About phone calls

If you have not disabled calling via cellular data (always enabled on iOS, and available as a setting on Android), your call switches over to cellular data without any interruption.

If you need to disable 8x8 calling via cellular data, open your device Settings , go to Cellular, and disable Cellular Data. If you have calling via cellular data disabled, your call drops if you leave an area of Wi-Fi coverage.

If you need to disable 8x8 calling via cellular data, go to Settings > Data and Network Options in 8x8 Work for Mobile and disable Allow Calls On Cellular Data. If you have calling via cellular data disabled, your call drops if you leave an area of Wi-Fi coverage.

Note: The option to disable calls via cellular data does not impact your chats, meetings, and other notifications, as they always use available Wi-Fi or cellular data.

Let’s say you’re in a location where cellular data is unreliable, weak, or expensive; to place and receive calls despite this, simply enable carrier minutes in 8x8 Work for Mobile! To fine-tune your carrier minutes setup, see which of the following scenarios suits you best, and enable the settings shown under Profile > Settings > Data and network options > Use carrier minutes:

Note: If your device's SIM card is removed, settings for carrier minutes are disabled until you replace the SIM card and set up carrier minutes again.

• You want the app to detect bad call quality in an ongoing call and notify you with in-call audio and a visual notification to switch to your carrier minutes (which you can tap to perform the switch). The current call is hung up, and you receive the same call on your device’s phone number.

  

• You want to be able to manually switch to cellular minutes during a call by opening the More options menu and selecting Use carrier minutes. The current call is hung up, and you receive the same call on your device’s phone number.

  

• You want to start outgoing calls on carrier minutes, in which case your iOS or Android device dialer is used to make the calls; as a result, all in-call features are limited to the in-call features available to your device dialer. You can choose to be able to select the type of network (Wi-Fi/Cellular or carrier minutes) or always use carrier minutes.

  

• You want to receive calls on carrier minutes, in which case your iOS or Android device dialer is used to receive the calls; as a result, all in-call features are limited to the in-call features available to your device dialer.

  

• You want to both receive and make calls on carrier minutes, with the same functionality as the previous two options combined.

  

Note:
- Carrier minutes settings should be used only in situations where use of cellular data is not recommended.
- Calls with carrier minutes still require an active internet connection (Wi-Fi/cellular data) to initialize the call, but in-call bandwidth with audio takes place via carrier minutes.
- Though calls are made using your native device dialer, 8x8 ensures that the other party on the call sees your work number and not your personal number.

There are a number of reasons you might be unable to make a call. To make calls, make sure that:

• You are connected to the network.
• If you are calling from an area with no Wi-Fi, you have enabled the use of cellular data for the app. To enable, tap your profile image icon in the app header to open your Profile screen, and go to Settings > Device settings.

• If you have issues with your cellular data network, you have enabled carrier minutes under Profile > Settings > Data and network options > Use carrier minutes to receive calls on your device via cellular voice.

  Note: If your device's SIM card is removed, settings for carrier minutes are disabled until you replace the SIM card and set up carrier minutes again.

• You have enabled device microphone and phone permissions for the app under Profile > Settings > Device settings.

There are a number of reasons you might be unable to receive a call. To receive calls, make sure that:

• Your device is out of airplane mode, and you have access to a Wi-Fi or cellular network.
• In your Profile screen (accessed when you tap your profile image icon in the app header):
  • Your presence status is set to something other than Do not disturb; this status allows you to receive chat messages, but forwards all inbound calls to voicemail.
  • If you have no access to Wi-Fi, you have enabled calls on cellular data under Settings > Device settings.

  • If you have issues with your cellular data network, you have enabled carrier minutes under Settings > Data and network options > Use carrier minutes to receive calls on your device via cellular voice.

    Note: If your device's SIM card is removed, settings for carrier minutes are disabled until you replace the SIM card and set up carrier minutes again.

  • You have enabled device notification permissions for the app under Settings > Device settings.

There are two reasons your calls might be going to voicemail:

• You might have enabled Do Not Disturb for your user profile. Make sure that your presence status is not set to Do Not Disturb, and check that you have not set yourself to DND by entering a key shortcut in your desk phone.
• You might have enabled a call forwarding rule that forwards all incoming calls to voicemail. Disable call forwarding, or change your call forwarding rules to ensure that calls reach you when you are available.

When you first install 8x8 Work for Mobile, you receive a prompt asking to allow the application to send you device-based notifications. If you decline the prompt, notifications are disabled by default. To enable notifications again, tap your profile image icon in the app header to open your Profile screen, and go to Settings .

If you do not see notifications despite being logged in, go to your device settings to enable notifications. You can then fine-tune your notification preferences from within the app.

