When an agent receives an inbound call, or makes an outbound call, by default the agent must accept the call to be connected to it. If the auto-answer feature is enabled for your account and the agent's account, agents do not need to click to accept the call before being connected. The agent is automatically connected.
Auto answer can be enabled for either inbound or outbound calls, or both. For information about automatically rejecting a call, see Auto reject in ContactPad using WebRTC.
Auto-answer settings
You can configure auto answer in various places. If the auto-answer feature is available for your account for inbound, outbound, or both calls, you can enable or disable auto answer for applicable calls at account- or user- level.
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| You cannot enable or disable auto answer if the feature isn't available for your account. |
Account-level
Account-level auto-answer settings affect all users in your account.
To enable auto-answer settings for all users in your account, switch on the VBC integration/WebRTC - auto-answer inbound calls, VBC integration/WebRTC - auto-answer outbound calls, or both features for your account.
To disable auto-answer settings for all users in your account, switch off the VBC integration/WebRTC - auto-answer inbound calls, VBC integration/WebRTC - auto-answer outbound calls, or both features for your account.
You can also prevent agents from changing their own auto-answer settings. To do so, switch on WebRTC - agents can't change auto-answer settings.
Find these settings in Account Feature Control in the Configuration (Account Settings) area of Vonage Contact Center. For information, see Controlling features for your account.
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If enabled for your account, you can override these settings for individual users in User Admin. An agent can also override account-level settings in WebRTC options in ContactPad. For information about configuring user-level settings, see the User-level section later in this page. When user-level settings have been set for an individual user, changing account-level settings has no effect on that user's settings. |
User-level
User-level settings override account-level settings for individual users.
You can change user-level settings in User Admin if enabled for your account.
To enable auto-answer settings for an individual user, switch on the Automatically answer outbound calls, Automatically answer inbound calls, or both features.
To disable auto-answer settings for an individual user, switch off the Automatically answer outbound calls, Automatically answer inbound calls, or both features.
For information about configuring features for individual users, see How do I enable an agent user to use the ContactPad with WebRTC and, optionally enable auto-answer? section in Configuring individual users.
Agents can change their own user-level settings in WebRTC options in ContactPad. For information about configuring WebRTC options — including auto-answer — as an agent, see Setting up WebRTC for ContactPad.
Changing user-level settings in one place — for example, User Admin — is immediately reflected in the other — for example, ContactPad.
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To avoid you and your agents changing their user-level settings at the same time, you can prevent agents from changing their own settings. To do so, switch on the WebRTC - agents can't change auto-answer settings feature in Account Feature Control in the Configuration (Account Settings) area of Vonage Contact Center. For information, see Controlling features for your account. |
Auto answer and the initial agent login state
If auto answer is enabled for your account, the initial agent login state for agents should be a state other than Ready. We recommend that the state is set to either an offline or an away state, Ready for outgoing or Away, for example. This is to avoid issues that may arise if the agent, ContactPad, or WebRTC is not immediately ready to handle a call when the agent logs in. For information about setting the initial agent login state, see Configuring agent states. Alternatively, auto answer for inbound calls should be turned off.