evening or Lunch Break at midday. Define the times once under Business Hours and Holidays, and each extension changes status on its own with no manual step.

To learn more, see Auto Switch Presence Status based on Business Hours and Holidays.