question

Kadin Ryals avatar image
Kadin Ryals asked Frank Prepsel edited

How do I forward calls to an external number from a desk phone on demand?

I am familiar with how to forward calls with custom rules and while on the line. However I have users that need to forward their calls to external numbers when they leave the office, which could be at any time. I was informed by support there was no way to do this so I am coming here for a solution.

call forwarding
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jenn-community-moderator avatar image
jenn-community-moderator answered

Hello Kadin, the phone support team is true. However, you can share this idea here, and we will share this with our Product Team. Thank you!

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rickkee6997 avatar image
rickkee6997 answered

"..we will share this with our Product Team.......
Maybe in 3 or 4 years they might even consider it......This post is 2 years old. The problem has existed forever.

It is a long, cumbersome, hard to remember process to go to the web for occasional use.
"Just log into the Admin portal" HA HA HA! ..... and follow the 11 steps below to turn it on or off.

Estimated time to complete if you have never set it up before - 1-2 hours. Allow at least 30 minutes if it has been more that 90 days since you used it and have not documented the process?

  1. You have to be an administrator if you are forwarding the main number or need to do it for someone else. If you are the end user, you will probably need your office admin to help you.
  2. Click on LogIn, upper right of screen
  3. Reset your password, because you probably don't remember it. You have a DESK PHONE
  4. Click on Manage Users
  5. Select the main user - default user - whoever in the company where incoming calls are directed.
  6. You will probably have to call RingCentral support to figure it out, because you only need to do this a few times a year.
  7. Click on the drop down arrow next to "Call Handling & Forwarding"
  8. My gosh, what are all these settings? This screen is a mess. Don't worry, just click on "CUSTOM RULES"
  9. Take an hour or two and/or call RingCentral Support to figure out how to create a custom rule and apply settings to it.
  10. If you have already created a rule, you just need to turn the feature on or off here. We have one named simply "Answering Service"
  11. Call yourself to make sure the number is forwarded correctly. Be sure to call from a different number than the one you are forwarding too.

Are we the only ones who would like to have a simple #72, #720 feature on our phones to enable and disable call forwarding? If only it were possible to program a button on the phone to forward the calls to a live answering service or somewhere else...and push the button again to turn it off.

Don't need new and improved GLIP, just need some basic features like this to be addressed, that have been ignored for many years.



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Frank Prepsel avatar image
Frank Prepsel answered Frank Prepsel edited

We are trying to do exactly the same thing as @rickkee Has there been anyway to program this? This is the reason I ditched our POTs lines and went digital, I thought the options were limitless. This doesn't seem to be a hard thing to do but I haven't found a way to do it.

"Are we the only ones who would like to have a simple #72, #720 feature on our phones to enable and disable call forwarding? If only it were possible to program a button on the phone to forward the calls to a live answering service or somewhere else...and push the button again to turn it off. "

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tak-it1 avatar image
tak-it1 answered

@rickkee @Frank Prepsel

I'd you're using Poly devices, just call into support and request they add the Call Forward button to your phone. Once they do, reboot your device and you'll be able to do what you're requesting. Just keep in mind that this won't interface on your online portal at all, so if you call forward a phone it will NOT show up on your user account. The responsibility to toggle it on/off will be on you at the phone level.


If you're on Cisco you're out of luck, not supported on their phones. Yealink has it by default.

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Frank Prepsel avatar image
Frank Prepsel answered Frank Prepsel edited

Thank you @rickkee !! This is such a significant help. I put a request in to have them create a button for me. I'll report back and let you know how it works out. Hopefully, they do come up with a better solution going forward. But, I'll take this one, we're a smaller office and it shouldn't be a problem with managing the call forwarding this way.

I also created an idea and hopefully someone looks at it:
Idea CUSTCOM-I-4397 created

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