Group Telephony & Routing

What Is Group Telephony?

Group Telephony allows a General Group to have its own phone number or internal extension. When that number is called, Genesys routes the interaction to group members using one of three call route methods.

ℹ️ Group Telephony applies to General Groups (Official or Social) only. Work Teams and Skill Expression Groups do not support direct telephony configuration.

Enabling Calls on a Group

Admin → Directory → Groups
Open the target group
Toggle Enable Calls to On (found on the left panel or top of the group profile)
Click Edit next to the phone settings
Configure the fields below
Click Save

Phone Configuration Fields

Field	Description
Phone Number / Extension	Assign a DID (external) or internal extension to the group
Call Route Type	How incoming calls are distributed to members — see below
Backup Group	A secondary group that receives calls if no member in the primary group answers

Call Route Types

This is the most important setting in Group Telephony. Choose one of three methods:

Broadcast

Rings all group members simultaneously (up to 1,000 members)
First member to answer gets the call
Best for: urgent notifications, on-call teams, small groups where speed matters

Sequential

Rings members one by one in a defined list order
Moves to the next member only if the current member does not answer
Best for: tiered support escalation, defined coverage order

Rotary (Round-Robin)

Rings the next person in the list based on who took the last call
Distributes load evenly across the group over time
Best for: shared coverage teams where equal distribution matters

Backup Group

If no member in the primary group answers, calls can overflow to a Backup Group.

The backup group must already exist before it can be assigned
The backup group uses its own Call Route Type independently
Useful for: after-hours coverage, overflow to a supervisor group, redundancy

Group Voicemail (Optional)

If no one answers — including the backup group — calls can fall to a group voicemail box.

To configure:

Toggle Voicemail to On on the group profile
Configure the following:

Setting	Description
Greeting	Click the red record button to record live, or upload a `.wav` file
Email Notifications	Sends an alert to group members when a new voicemail arrives
Transcription	Includes a text version of the voicemail in the email notification (if available for your org)

Call Routing Flow (Summary)

Incoming call to group number/extension
        │
        ▼
Call Route Type applies
(Broadcast / Sequential / Rotary)
        │
        ├── Member answers → Interaction connected
        │
        └── No answer
              │
              ▼
        Backup Group (if configured)
              │
              ├── Member answers → Interaction connected
              │
              └── No answer
                    │
                    ▼
              Group Voicemail (if enabled)

Key Differences: Group Telephony vs. ACD Queues

Feature	Group Telephony	ACD Queue
Routing engine	Simple list-based (broadcast/sequential/rotary)	Full ACD (skills, priority, utilization)
Agent availability check	No — rings regardless of status	Yes — only routes to available agents
Reporting	Basic	Full performance views
Architect flow integration	No	Yes
Best for	Internal teams, small groups, direct extensions	Contact center interactions

Permissions Required

Action	Permission
Configure group telephony	Directory > Group > Edit
Assign phone numbers to groups	Telephony admin access may be required for DID assignment