Note: In order to stay up-to-date on communications in 8x8 Work, it is highly recommended that you enable notifications on your device.

To enable notifications on your device:

1. Go to Profile > Settings > Device settings to open 8x8 Work permissions in your device settings.
2. Enable 8x8 Work notifications, and edit the notification settings as needed.

To manage notification settings in 8x8 Work:

1. Go to Profile > Settings .
2. Under Notifications, enable or disable notifications for:
   • Missed Calls: Incoming calls that timed out and went to voicemail, or were hung up before being answered
   • Voicemails: Voice messages following a deflected or missed call
   • Messages: IM and SMS chat messages
3. Go to Ringtone to select the ringtone to play on an incoming 8x8 Work call; you can select from one of your OS ringtones, or one of our 8x8 ringtones to tell your incoming 8x8 calls apart from incoming calls to your device number or another app. Your selection does not affect the notification sound for your 8x8 non-call notifications, or your ringtone for calls to your device number. 8x8 Work for Mobile follows your device-set vibrate settings for notifications.

Note: In order to see notifications in real time, you must be logged in to 8x8 Work for Mobile on your device. If you are logged out of 8x8 Work for Mobile, notifications are only visible once you log back in.

There are several ways to place a call from 8x8 Work for Mobile:

To place a call from the dial pad:

1. In your Phone list, tap the Dial pad option to bring up the dial pad.
2. Dial the desired number to place a call.

To place a call from contact details:

1. In your Contacts list, go to Favorites, Company, or My Contacts.
2. Tap the Call option next to the desired contact to place a call.

To place a call from message history:

1. In your Messages list, tap the desired contact to open your chat history with them.
2. From within the chat, tap the Call option to place a call.

To place a call from a call log:

1. In your Phone list, go to Calls or Missed.
2. Tap the Phone icon next to the desired contact or number to place a call.

To place a call from voicemail:

1. In your Phone list, go to Voicemails.
2. Tap the desired voicemail.
3. In the voicemail controls that expand, tap the Call option to place a call.

Let’s say you’re on your Android device and decide to call a colleague; without needing to open 8x8 Work for Mobile, you have the ability to set up a calling widget on your device for any of your 8x8 contacts!

To set up an 8x8 calling widget:

1. From your device's widget library, look for our 8x8 Direct dial widget.

   

   Note: Depending on your Android device, your device-based widget library and application defaults are accessed in different ways.

2. Drag the widget into your home screen to bring up your list of 8x8 contacts.

3. Find and select the contact you want to create a calling widget for. The widget finalizes and shows up with the name and profile picture of the selected contact.

   

   Note:
   -Depending on your Android device and version, the first time you tap one of the 8x8 calling widgets you create, your device might ask you which calling app to use for subsequent widget calls, or will default to a calling app previously selected as the device default.
   -To select a different calling app for your widgets after your initial selection, open your device Settings, go to the calling app you selected, and disable it as the default selection for the 8x8 calling widget. The next time you tap one of your 8x8 calling widgets, select the calling app you want.

   After this, you can launch a call with just one tap!

Let's say you commonly call an organization such as a large office or pharmacy, and are familiar with that organization's IVR menu: "For sales, press 1. For billing inquiries, press 2. To return to the main menu, press *..." You can save time and avoid long menus by creating a contact for repeated use, or by adding your choices while dialing a number in 8x8 Work for Mobile.

To add IVR menu choices to a contact:

1. Go to Contacts > My Contacts.
2. Tap the New Contact option to start creating a new contact.
3. Enter the contact details.
4. While adding the phone number, tap the , key when you need to insert a pause for the IVR menu. The pause you entered is indicated by a comma in the phone number.
5. Insert your IVR menu choice numbers, each separated by a pause. For example, if you want to save the phone number <555-5555>, with IVR option <1> followed by IVR option <2>, the number would appear as <555-5555,1,2> when complete.
6. When you are finished, tap the Done option. The contact with your IVR choices now shows up under Contacts > My Contacts.

To add IVR menu choices while dialing:

If you do not want to save a contact with IVR menu choices, but know ahead of time which selections you will make, you can enter IVR menu choices while dialing a phone number.
While dialing a phone number, you can enter your IVR menu choices by holding down the key. Similarly, you can add pluses for international calls by holding down the key. Tapping the key enters the first character (* or 0), while holding down the key enters the second character (, or +).

Let’s say you want to temporarily put a call on hold and continue it from any phone or device on your company phone system.

You may be moving the call from a conference room phone to your desktop or vice versa, or directing the call to a third party in your phone system who is temporarily busy. 8x8 allows you to easily navigate these issues and more, and offers the ability to park a phone call on a dedicated call park extension for later retrieval.

