Skip to content

Set up call pickup groups

Group extensions together so anyone in the group can answer a ringing call on a colleague's phone by dialling a single code.

Who this is for: admins

Before you start

  • Pickup Groups is a premium feature. It's off by default — a SuperAdmin needs to switch it on for your account from the tenant Settings tab (directly, or via a plan/bundle that includes it). Being managed by a Phonovo partner does not automatically grant it. If you don't see a Pickup Group tab on the extension detail page at all, it isn't available on your account — ask your provider or Phonovo SuperAdmin to enable it.
  • This has to be set up by an admin. An everyday user who opens their own extension's Pickup Group tab and saves a group name will see a "saved successfully" message even though the change silently doesn't take effect — only an admin's changes actually persist here today.
  • The extensions you want to group together already exist — see Create an extension and assign it to a user.
  • Decide on a group name for the team (for example, "sales" or "reception") — every extension in the same group must use exactly the same name.

Steps

  1. In the sidebar, under Communication, select Extensions.
  2. Find the first extension you want in the group and select the Configure icon (the sliders icon in the Actions column).
  3. Select the Pickup Group tab.
  4. Under Group Name, type the name for this team, for example sales. Only lowercase letters, numbers, hyphens, and underscores are allowed — anything else is stripped out as you type. As you type a name that matches other extensions, they appear underneath so you can confirm you've got the right group.
  5. Select Save Changes.
  6. Repeat steps 1–5 for every other extension that should belong to the same group, entering the identical group name each time.

Once at least two extensions share a group name, anyone in that group can dial *8 from their handset to pick up a call that's currently ringing on another group member's extension.

To remove an extension from a group, open its Pickup Group tab, clear the Group Name field, and select Save Changes.

Screenshot

Screenshot of the Pickup Group tab showing the Group Name field, the *8 pickup explanation, and the list of other extensions already in the same group.

Ask Olivia

You can also ask Olivia, the in-portal assistant, to walk you through this.