Configure your Service to Use either Teams or 8x8 Voicemail

8x8 Voice for Teams administrators have the option to configure their Voice for Teams service to use either Teams voicemail or 8x8 voicemail. During this process, a specific Teams Calling Policy is assigned to each Teams user.

Configure your Service to Use Teams Voicemail

You can direct unanswered inbound Teams calls to Teams voicemail instead of 8x8 voicemail.

Notes:
- This is a global configuration and affects all of your Voice for Teams users. However, this configuration can be overridden at the individual level.
- Some of the processes below must be performed by a Voice for Teams admin portal administrator. However, changes to 8x8 user profiles can be performed by users if the required permissions are not disabled by an 8x8 Admin Console administrator.

To insure proper unanswered call forwarding behavior for your Voice for Teams users, the following steps must be completed:

Configure 8x8 Admin Console User Profiles

For Voice for Teams users whose unanswered calls are forwarded to Teams voicemail, their associated 8x8 user profiles must be appropriately configured. This configuration prevents 8x8 from picking up unanswered calls before Teams unanswered call behavior can be triggered.

Note: This specific section does not apply to any Voice for Teams users who have been configured to use 8x8 voicemail instead of Teams voicemail, such as users who are assigned to 8x8 Ring Groups and/or Call Queues.

To configure the 8x8 user profiles:

  1. Sign in to Admin Console.
  2. Click Users.
  3. Click the pencil icon next to the user you wish to edit.
  4. In the Call forwarding rules table, clear all the checkboxes.

  5. Click Save.

Configure the 8x8 Voice for Teams Admin Portal

Notes:
- This procedure enables Teams voicemail for all of your Voice for Teams users.
- If one or more of your Teams users should use 8x8 voicemail instead of Teams voicemail, such as members of 8x8 Ring Groups and/or Call Queues, first perform the configuration changes, and then continue with the section Overriding Teams Calling Policy for Individual Users below for further steps.

This process updates the Teams Calling Policy applied to your Teams users to force unanswered calls to Teams user voicemail.

To update the Teams Calling Policies:

  1. Sign in to 8x8 Voice for Teams admin portal.
  2. On the Services > PBX, under Calling Policy, select the Manage Teams Calling Policy checkbox to enable it (if it is not already enabled).
  3. In the Teams Voicemail list, select Allow Voicemail.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Click Sync Now.

  6. Once the sync process is complete, your affected Teams users must sign out and then sign in again to Teams to complete the update to their Teams Calling Policy.

Overriding Teams Calling Policy for Individual Users

The default Teams Calling Policy configured in Services > PBX can be overridden at the individual level, if needed. This allows an administrator to force specific Teams user’s unanswered calls to be forwarded to either 8x8 voicemail or Teams voicemail, depending on your requirements.

You can choose to force unanswered Teams user calls to be forwarded to 8x8 voicemail instead of your configured default of Teams voicemail.

To do so:

  1. In the Voice for Teams admin portal, on the Users tab, click the dropdown arrow on the left side of the Teams user whose Calling Policy you want to change.
  2. Under Calling Policy ,select the Override Teams Calling Policy checkbox to enable it.

  3. Click the Voicemail dropdown menu and select the appropriate option:

    • Prohibit Voicemail: With the meaning "Prohibit Teams voicemail. Use 8x8 voicemail instead".
    • Prohibit Voicemail & Call Forwarding: Removes the Voicemail and New number or contact options from Microsoft Teams in the Settings > Calls > Call answering rules > If unanswered menu.

  4. Click Save on the bottom of the specific user's section.

  5. Perform the above operation for each user whose Teams Calling Policy you are overriding from the configured default.

  6. Click Sync Now.

  7. Once the sync process is complete, your affected Teams user(s) must sign out of and sign again in to Teams to complete the update to their Teams Calling Policy.

User Configuration of Voicemail Options in Teams

Once the above configurations have been made to your service, Teams users must verify their Microsoft Teams voicemail configuration.

To do so:

  1. As a Teams user, sign out and then sign in again to Microsoft Teams.
  2. Then click the three dots in the upper right corner of Teams, and then select Settings.

  3. In Settings > Calls > Call answering rules > If unanswered, verify the preferred Teams unanswered-call handling behavior.

