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Thirdlane

Pickup Groups

Pickup Groups let a user answer a call that is ringing on someone else’s phone from their own phone. Group phones that sit near each other or belong to the same team - for example a shared front desk or a small department - so that when one phone rings and its owner is away, a colleague can grab the call without walking over to it.

To pick up a ringing call, a member dials *8 followed by the Pickup Group number. Any phone that is a member of the same group can answer any call ringing within that group.

Create/Edit Pickup Group

Name. Name of the Pickup Group. This field is pre-filled with names that include the Pickup Group number, which is the number dialed after *8 when picking up a call.

Description. Short description of this Pickup Group.

Phones. Select the phones (with their associated User Extensions) that will belong to this Pickup Group.

Best practices

  • Group phones that are physically close or share responsibilities - a pickup group only makes sense when members can reasonably cover each other’s calls.
  • Keep groups small and purposeful; a phone can only pick up calls within its own group, so overly broad groups let unrelated people answer each other’s calls.
  • For a busy shared area, a programmable pickup key provisioned on the phones is often easier for staff than remembering the *8 code - see Sidecar Configurators.
  • User Extensions - the users whose phones belong to a group.
  • Hunt Groups - ring several phones in sequence, a different way to share incoming calls.