Question
How do I participate in a call queue?
Information
Select Teams classic or Microsoft Teams (work or school) depending on your Teams version.
Microsoft Teams supports functionality for call queues and shared lines. Configuration of this function is owned by IT support staff. If you have been added to a call queue, you will find that from Teams Settings > Calls > Call queues
Switch the toggle to the on position to receive calls from the queue. When the toggle is in the off position, you will not receive calls from the queue.
When receiving a routed call from a queue, a banner will be added to the call notification indicating the name of the line where the call originates. This provides you with an opportunity to determine if the call is coming directly to your number, or if you're answering a call routed from a separate phone line.
You will also be able to differentiate between the types of calls you received when looking at your call history in Teams. Calls from a shared line or call queue will display in history with the name of the line where the call originates.
Note: If there is nothing indicating where a call originates, that means the call was dialed directly to your phone number.
Microsoft Teams supports functionality for call queues and shared lines. Configuration of this function is owned by IT support staff. If you have been added to a call queue, you will find that from Settings > Calls. You will see both the call queue and auto attendant tabs next to your Personal tab at the top of the screen. Select the call queue tab to proceed.
Switch the Receive calls from this queue toggle to the on position to receive calls from the queue. When the toggle is in the off position, you will not receive calls from the queue.
When receiving a routed call from a queue, a banner will be added to the call notification indicating the name of the line where the call originates. This provides you with an opportunity to determine if the call is coming directly to your number, or if you're answering a call routed from a separate phone line. (The image is from Microsoft Teams for macOS.)
You will also be able to differentiate between the types of calls you received when looking at your call history in Teams. Calls from a shared line or call queue will display in history with the name of the line where the call originates if you are the one who answered the call. However, if everyone in the call queue fails to answer, it will not appear in anyone's history.
Note: If there is nothing indicating where a call originates, that means the call was dialed directly to your phone number.
Additional notes
Set your status to Available
You will need to set your Teams status to Available to receive any calls to the call queue.
Select your profile avatar icon to show more options. Near your icon picture, select the drop-down menu adjacent to it then select Available. This will ensure that any incoming call will notify you. If you manually set your status, it will stay in that status until you change it.
Note: If you are an Outlook user, your status will be reflecting your availability according to your Outlook Calendar. Setting your availability manually will override this until Reset status is selected from the status menu.
See details about users in the call queue
By navigating to your call queue team's General channel, you can select the Calls tab at the top to view information about users in that call queue. Underneath the number pad that appears on the right, there will be of all members of the queue (including yourself) and their statuses.
- Your toggle here will indicate if you are set to receive calls in the queue or not.
- See Katie's toggle in the example image below, which is set to receive calls.
- If a user's icon is a purple icon of a person with a phone, they are set to receive calls from the queue.
- See Nancy's icon in the example image below.
- If the icon next to a user is greyed out, they will not receive calls from this queue.
- See Jillian's icon in the example image below.
If the user is not appearing in this list in your queue, they have not been added yet.
Delay when adding a member to a call queue
When a member is added to a call queue (by a call queue owner or Telecom services), it can take up to 8 hours to update the call queue configuration and for the new member to have full call queue functionality.
Delay when entering a call queue
When you toggle on the call queue, it can take a minute or two before you are available within the system.
Links to Additional Content
For additional guides, please consult the Teams Calling category.