Listening from Another Deskphone/Handset

[dbm-ntwt]

Back in the old days when someone was using our house phone and there were multiple physical phones on the same line, if you wanted, you could have someone pickup another handset to listen in on the conversation (and even talk if they wanted). I noticed when I have two desk phones assigned to the same extension, this behavior is not replicated.

When picking up a second handset on the same extension while my first handset is in a call does not allow the second handset to hear the call.

Is this just the way things are with modern digital phone systems, or is there a way to replicate the old behavior?

Thank you in advance!

 

[SteveITS]

You'd need to conference call.

For queues/agents, there are listen/whisper/barge features.

 

[SweetAction]

Steve is correct, you want to use Listen/Whisper/Barge, which should work for all calls and not just Queues and Agents.

 

[QueBall]

I think he is trying to replicate the behaviour of an old analog home phone here.

The answer is a hard NO. You cannot just pickup another IP phone and be in a conference call with another extension hearing what they hear. The other extension will need to actively join you into a conference call. Having multiple phones with the same extension number will actually make this harder, not easier so better to create unique extensions for each phone if you want to do this. If you have programmed the busy lamps you can more easily transfer and conference a call from one phone to another by pressing the button rather than typing the extension number. you must press conference first otherwise the default would be a call transfer from one phone to the next.
Now to get all phones to ring you can join them into a ring group so the first one who picks up gets that call.
If you get annoyed by telemarketers if using this for home use, setup a digital receptionist to answer the calls first, as the scammers generally never bother to navigate the menu tree. You can make inbound CID rules for your VIP callers that bypasses the menu and rings directly to the ring group for when friends and family call.


That barge in/listen feature would require you to launch this activity from the web client and requires the correct license above free/standard edition to work. It's not particularly well suited for the home use analog phone replacement purpose. More of a call centre management thing.

Basically the old fashioned "party line" is gone with IP phones. But at the same time you can have multiple independent calls going without having to buy more lines only limited by your license, internet and trunk provider capacity.

Now the alternative to all this, is to hook up an analog terminal adapter and just plug in those old fashioned phones again and they all become one shared extension off the back of the adapter.

 

[dbm-ntwt]

Thank you all for your prompt responses!

I think he is trying to replicate the behaviour of an old analog home phone here.

The answer is a hard NO. You cannot just pickup another IP phone and be in a conference call with another extension hearing what they hear. The other extension will need to actively join you into a conference call. Having multiple phones with the same extension number will actually make this harder, not easier so better to create unique extensions for each phone if you want to do this. If you have programmed the busy lamps you can more easily transfer and conference a call from one phone to another by pressing the button rather than typing the extension number. you must press conference first otherwise the default would be a call transfer from one phone to the next.
Now to get all phones to ring you can join them into a ring group so the first one who picks up gets that call.
If you get annoyed by telemarketers if using this for home use, setup a digital receptionist to answer the calls first, as the scammers generally never bother to navigate the menu tree. You can make inbound CID rules for your VIP callers that bypasses the menu and rings directly to the ring group for when friends and family call.


That barge in/listen feature would require you to launch this activity from the web client and requires the correct license above free/standard edition to work. It's not particularly well suited for the home use analog phone replacement purpose. More of a call centre management thing.

Basically the old fashioned "party line" is gone with IP phones. But at the same time you can have multiple independent calls going without having to buy more lines only limited by your license, internet and trunk provider capacity.

Now the alternative to all this, is to hook up an analog terminal adapter and just plug in those old fashioned phones again and they all become one shared extension off the back of the adapter.

This is indeed what I was trying to replicate.

Even though that old behavior doesn't work with the IP phones, I do very much appreciate your explanation and other suggestions. Incidentally, I did actually create an IVR for myself but was contemplating on not using it ... but since you mentioned scammers and their behaviors, that sounds like a good idea to just keep it.

I do have the Pro edition of 3CX and the phone system is a mix of personal and organizational use, so will continue to use the barge or listen-in features that come with the edition as necessary.