Equity & Help Inc

Overview

Common area phones are unassigned desk phones that can be used by anyone. Account owners and admins can add any supported device to the web portal and provision it as a common area phone. You can also enable hot desking for a common area phone, allowing phone users to sign in or out of the common area phone.

Here are a few scenarios where common area phones can be used:

• If your office has a shared desk that doesn't belong to a specific employee, you can set up a common area phone and enable hot desking so that any employee can use it.
• If your office reception area is unattended, visitors can use a common area phone to contact an employee.
• If your warehouse or office requires a pager or intercom, you can set it up as a common area phone so that any phone user can use it.
• If you have a employee that oversees common area phones, you can add the phones as delegates. This will allow the common area phone to make and receive call on behalf of the phone user.

Prerequisites

• Pro, Business, Education, or Enterprise account
• Account owner or admin privileges
• Zoom Phone license 
• Certified device

Note: Before adding a common area phone to the Zoom web portal, see an overview of the provisioning process.

Limitations

Common area phones don't support the following features:

• Voicemail inbox
• Ad-hoc or automatic recordings
• Call handling rules based on business, closed, or holiday hours
• Call monitoring
• Custom hold music (common area phones use the default hold music)
• Custom blocked list (common area phones use the account-level blocked list)
• Nomadic emergency service

If you require one of these features, consider using one of these workarounds:

• Add a phone user and assign the desk phone to that user. You can still enable hot desking to allow other phone users to sign in to the device.
• Use the common area phone's Call Handing settings to forward to a call queue, auto receptionist, or shared line group.
  Note: Don't use this workaround if you require nomadic emergency service.

Adding a common area desk phone

Follow these steps if want to add a desk phone that can be used by anyone. You can also batch add several common area phones at once.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Users & Rooms.
3. Click the Common Area Phones tab.
4. Click Add and enter the following information:
   • Site (only visible if you have multiple sites): Select the site you want the common area phone to belong to.
   • Display Name: Enter a display name to identify the common area phone.
   • Description (Optional): Enter a description to help identify the common area phone.
   • Extension Number: Enter an extension number to assign.
   • Emergency Address (only visible if you don't have multiple sites): Select an emergency address to assign to the common phone. If you selected a site for the common area phone, the site's emergency address will be applied to the phone.
   • Package: Assign an outbound calling package.
   • Country: Select the country of the phone's emergency address. The country determines the reserved extension numbers that you can't use for the phone.
   • Timezone: Select a timezone to set the time displayed on the common area phone.
   • MAC Address: Enter the 12-digit MAC address of the desk phone.
   • Device Type: Select the brand and model number using the drop-down menus.
   • Provision Template (Optional) - only visible if the specified device supports provision templates: Select a provision template to apply custom settings to the phone.
5. Click Save. 
6. Complete the provisioning process.
7. (Optional) Follow the steps to assign a direct number to the common area phone.

After adding a common area phone, you can change its settings.

Converting an unassigned desk phone to a common area phone

You can convert a provisioned, unassigned desk phone to a common area phone without having to re-provision it.

Note: If the desk phone is currently assigned, edit its settings to unbind it from the phone user.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Users & Rooms.
3. Click the Unassigned tab.
4. Click the display name of the phone you want to convert.
5. Click Set up as Common Area Phone.
6. Specify the same information as if you were adding a common area phone.
7. Click Save.
   The desk phone will appear in the Common Area Phones tab. The desk phone may reboot several times to complete the conversion.
   Note: If the common area phone is offline, reboot the phone to bring it back online.

Converting a common area phone to an unassigned desk phone

You can convert a common area phone to an unassigned desk phone without having to re-provision it.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Users & Rooms.
3. Click the Common Area Phones tab.
4. Click the display name of the phone you want to convert.
5. Click Unassign at the bottom of the page.
   The phone will appear in the Unassigned tab. The desk phone may reboot several times to complete the conversion.
6. (Optional) Assign the desk phone to a phone user.

Adding a common area phone to a call queue

You can add a common area phone to be a member of a call queue.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Call Queues.
3. Click the name of the call queue you want to add the phone to.
4. In the Member(s) section, click View or Edit.
5. Click Add.
6. Click the Common Area Phone tab.
7. Select the common area phone and click OK.

Adding a common area phone to an auto receptionist

You can route to a common area phone during an auto receptionist's business or closed hours.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click the name of the auto receptionist you want to add the phone to.
4. In the Business Hours or Closed Hours section, click Edit next to Route to.
5. Select Common Area Phone, enter the phone's name, then select the common area phone.
6. Click OK.

Adding a common area phone to an IVR

If you have an a IVR system, you can provide an IVR menu option for callers to route to a common area phone.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
3. Click the name of the auto receptionist with an IVR you want to add the phone to.
   Note: Set up an IVR if the auto receptionist if it doesn't have one.
4. In the Business Hours or Closed Hours section, click Edit under Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
5. Click Edit next to one of the key.
6. Select Forward to Common Area Phone.
7. Click OK.