• V20: 3CX Re-engineered. Get V20 for increased security, better call management, a new admin console and Windows softphone. Learn More.

In Progress 3CX Night Mode Visual Indication

datatech1

Joined
May 17, 2010
Messages
7
Reaction score
15
Hi Guys,
We have noticed that the 3CX system does not currently have a way of being able to visually see when the phone system is in day or night mode (Office Hours or Out of Office Hours).

This is a huge pain in the backside for all of us who come from a traditional TDM based phone system. We have worked on several traditional (digital and electronic) phone systems over the years and all of them have had this functionality as standard where you are able to program a button on the reception phone (or as many phones as is required) to allow the user to put the system into day or night mode, some system even offer a Day, Day2 and Night mode which can be very handy.

3CX have a very useful feature where you can program the systems office hours so it will automatically go into the night mode when the time is outside of these hours, but sometimes customers need the ability to be able to manually put the system into day or night mode.
Luckily the guys at 3CX have allowed the use of a short code which will allow you to force the system into day or night mode or put the system back into the default auto mode:-
  • *641 - force the system to use "In Office Hours"
    *642 - force the system to use "Out of Office Hours"
    *64 - force the system to use "Default Office Hours" (auto mode)
This is great, but there is still no visual indication on the IP Phones to show what mode the system is in.

I recently contacted the support department to see if there was a way of getting the developers to look into this as I have noticed there are lots of forum posts relating to this very frustrating issue and they advised me to post on the 3CX ideas forum and get it up-voted.
I even contacted out account manager at 3CX as well as their CEO (Nick Gelea) and they both advised me to do the same, so this is what I am doing.

I have heard from Nick and he said they may be able to do something on the 3CX client as it may be easier to implement, but I don't think this will suit most people's needs as we really need the phone system to be able to light a button on a phone or change the colour of the button if the phone supports that, so I have come up with a couple of possible ways that the development team could easily implement this on the system so that we can start to sell more systems as direct replacements for their aging TDM systems.

The ways I have come up with to get this working could be as simple as a global extension (say 799) as the older 3CX v14 used to show the system extensions (under System Status > System Extensions).

The global extension number could be programmed to be as follows:-
  • Available when the system is in Day Mode (In Office Hours)
    Busy when the system is in Night Mode (Out of Office Hours)
This would then allow us to be able to program that extension on the reception phone (or as many phones as required) and give a clear visual indication of what mode the system is in.

We use the Yealink T46G IP Phones in the office (or will do when we can finally get a visual indication for Day / Night mode) and they will show an extension as green when it is not in use or red when it is busy, we also have some clients who have Cisco VoIP phones and they behave in exactly the same way.

It would be even better if they were able to make the button have the ability of being able to show an extension status and being able to dial a short code to put the system into day or night mode like this guys has managed to do with the Asterisk phone system and a Cisco IP Phone:-
http://forums.kerio.com/t/28825/


I hope many of you will see this post and vote it up as I know there are a lot of us on the forums asking about this feature and requesting that it gets implemented as soon as possible as it would be a very valuable addition to the 3CX system and I am sure it will allow us all to sell more system to customers.
 
Upvote 243
Massively frustrating this isn't an already available feature. Please implement this soon 3CX- its fundamental for our offices.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Coggers
Has any progress been made to implement this?
We've not been asked for this before, but have just completed an installation using Fanvil X6 handsets and have created a Night Service and Day Service button. The customer can press the correct option, but would like to know what state their phone system is in by looking at the handsets.

Doesn't need to be a lit BLF key, although that sounds sensible, could a custom message be displayed on each handset screen?

Sounds like this 'Idea' has been posted for the past 2 years, seems a logical request for customers use to how their older PBX use to work, hard to explain why 3CX haven't thought to implement it.

D
 
I also agree that this needs to be a BLF. 'in use' = red on most phone's BLF for night mode, 'available' = green on most phone's BLF for day mode.

Also, need this in the context of a holiday mode. Currently handling via web interface on an extension and routing inbound calls through it.
 
+1 to their being a visual indicator or way to determine in the system is Forced In, Forced out, if the global office hours are in effect etc.

This needs prioritizing as the consequences of a system being left forced in OR forced out can be quite serious.
 
+1. It's frustrating to explain to a customer that they've lost functionality as simple as this after upgrading to a modern phone system.
 
This is needed just make it an extension that we can assign a BLF to
 
There did seem to be a fix for this but not to be.

The idea was to point all calls to an extension, then we configure the office hours feature to change it's status, so in available mode all calls are forwarded to day IVR and DND mode all calls are forwarded to night IVR, then simply we simply name that extension Day/Night and add it on a yealink button and away we go, Perfect green for Day and red for Night!......... Ahh now we find the issue is the DND blf does not work on a phone but only on web client/softphone, so close!

Does anyone know if this has been asked as a request?
 
+1
Much needed feature.
 
+10 After 10 years selling/supporting Asterisk I finally get a customer to pay extra for a 3cx install, only to find out that no blf for day/night. I knew it was to good to be true. 3cx is truly a well thought and excellent pbx, but to be missing such basic functionality is crushing. Ill up the ante a bit, in Asterisk, when the end user toggles the day/night blf from green to red you can play a message telling the end user what state the system is in. When the user toggles the day/night button my systems play my voice saying "the system is in night mode as indicated by the button being red" and conversely, "the system is in day mode as indicated by the button being green" A bullet proof way to make sure the user is aware of the state of the system. I guess if this thread is buried this deep in the forum with this many up votes, that its a heavy lift for the software engineers. Its such a great product, this bit of basic functionality really must be addressed. Come on folks, all together now, lets get this one over the wall and make 3cx superior to asterisk!!
 
I've just changed over from 10+ years in asterisk as well ...
Didn't notice this was missing in testing but now it could mean not changing ...
The thought of a user leaving system in night mode and customer raging after not getting calls for a morning could be really annoying ...
3CX, Please look into this ASAP !!!
 
We just changed over from an obsolete 20 year old Mitel system to discover that the new 3CX switches between day and night modes with no visual indication of which mode the system is in. The old Mitel system had a single button on four different receptionists phones labeled "Night". The button toggled between modes and the lamp was lit when the system was in Night Mode. Has anyone found a work around to this 3CX shortcoming?
 
Because this is SO necessary, I've had to make a workaround. I have a phone dedicated to this job. If you set it to DND, you get the visual indicator that it's in DND. Multiple people have access to this in the webclient.

I put that phone in the dial plan. If available, it forwards to the ring group. If not, then after hours.

~~~~

Really need this to be on a BLF, and pressing the BLF toggle it on/off *OR* hit an IVR asking if it's after hours, holiday, or open.
 
This would be easy to do in the web client and later in the apps too? Would that work?
 
That would be a great start ....
Could it also signal a temporary away switch?
Need something that with a press of a button could change the dial plan and signal to users that change.
 

Getting Started - Admin

Latest Posts

Forum statistics

Threads
141,631
Messages
748,961
Members
144,747
Latest member
Murad88
Get 3CX - Absolutely Free!

Link up your team and customers Phone System Live Chat Video Conferencing

Hosted or Self-managed. Up to 10 users free forever. No credit card. Try risk free.

3CX
A 3CX Account with that email already exists. You will be redirected to the Customer Portal to sign in or reset your password if you've forgotten it.