Set up Group Voicemail for a Ring Group

A group voicemail gives a ring group (a set of extensions that ring together when a call comes in) a single mailbox that all of its members can watch. When a caller leaves a message, everyone in the group is notified, so the message reaches your team rather than sitting in one person’s box. This page walks through creating that mailbox and choosing how messages are handled.

Create the group voicemail

1. Sign in to the Cloud Voice admin portal and open Call Features > Voicemail > Group Voicemail.

2. Click Add.

3. On the General tab, fill in the Basic settings:

   Setting	What it does
   Type	Choose Ring Group.
   Ring Group	Pick the ring group this mailbox belongs to.
   Number	Read-only. The mailbox uses the ring group’s number.
   Name	Read-only. The mailbox uses the ring group’s name.
   Mode	Choose how incoming messages are handled (see the options below).
   Voicemail PIN Authentication	Turn PIN (Personal Identification Number, a numeric passcode) protection for the mailbox on or off.
   Voicemail Access PIN	When PIN authentication is on, enter the access PIN anyone dialing into the mailbox must key in.
   Disallow Voicemail Messages	Optional. Stops callers from recording messages. The system plays the greeting and then ends the call.
   Play Date and Time	Optional. Announces when the message was received before playing it.
   Play Caller ID	Optional. Announces the caller’s ID before playing the message.
   Play Message Duration	Optional. Announces how long the message is before playing it.
   Custom Prompt Language	Optional. Sets the language of the voicemail prompts callers hear in this mailbox.

   For Mode, you have two choices:

   • Shared by Members keeps every message in the group mailbox, where any member can listen to and manage it. Choose this if you want one shared record of messages, or if you plan to use the call alerts in step 6 (they read the group mailbox and only work in this mode).
   • Broadcast to Members does not keep a copy in the group mailbox. Instead, each message is copied and forwarded to every member’s personal mailbox, so there is no central group record to review later.

   Note

   The languages available under Custom Prompt Language come from your system prompts, at PBX Settings > Voice Prompt > System Prompt. If the mailbox has a custom greeting, callers hear that greeting and the language setting is ignored.

   Tip

   Because a group mailbox is shared by the whole team, turn on Voicemail PIN Authentication and set an access PIN. This keeps messages from being read by anyone who reaches the mailbox menu.

4. Optional. In the Group Voicemail Greeting section, select the greeting to play before callers leave a message.

   Tip

   To create your own greetings, see Record or Upload Voicemail Greetings.

5. Review the Members section. Every member of the ring group is added automatically, and the list is read-only.

   Note

   Membership stays tied to the ring group. When you add or remove members there, the group mailbox updates to match.

6. Optional. On the Voicemail Announcement tab, set up call alerts so the system phones your team when a new message arrives.

   Note

   Call alerts are available only when Mode is set to Shared by Members.

7. Click Save, then Apply.