To park a call:

1. While on a call, tap More.
2. From the options that pop up, select Park.
3. Confirm the prompt to disconnect the call and park it for later retrieval.
   You are disconnected from the call, and you hear an announcement stating the extension number the call has been parked on.
4. To retrieve the call:
   • By yourself: Simply dial the announced call park extension on the new phone or device.
   • By a third party: Notify the third party of the parked call waiting for them on the announced call park extension.

You can easily transfer a call to any recipient in the company directory. You can either warm-transfer a call by notifying the recipient before the transfer, or cold-transfer a call without notifying the recipient.

To warm-transfer a call:

1. While on a call, notify the other party that you are about to transfer them to a colleague.
2. Tap Transfer and select Warm transfer to place the other party on hold and bring up a list of contacts.
3. Select a favorite or suggested contact from the list, or enter the name of the contact you want to transfer to, and confirm.
4. When the contact picks up, notify them that you are about to transfer a call to them.
5. Tap Handover to remove yourself from the call and transfer the other party to the contact you spoke to.

To blind-transfer a call:

1. While on a call, notify the other party that you are about to transfer them to a colleague.
2. Tap Transfer and select Direct transfer to bring up a list of contacts without placing the other party on hold.
3. Select a favorite or suggested contact from the list, or enter the name of the contact you want to transfer to and confirm.
4. You are disconnected from the call, and the contact you selected receives a call from the other party.

Let's say you're on a call with a company contact, or that your call is getting more involved; you can bring the other party into a meeting with one or more of your colleagues who can discuss an important matter with them. When you promote a call to a meeting, you gain access to all the features and resources of 8x8 Meet, giving you a more effective way to collaborate.

To promote a call to a meeting:

1. While on a call, notify the other party that you are about to begin a meeting and invite them.
2. Tap Meet Now to seamlessly promote the call to a meeting. If the other party is also using 8x8 Work, they are seamlessly taken into the meeting as well.

As an Android user, you can decline incoming 8x8 calls with quick-reply messages.

If you want to quick-reply to incoming 8x8 calls with a custom message, you can edit the default responses from 8x8 Work for Mobile.

To edit your quick-reply messages for incoming calls:

1. Tap the profile image icon in the header to open your Profile screen.
2. From your profile, go to Settings > Quick Replies, where you can manage your quick replies for incoming calls; you can create quick replies of your own, or reset to the default options if you change your mind.
   

8x8 Work enables you to handle two calls at once, either separately or in a three-way conference.

To add a second person to an active call:

1. While on a call, tap Add to bring up the contact directory.
2. Select from your recent, company, or personal contacts to add to the call.
   OR
   Tap the Dial pad option, and dial the desired number.
3. The original caller is put on hold and hears hold music, while the second person is placed in an active call with you.
4. To switch between your active and held calls, tap Swap.
   The call shown on your active call screen becomes active, and the call labeled as On Hold hears hold music.
   If needed, you can also place both parties on hold at the same time.

To create a three-way conference call:

1. While handling two separate calls, tap Merge to create a three-way conference call.
2. When you hang up, you can choose to:
   • Let the conference continue without you as a two-way call.
   • End the conference for all participants.

Let’s say you are on an active 8x8 Work call, and another user calls you. Options pop up on-screen that allow you to:

• Continue your existing call uninterrupted, and send the incoming call to voicemail.
• Accept the incoming call, and place your existing call on hold. Before you accept, let the existing caller know that they will be put on hold.
• Accept the incoming call, and hang up your existing call. Before you accept, let the existing caller know that their call will be hung up.

Let's say you are on an 8x8 Work call on your desktop but you want to switch to mobile for freedom of movement; open your dial pad in 8x8 Work for Mobile, and simply dial *88 on your mobile app to flip the call to mobile from its previous location on 8x8 Work for Desktop or your desk phone!

In addition, if you’re calling via 8x8 Work for Desktop, the mobile app detects the call and displays an in-app banner you can use to flip the call over to mobile! Simply tap Flip in the banner, and you’re ready to go! In addition, if you’re under Phone > Calls, you can tap the Flip call option next to the current active call.

If you are a member of a call queue, you can view and control which queues you are logged in to from Phone > Queues in 8x8 Work for Mobile. You see a list of call queues only if you are assigned to one or more call queues; you are assigned to or removed from call queues by your administrator in 8x8 Admin Console.

To log in to or out of a call queue:

1. Go to Phone > Queues to open your list of call queues.
2. In your list of call queues, to log in to or out of a queue, simply tap the Log in or Log out option next to the queue.

