Set Distinctive Ringtones for Ring Group Calls

Giving each ring group its own ringtone lets members tell at a glance which group a call is coming from. This is particularly handy for anyone who belongs to several ring groups at once, since the sound alone signals who is trying to reach them.

There are two ways to apply a distinctive ringtone, depending on where members answer their calls:

• On a member’s IP phone
• In the Cloud Voice App

On a member’s IP phone

To make a member’s desk phone play a particular tone for ring group calls, you push the setting to the extension through auto provisioning (the feature that configures and deploys IP phones centrally from the PBX).

Note

Members can also set a distinctive ringtone directly from their phone’s own web interface. Because those controls differ between manufacturers, check the phone maker’s documentation for the exact steps.

Prerequisite: the member’s extension must already be linked to an IP phone through auto provisioning. See:

• Auto Provision IP Phones Remotely via RPS Method
• Auto Provision IP Phones Remotely with Proxy

The setup has two parts: define an alert info on the ring group, then map that alert info to a ringtone on the member’s extension.

Step 1: Add an alert info to the ring group

The alert info is the signal a phone reads to decide which tone to play for calls that arrive through this ring group.

1. Sign in to the PBX (Private Branch Exchange, your hosted phone system) web portal and go to Call Features > Ring Group, then open the ring group you want to change.

2. Under Ring Group Alert Info, type an alert info value. This example uses Sales.

   

3. Click Save.

Step 2: Match the alert info to a ringtone on the extension

1. Assign a ringtone to the member’s extension:

   1. In the PBX web portal, go to Extension and Trunk > Extension and open the member’s extension.

   2. Open the Phone tab.

   3. In the Distinctive Ringtone section, click Add.

   4. For Alert Info, choose the value you defined for the ring group, Sales in this example.

   5. For Ringtone, pick the tone to play for these calls. This example uses Ring4.wav.

      Note

      The ringtones available depend on the phone model.

      

   6. Click Save.

2. Reprovision the phone so the change takes effect:

   Caution

   Reprovisioning pushes the new config to the phone and often reboots it. A reboot briefly takes the phone offline and can cut off a call in progress, so reprovision while the extension is idle.

   1. Go to Auto Provisioning > Phones.
   2. Click the reprovision icon next to the phone assigned to the member’s extension.

Result: the member’s phone now plays Ring4.wav whenever a call comes in through the Sales ring group.

In the Cloud Voice App

You can attach a ringtone to a ring group so that it plays on members’ Cloud Voice App when they receive a call from that group.

1. Sign in to the PBX web portal and go to Call Features > Ring Group, then open the ring group you want to change.

2. From the Cloud Voice App Distinctive Ringtone drop-down list, select an existing ringtone or upload a new one.

   

3. Click Save.

Note

• Manage any ringtones you upload from PBX Settings > Voice Prompt > Custom Ringtone.
• A custom (uploaded) ringtone applies only to the web and desktop versions of the Cloud Voice App for ring group calls. On the mobile app, calls use the ringtone set within the app itself.
• If the caller is a contact who already has a distinctive ringtone in the member’s Cloud Voice App, that contact’s ringtone plays instead of the ring group ringtone.