In-Depth: Communicator Desktop App

Installation

Welcome screen

The welcome window starts the installation process. Click on the Next button to proceed with the installation or click on the Cancel button to exit the installation wizard.

License Agreement screen

Read the license agreement and select 'I agree' if you accept the License Agreement. Click on the Next button to proceed with the installation or click on the Cancel button to exit the installation wizard.

Installation Folder screen

The Installation Folder window sets the default location where the Communicator installation will reside. By default C:\Program Files\Aline Systems\Communicator is offered. To select a different location, click on the Change button. When done, click on the Next button to proceed with the installation or click on the Cancel button to exit the installation wizard.

Shortcut Folder screen

The Shortcut Folder window sets how the Communicator shortcut will be displayed on the Windows Start menu. Select the preferred shortcut under the Shortcut Folder select box and click on the Next button to proceed with the installation or click on the Cancel button to exit the installation wizard.

Ready to Install screen

The Ready-to-Install window summarizes the Installation wizard steps and displays all of the selected options. If you agree with these, click on the Next button to proceed with the installation or click on the Cancel button to exit the installation wizard.

Installing Communicator screen

The 'Installing Communicator' window shows the installation in progress.

Installation Successful screen

After this step, you'll see the 'Installation Successful' window. Click on the Finish button to close the window and finish the installation.

Configuring Communicator

After the installation process, you need to configure Communicator. Click on the Communicator icon and the Profile wizard will appear. To continue with the configuration, click the Next button.

Account Details

1. Account details

Make sure you have received your account details from your system administrator or account manager. The received details must include:

• Account

- E-mail, for example: [e-mail]

- User password, for example: 93sU2e_2%

Advanced

• Advanced

- Server address, for example: sip.AlinePhonesSystems.com

- SIP proxy (leave empty to use server settings)

After you click Next, Communicator will try to connect to the specified server with the user's account details. If the account details are wrong, a red warning will appear. Otherwise, a Change Password pop-up window will appear telling you to change your password since this is the first time you are logging in. Your password has to be at least 8 characters and 85% secure. Users are required to change this password on login and once changed it is hashed and unknown for all administrators of the system.

2. 
   Communicator edition

• Select Communicator edition.

Phones

3. Setup office and mobile phone

• Setup your Office phones. If you choose softphone, you will be able to place and receive calls using your computer. If you choose desk phone, you can control calls on your IP desk phone from your computer. Selecting the checkboxes for both desk phone and softphone will allow users to switch between devices when initiating a call and also to pick which device they would like to answer incoming calls on.

• In Communicator, users can assign Mobile Numbers that they would like to receive calls on when not at their desk. Click the Mobile tab and click + icon to add Mobile phone number and its label.

Click Next and a configuration summary window will appear. Please check the profile details and make sure they are correct. Click Finish and you will be automatically logged in with your account. Now you are ready to use Communicator with all its features.

Working with Communicator

Log In

• E-mail:

Provide the e-mail address that is assigned to your extension.

• Password:

Enter the password that you created during the Communicator configuration.

• Remember password

Check if you want Communicator to save your password.

• Log In automatically on startup

When this option is turned on, Communicator will log in automatically. Every time Communicator is started, it will automatically log in.

• Forgot my password

If a user forgets their password, they can recover it by clicking the ‘Forgot my Password’ link. The user will receive a password recovery link via email.

NOTE: Please bear in mind that one can use only one email address associated with a single extension. Using the same email address for multiple extensions is not supported.

• Login Failure message

In case of invalid credentials, a message "Login Failed: Username or Password is Incorrect" is shown.

Toolbar

• User image

A user-defined image that is displayed on the user's profile.

You can change your avatar image by clicking on your current avatar and a new window will appear with avatar settings. Browse for the image from your computer and set the preferred image options.

Communicator now supports higher resolution avatars, allowing users to set up any resolution between 256x256 and 512x512 pixels

• Username

User defined name which is shown in your chat conversations.

• Notifications

Displays any notifications (unread messages, missed calls, pending meeting invites, new voicemails) or reads No Notifications.

• Phone

Opens a softphone window next to the Communicator main window.

• Voice Conference

Opens a Voice conference window next to the Communicator main window.

• Chat

Opens a Chat window with all your conversations.

• Voicemail

Opens a Voicemail window next to the Communicator main window.

Organize Icons

• Fax

Offers the choice to send a fax or view received faxes. Based on your choice, an additional window will open next to Communicator.

• Surveillance Camera

Opens up a Surveillance Camera preview. This option will work only if you have your surveillance camera set up on the IP address in
Tools --> Preferences --> Video --> Surveillance Camera.