When you open the dial pad from your Phone list, you can use dial pad key shortcuts (also called star codes) to perform various actions.
For details on Barge-Monitor-Whisper shortcuts (labeled as BMW), please refer to our Barge-Monitor-Whisper Quick Reference Guide.

You don't need to do anything; 8x8 numbers used by you in 8x8 Work are not affected by the phone you use to access 8x8 Work for Mobile.

8x8 Work for Desktop only pulls information from your company directory and personal contacts, but 8x8 Work for Mobile can pull information from your device contacts as well, if permitted. If you use 8x8 Work to call contacts that are listed on your device, call logs with device contacts will be more detailed on mobile than on desktop.

You can set up 8x8 Work to forward your incoming calls according to your preferences. If you're particularly busy, you can choose to temporarily forward all calls, or you can have calls forwarded when you are busy on another call, when you fail to answer in a certain period of time, or when you have no connection.

In addition, if your organization is an X Series or Virtual Office Editions customer, you can give callers a secondary number to redirect to when they reach your voicemail box, enabling callers to choose where they want to direct their message. Let's say you're unavailable for calls, but you have a teammate who is willing to answer questions addressed to you while you're away; you can set the teammate's number as a dial-out option for callers who reach your voicemail.

To forward incoming calls:

1. Tap the profile image icon in the header to open your Profile screen.
2. In your profile, go to Settings > Account Settings > Call Forwarding.
3. Select from the following situations in which to forward calls:

   When to forward calls	Description
   Always forward calls	Always forward calls, even if you are available to answer. If you enable this option, all other options are disabled.
   I'm busy	Forward calls when your presence status is set to Do not disturb.
   I don't answer for 15 seconds	Forward calls when you don't answer in time. The amount of time may be different based on your administrator's settings for your organization.
   I have no connection	Forward calls when you have no access to cellular or Wi-Fi data.

4. For situations in which you want to forward calls, select where incoming calls should be forwarded to:

   Where to forward calls	Description
   Voicemail	Forward calls to your voicemail box.
   Phone number	Forward calls to a specified external number.
   Company directory	Forward calls to one of your colleagues.
   Auto Attendant	Forward calls to the Auto Attendant configured by your phone system administrator.

   Your call forwarding settings are configured.

To let callers redirect upon reaching your voicemail:

1. Tap the profile image icon in the header to open your Profile screen.
2. In your profile, go to Settings > Account Settings > Voicemail.

   Note: You can only let callers redirect themselves if your organization is an X Series or Virtual Office Editions customer.

3. Enable the option to dial out, and select the desired number from your contacts or recent numbers.
4. If you have not done so previously, go to Profile > Settings > Account Settings > Voicemail > Record Voicemail Greeting to update your voicemail greeting to inform the user of the option to dial out ("At the beep, please leave your message or, to direct your questions to my associate, please dial zero.").

If you dial an emergency number, you can control how it is routed from your app settings.

To select the data type for emergency calls:

1. Tap the profile image icon in the header to open your Profile screen.
2. In your profile, go to Settings > Advanced.
3. Enable or disable Emergency calls via cellular as needed:
   • If enabled, emergency dispatchers will locate you using the cellular tower you are using to call.
   • If disabled, emergency dispatchers will locate you using your emergency calling number set in 8x8 Work for Desktop.

You can access the recordings from 8x8 Work for Mobile.

To access call recordings:

1. Log in to 8x8 Work for Mobile.
2. Open your Recordings list to review and manage your call recordings.

At the end of a call, you see a call quality prompt pop up. In one tap, you can rate the quality of the call on a scale of one to five stars. If there is anything that you would like to bring to the attention of our support team, you can also send written feedback to 8x8.

If you choose not to see call rating prompts pop up in the future, tap your profile image icon in the app header to open your Profile screen, and go to Settings > Advanced to re-enable call rating.

Let's say you want to silence incoming 8x8 Work calls, but are expecting an important call to your cellular number. You can set your 8x8 Work ringer to silent in the app without affecting the ring settings for calls to your device.

To set your 8x8 Work ringer to silent:

1. Tap the profile image icon in the header to open your Profile screen.
2. In your profile, go to Settings > Ringtone to use an 8x8 Work-only ringtone or use one of your OS-based ringtones for 8x8 Work. To control device vibration on an incoming call, go to Profile > Settings .
3. From the list of ringtones, select Silent.
   Incoming calls in 8x8 Work are now silent.

Do you find yourself answering spam calls on your work number? No need to worry; if your organization is an X Series or Virtual Office Editions customer and your administrator has enabled the feature, you can simply block spam callers from your list of call logs!

To block spam callers:

1. Open your Phone list.
2. hold down on the number of a spam caller to bring up your options.
3. From the options, tap Block to block the spam caller.