  4. Under Ring this many seconds before redirecting, set the ring time to an appropriate value.

Configure your Service to Use 8x8 Voicemail

You can choose to direct unanswered inbound Teams calls to 8x8 voicemail instead of Teams voicemail.

Notes:
- That this is a global configuration affecting all of your Voice for Teams users. However, this configuration can be overridden at the individual level.|
- Some of the processes below must be performed by a Voice for Teams admin portal administrator. Changes to 8x8 user profiles can be performed by users if the required permissions are not disabled by an 8x8 Admin Console administrator.

To insure proper unanswered call forwarding behavior for your Voice for Teams users, complete the following:

Configure the 8x8 Voice for Teams Admin Portal

This process updates the Teams Calling Policy applied to your Teams users to force unanswered calls to 8x8 user voicemail.

Note:
- This procedure enables 8x8 voicemail for all of your Voice for Teams users.
- If one or more of your Teams users should require the use of Teams voicemail instead of 8x8 voicemail, perform the configuration changes below, and then see the section Overriding Teams Calling Policy for Individual Users below for further steps.

To update the Teams Calling Policy:

  1. Sign in 8x8 Voice for Teams admin portal.
  2. On the Services > PBX, under Calling Policy,, click the Manage Teams Calling Policy checkbox to enable it (if it is not already enabled.

  3. Click Teams Voicemailthe dropdown menu and select the appropriate option from the list:

    • Prohibit Voicemail: With the meaning "Prohibit Teams voicemail. Use 8x8 voicemail instead".

    • Prohibit Voicemail & Call Forwarding: Removes the Voicemail and New number or contact options from Microsoft Teams in the Settings > Calls > Call answering rules > If unanswered menu.

  4. Click Save.
  5. Click Sync Now.

  6. Once the sync process is complete, your affected Teams users must log out of and log back into Teams to complete the update to their Teams Calling Policy.

Overriding Teams Calling Policy for Individual Users

The Teams Calling Policy configured in Services > PBXcan be overridden at the individual level, if needed. This allows an administrator to force specific Teams user’s unanswered calls to be forwarded to either 8x8 voicemail or Teams voicemail, depending on your requirements.

You can choose to force unanswered Teams user calls to be forwarded to be forwarded to Teams voicemail instead of your configured default of 8x8 voicemail.

To do so:

  1. In the Voice for Teams admin portal, on the Users tab, click the dropdown menu arrow on the left side of the Teams user whose Calling Policy you want to change.
  2. Under Calling Policy, select the Override Teams Calling Policy checkbox to enable it.

  3. In the Teams Voicemail list, menu and select Allow Voicemail.

  4. Click Save.at the bottom of the specific user's section.
  5. Perform the above operation for each user whose Teams Calling Policy you want to override.
  6. Click Sync Now to perform a full sync.

  7. Once the sync process is complete, your affected Teams user(s) must sign out and then sign in again to Teams to complete the update to their Teams Calling Policy.

Configure 8x8 User Call Forwarding Rules

For Microsoft Teams users whose unanswered calls are forwarded to 8x8 voicemail, their associated 8x8 user profiles must be configured to correctly trigger an appropriate call forwarding behavior.

Note: If Teams users do not have access to their 8x8 user settings, an administrator must configure this option for them.

To configure 8x8 user calls forwarding rules:

  1. Sign in to Admin Console.:

  2. Edit the user profile:

    • Administrators: On the Home > Users tab, click the pencil icon next to the user whose profile you want to edit.
    • Users: In the Account Settings page, in the Call forwarding rules table, select all the checkboxes related to the options that interest you.
  3. Configure the forwarding options.

  4. When all the user's forwarding options are all configured, click Save to complete the process. The changes take effect immediately.

Configure call forwarding rule options

Let's say you want to configure the "When the user does not answer the call within xx seconds" forwarding rule.

To configure the call forwarding rule options:

  1. In the Account Settings page, in the Call forwarding rules table, select the When the user does not answer the call within xx seconds forwarding rule, and then click the pencil icon in that row.
  2. In the When user does not answer the call within xx seconds window, in the When no answer for (seconds) box, set the number of seconds to wait before an inbound call forwarded.
  3. Under Forward the calls to, select the appropriate option, such as Voicemail.