• Online Self Care

In order to login to Online Self Care, point your browser to: http://$IPADDRESS/ (For Example: http://192.168.1.1/)

• Email: The email address assigned to the extension

(ex. The provided email address is used as a username for logging into Online Self Care

(e.g. [e-mail]))

([a-z] [0-9] [@_.-])

• Password: Password assigned to the extension

([a-z] [0-9] [@_.-])

• Parked calls:

Once a call is parked, it can be picked up by anyone at any location by dialing the parked extension.

In the PBX there is a default parking lot defined in Access Codes. When a user presses the “Park” button inside call window they are presented with a drop-down so they can choose a lot to park.

• Settings

Opens a Preferences window. Refer to the Preferences chapter for detailed instructions.

Profile Picture Reset

• Reset Profile picture to Default

This feature enables users to reset profile picture to default :(no profile picture). When a user clicks on their avatar in Personal: Information dialogue they are presented with a message box so they can choose: if they want to change their avatar or to reset to default one.
Note that if: the user has no avatar, no message box is presented, since then their only: option is to set another avatar (or cancel).

Destinations and Communicator Modules

Communicator can place a call to any system destination, for example: extensions, queues, conferences, voicemail, system calls, or parking.
Through PBX GUI an administrator can hide non-Communicator extensions so they are not displayed in users list. Calls can be placed with a drag-and-drop motion from one extension to another, or directly from the phone display to the extension, for example. Right clicking on a contact name offers more possible actions regarding the selected extension.

This way the user can:

- Make a call from Communicator

- Chat with the selected contact

- Start a meeting with the selected contact

- Make a Video Call from Communicator

- Call the selected contact On Available

- Ask for attention

- See more information about the contact

- Pickup call

- Send an email to a contact

- Leave a Voicemail

- Monitor calls

- Change the contact's alias

- Hide contact

- Add the selected contact to 'Favorites'

Placing Phone Calls

Placing Phone calls

1. Open Phone module

• Click on the Phone module icon to show the Phone module.

2. Dial entering the phone number

• Use the Phone module dial keypad or keys on your keyboard to enter the phone number you want to dial.
• Click on the Dial icon to place a call.

PCI compliance

The user is on a phone call with an agent, and the caller needs to perform a payment, he needs to say his credit card obviously. Agents "turn on" an option in Communicator that will detect DTMF from the caller, and enter them into a text field by "simulating keypress" with DTMF digit. This way caller does not "send credit card" by voice, but rather through DTMF, straight into the field on a web site for payment. Inside the call window, there is an icon for activating this feature. After activating, DTMF that other side inputs are written wherever your cursor is positioned. You can stop receiving remote DTMF by either pressing the icon again, clicking on the "Stop Remote DTMF" button or by ending the call.

Show entered DTMF

This feature enables you to see entered DTMF in the call window, so you can make sure you have entered the correct digits.

3. Dial with Drag and Drop

• With your mouse click and hold any contact from the contact list, then drag the selected contact from the Communicator list to the phone module area, and Release (Drop) the contact.
• Click the Dial button to place a call.

Live call

4. Transfer options:

• Blind/transfer to a phone number: Type in some number (i.e. mobile phone) and transfer the call to it.

• Transfer to another ongoing call: If a user has 2 or more active calls, he can transfer the calls from one to another. One simple scenario is:

A Communicator user is talking to John Doe. He receives a call from Allison Smith while speaking to John Doe. The Communicator user is now able to add Allison Smith to the existing call with John Doe and all 3 participants will now hear each other.

When trying to transfer a call via Communicator, when choosing a contact from your list you can now see the google and outlook contacts in dropdown list. Also, users can press enter to confirm transfer.

5. Switch phone

• During a live call, you can use the Switch Phone button to initiate ringing across all registered devices so the user to continue the call on another device. A perfect example would be switching from your desk phone to your mobile when you need to leave your office but would like to continue your call.

6. Call Monitor

If your administrator enables Call Monitor on your extension in PBX Enhanced Services, you will be able to listen to any call in
real time. When a call is placed, right click on the user that is on call and choose Call Monitor. You can escalate from silent monitoring to “barging in” to speaking with all parties.

Phone

The phone module area where information about possible missed calls is shown.

• From the phone module you can set up office and mobile phones by clicking the settings icon next to missed calls information.
• Select your audio device by clicking the headset icon. It points to the Preferences->Phone->Audio devices section where you can choose which Input, Output, and Ringtone device to use.

NOTE: Default ringtones are different for inbound and outbound calls when using a softphone.

• A green (or eventually red) circle shows the Phone module connection status. If green is shown, the Phone module is connected and the user
  can place calls. If a red circle is shown, the Phone module is not connected and the user is unable to place a call, in which case the user should
  contact their system administrator.

• In the Phone module, you can see which phone mode is set by default. If you have selected both modes, click on the dropdown menu and
  switch to another mode. Next to this dropdown there is a DND icon with the option to set your status to Do Not Disturb.

• Phone module area where contact is shown after the Drag-and-Drop action.

