# Set up Call Alerts for Group Voicemail

Cloud Voice can place outbound notification calls whenever a shared group voicemail box receives a new message. You define an ordered list of external numbers, and the system dials them in priority order until someone listens to the pending messages or the call cycle limit is reached. This is a good fit for after-hours or emergency lines: route the incoming calls straight to a group voicemail, and let the alert calls reach your on-call team instead of leaving them to watch the mailbox.

## When to use this

Suppose a support team handles after-hours emergencies but does not want to staff a live queue overnight. You can point an inbound route for those calls at a dedicated group voicemail, then enable call alerts on that box. Each time a caller leaves a message, Cloud Voice rings your on-call agents so they can respond right away.

## Before you begin

- **Version**: 84.13.0.25 or later.
- **Plan**: Enterprise or Ultimate.

Keep these limits in mind:

- Alerts are only available on group voicemail boxes set to **Shared by Members**.
- Notification calls can only reach **external numbers**, and you can list at most **5** of them.

## Configure the alerts

1. Sign in to the PBX (Private Branch Exchange, your phone system's admin portal) and go to **Call Features > Voicemail > Group Voicemail**. Open a group voicemail whose **Mode** shows as **Shared**.

   ![Group voicemail list with a shared box open for editing](/images/pbx/edit-shared-group-voicemail.png)

2. Select the **Voicemail Announcement** tab.

3. Enable notifications and define who to call and how often.

   a. Turn on the **Voicemail Announcement** switch.

   b. In **Max Number of Call Cycles**, set how many times the system should run through your entire contact list.

      :::note
      - Enter a value of 30 or lower.
      - Calls stop once the cycle count is reached or every new message has been listened to, whichever comes first.
      :::

   c. Under **Contacts**, click **Add** and fill in the number and its dialing rule.

      ![Contact entry form with fields for number, call attempts, and retry interval](/images/pbx/voicemail-announcement-contact.png)

      - **Contact Number**: The external number to dial.

        :::caution
        Alert calls follow your outbound routes like any other outgoing call. Confirm that at least one outbound route matches this number, or the alert call cannot be placed and the on-call agent is never notified.
        :::

      - **Number of Call Attempts**: How many times to redial this number when the person does not pick up, or answers but does not listen to the new message.
      - **Retry Interval (min)**: How long to wait between attempts.

   d. **Optional**: Repeat step c to add more contacts.

      :::note
      Cloud Voice dials contacts from the top of the list downward. Drag the sort handle (![Sort handle](/images/pbx/Sort.png)) to change the priority order.
      :::

4. Click **Save**.

## Result

Once a new message arrives in the group voicemail, Cloud Voice dials your contacts in order. Whoever answers can follow the voice prompt to hear the message or call the original caller back directly.

:::tip
These alerts only fire on a real inbound message, so a misconfigured route can stay silently broken until an emergency. After you save, leave a test message on the box and confirm the first contact actually receives a call before you rely on it.
:::