  4. Click Save.

In this case, the inbound calls ring for a maximum of 20 seconds, and after that it is redirected to the 8x8 Voicemail.

User Configuration of Voicemail Options in Teams

Once configurations above have been made, Teams users must verify their Microsoft Teams voicemail configuration, to ensure a smooth usage of 8x8 voicemail.

To verify the Microsoft teams voicemail configuration:

  1. As a Teams user, if you did not sign out since the configuration of call forwarding rule options was complete, sign out and then sign in again to Microsoft Teams.

  2. Click the three dots on the upper-right corner of Teams, and then select Settings.

  3. In Settings > Calls under Call answering rules, in the If unansweredlist, select Do nothing.

    Notes:
    - Do nothing in this context basically means "Do not use Teams voicemail".
    - Whichever available option is selected, it's critical to configure that variable. If that variable remains unset, the routing of unanswered calls to 8x8 voicemail may not function correctly.

Teams Calling Policies

During your initial setup sync process, six new custom calling policies are added to your Teams service in the Microsoft Teams admin center in Voice > Calling policies.

During the sync process, these policies are assigned to users and govern which Voicemail and Music On Hold services callers are directed to, based on the configuration of the service and on the Teams user’s configured call forwarding rules.

The following options apply to the service, as shown in Configure your Service to User either Teams or 8x8 Voicemail:

  • Allow Voicemail
  • Prohibit Voicemail
  • Prohibit Voicemail & Call Forwarding

In the Microsoft Teams admin center, in Voice > Calling policies, the following Calling policies displays:

  • 8x8-VM-MOHTEAMS: Use Teams voicemail and Teams Music On Hold.
  • 8x8-VM-MOHEXT: Use Teams voicemail and 8x8 Music On Hold.
  • 8x8-NoVM-MOHTEAMS: Use 8x8 voicemail and Teams Music On Hold.
  • 8x8-NoVM-MOHEXT: Use 8x8 voicemail and 8x8 Music On Hold
  • 8x8-NoVMOrForward-MOHTEAMS: Use 8x8 VM, disable the Teams forwarding option, and use Teams Music On Hold
  • 8x8-NoVMOrForward-MOHEXT: Use 8x8 VM, disable the Teams forwarding option, and use 8x8 Music On Hold.

Calling policy definition breakdown:

  • VM = Use Teams voicemail
  • NoVM = Use 8x8 voicemail
  • MOHTEAMS = Use Teams Music On Hold
  • MOHEXT = Use 8x8 Music On Hold
  • NoVMOrForward = Do not use Teams VM or forwarding. Use 8x8 instead.MOHTEAMS = Use Teams Music On Hold

Example 1: 8x8 Voicemail and Music On Hold are Enabled, Teams Call Forwarding is Disabled

Note: "Teams call forwarding" refers to the Teams client call answering forward rule If unanswered: New number or contact.

When in the Voice for Teams admin portal, in Services > PBX, under Calling Policy, the Prohibit Voicemail & Call Forwarding and PBX Hold Music options are enabled:

  • In Microsoft Teams, Settings > Calls, under Call answering rules, in the If unanswered list, only the Do nothing and Call group options are available to the Teams users.

  • The Configure voicemail and New number or contact options are not available in this scenario, by design.

Important: In this case, users must select Do nothing to ensure that unanswered calls are properly directed to 8x8 Voicemail.

Example 2: Teams Voicemail and Music On Hold are Enabled, Teams Call Forwarding is Enabled

Note: "Teams call forwarding" refers to the call answering forward ruleIf unanswered: New number or contact.

When in the Voice for Teams admin portal, in Services > PBX, under Calling Policy, only the the Allow Voicemail and Teams Hold Music options are enabled:

  • In Microsoft Teams, Settings > Calls, under Call answering rules, in the If unanswered list, the following options will be available to Teams users:

    • Do nothing
    • Call group
    • Configure voicemail
    • New number of contact

Important: No-answer call forwarding timeout values must be configured per user in the Microsoft Teams interface, and per user in 8x8 Admin Console user profiles. to avoid unexpected no-answer forwarding timeout issues.
- Users can set these options on their own when an administrator installs (or allows users to install) the 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams App.
- If administrators have not allowed users to set their own 8x8 Voicemail and call forwarding options, those options must be set for them in the 8x8 Admin Console.