• Phone module area where a dialed contact's phone number is shown.

• Speaker volume tuner. Adjust the speaker volume by moving the slider up or down. Do not increase volume more than needed because it can induce hearing loss.

• Microphone volume tuner. Adjust the microphone volume by moving the slider up or down.

• Phone module dial keypad. Used for entering phone numbers.

Users are able to block caller ID directly from Communicator. Two options are available: "Hide Caller ID" and "Hide Caller ID for next call only".

Voice Conference

• Plus sign used to invite a contact using his landline or mobile number.

• Select a box to choose from a conference room

• The Voice Conference module area where contact is shown after Drag-and-Drop.

• To remove a contact from a list, click

• Click on the Start button to start the Voice Conference.

• Click on Close to close the Voice Conference.

Voice Conference Live Call

Conference can be created from dropdown list, Instant and Predefined conferences can be selected.

• Instant conferences - User can create a conference by adding one or more people to an ongoing call. With this option, you can add extensions or any number available from your contact list.

• Predefined conferences - Users can join predefined conference rooms and add other participants.

Meeting

Communicator meeting is an extension to Communicator, essentially you can launch meetings without the hassle of switching applications and keeping all of
your Communicator contacts. Communicator meeting will allow you to meet with multiple users simultaneously with key features such as screen sharing. Communicator meetings are invite only (no guests), you must first receive an invite to participate in a meeting. In order to use Communicator meeting, you must first acquire Communicator and the Communicator meeting add on.

Security Options

NOTE: If you have a problem with using a microphone or camera with Communicator meeting on Mac OS please check security options described in this section.

Communicator needs permission to use your camera and microphone. You can view these options by going to: Settings > Security and Privacy > Privacy.

Starting A Meeting

To launch Communicator meeting you must first have Communicator open, then simply click on the icon labeled “Meeting”, this will open up a small window
that will allow you to drag contacts in. Once you have all the contacts that you want you can instantly “start” the meeting.

Meeting From contacts

There is an alternative method of starting meetings, find the contact you wish to meet with and rick click on their name, this will give the option to start a meeting instantly. This is useful to avoid having to navigate the meeting menu and to start one on one meetings quicker.

Meeting From Group Chat

One final method to start a meeting is from a group chat. Once you are a member of a group chat you may start a meeting from the top right.
Simply select the monitor icon and you are good to go.

Meeting List

If you wish to view ongoing meetings there is a meeting list. To open the meeting list click on the top right symbol of the meeting window, upon opening the list you can view upcoming, recurring and recent meetings. You also have a “search” option on the top to navigate quickly.

• The meeting list will give you the following information:
• Start and end time (The time of day it will occur)
• Date (Which day you will have the meeting)
• Name/subject (What the given topic for the meeting is)
• ID number (The randomly assigned number to distinguish meetings)
• Duration (How long the meeting will be)
• Status (The state of the meeting e.g. finished or upcoming)
• Participants (Who is supposed to attend the meeting)

Upcoming Meetings

An upcoming meeting is a meeting that you have scheduled for the future, e.g. in 3 hours you may have a meeting. It will prompt a pop up
when the time is ready. All of your meetings should be found here.

Recurring Meetings

A recurring meeting is a meeting that will repeat every set time (every day, week or month), e.g. every week on Tuesday you have a sales meeting.
You may edit recurring meetings to suit your needs if you need to reschedule.

Recent Meetings

A recent meeting is a meeting that has happened previously, e.g. last Thursday there was a meeting.

Schedule A Meeting

You are also able to schedule a meeting beforehand. To be able to schedule a meeting click on the button to the left of the “meeting list”.
These are the options available to edit:

• Time (the time of day it will occur)
• Date (which day you will have the meeting)
• Duration (how long the meeting will be)
• Time Zone (this will display the time zone your meeting will be scheduled in)
• Subject (what the given topic for the meeting is)
• Participants (who is supposed to attend the meeting, you can invite them via contacts or email)
• Whether it is recurring (if it will repeat e.g. every Thursday at 3 pm) and how long it will recur for (e.g. stop after 10 meetings)

Join By number

There is an additional option to “Join by number”, in which you enter an already existing meeting number to join the meeting.
To access it click on the drop-down list from the meeting interface. The number code will make it easier to distribute access to the meeting.

Meeting Interface

Here is the meeting window, you can invite many participants to the meeting, you have the following options at the bottom of the meeting screen:

• Mute your own microphone (Disable/Enable the audio coming from your device)
• Disable/enable your own video (Turn on or off the video shown from your camera)
• View the participant's list (See the participants in the meeting, if someone is missing you have the option to reinvite them. This will give the participant a new invite message to join the meeting.)
• Share your own screen (Broadcast your screen to the participants of the meeting)
• Open the chat window for the meeting (The meeting window will expand with the chat on the right, here you can view messages of the participants and input your own messages. You can close the meeting chat by clicking on the chat button again.)
• Leave the meeting (Ability to leave when you have the necessary feedback)
• And additional options

Change View Of Participants

There is also an option to change the view of other participants in the meeting (bottom right corner). This helps with being able to adjust the size of an important participant e.g. if someone is sharing their screen and you want to see it clearly.

Participant Options

If you click on the “more options” button on a user you will be granted the following options: Ask to share screen (prompts the participant to share their screen for the meeting to see, helps the participant achieve it faster) Mute (removes the ability to hear that person, useful for if they have a bad microphone) Remove from meeting (kicks a participant ideal for if they no longer need to be in the meeting) Pin video (makes their video the main video on display for you)

When you click on the arrow next to the “Mute” button you will be given the following options:

• Select Microphone (select which device you want to pick up your audio)
• Select Speaker (select which device you want the audio to play through)
• Switch phone (ability to switch the audio device you are using e.g. softphone to desk phone)
• Leave audio (ability to leave the audio channel to only view the video)
• In addition to this you can “Mute” yourself (press the mute icon) to not let anyone else hear you

Video Meeting

Once you click on the arrow next to the “Video” icon you will be given the option to select which device you want to capture video.
This should display all the devices that you have connected and ready to use. You also have the option to click on the “Video” icon to remove the video you are displaying.


Screen Sharing

If you wish to share your screen during the meeting, simply click on the screen share button or request someone to prompt you with one.
Then your screen should look something like this.

You will be given several options when you wish to share your screen with other participants:

• Whole screen (Share everything on your screen),
• A select window (Only one application you have open, e.g. Google Chrome) or share
• A region of your screen (An area of your screen that you can choose the zones for e.g. top left).

Once you have selected one click on share screen and it will be broadcast to the meeting.

Once you start sharing your screen, you can access the icons at the top of your screen. Here you have all of the previous options, in addition,
you have control to:

• Pause sharing (Momentarily stop screen sharing)
• Stop sharing (Permanently stop screen sharing)
• Remote control (Once you give control to a participant they will have the ability to use your computer e.g. move a mouse and input from a keyboard.)

Under options, you have the added functionality to:

• Original size (Change the meeting application to the original size)
• Fit to window (Change the meeting application to the size of the window)
• Hide video panel (Hide the options of the meeting panel from the top of the screen)
• Turn off the incoming video (Remove the video of other participants from reaching you)
• Copy meeting number (Faster method to copy the meeting number)

Chat

Communicator brings a unified chat between Desktop and Mobile applications. Chat history is stored on the server and is always synced between all your devices. This means that if you need to leave the office, but you were having an important chat discussion with your colleagues you can seamlessly continue chatting using your mobile application. Also, in case you change your PC or laptop your full chat history will be synced the first time you log in on the new computer.

Full history sync

Sync in progress

After every log in the application makes sure that your chat history is always synced and that you have all messages available on your device.

During the sync there is an indication on the chat module icon in the main window to inform the user that the sync is currently in progress.

If you open the Chat window during sync you will see an informative message, with a progress bar indicating the sync progress.

If chat sync has failed there is a warning in the chat window with the option to retry the sync by pressing the Retry button.

In case that chat sync has failed because chat server was down at the time you logged in, the application will automatically start the sync process again, once it detects that the server is back up.

Chat server unavailable

If chat server is down you cannot send nor receive messages until it gets back up.

While the chat server is down there is an indication on the Chat module icon in the main window to alert the user.

If you open the Chat window while the server is down, there is also an informative message that the chat server is not connected.

As soon as the application detects that the chat server is back up the warning is dismissed and you can continue chatting where you left off.

Starting conversations

Chat window

To open the Chat window click on the Chat module icon in the main window.

This will bring up the Chat window and show all of your conversations. There are a few ways to start a conversation, or to open the existing conversation with another user:

• Click on the chat icon when hovering over a user in the main window (only for grid view)
• Right click on a user in the main window, and choose option Chat from the menu
• Double click on a user in the main window (if your default double click action is set to Chat inside the Preferences)
• Select multiple users in the main window, right click, and choose the option Group chat from the menu to create instant groups from the main window
• Search for a user inside the Chat window and click on the desired user

Top blue bar

On top of the Chat window area there is a blue bar which contains information about the currently selected conversation, and also provides various actions available for that conversation.

On the far left of the top blue bar there is an avatar of the currently selected conversation. Next to it there is a user’s name (or a group name in case of a group conversation). Clicking on the user’s name opens up the Contacts Information dialog for the selected user. Clicking on the group’s name or the participants label opens up the Info drawer. Below the user’s name there is information about user’s presence and status, e.g. is the user currently online, what is the user’s status message, is he currently away from Desktop etc. In case of a group chat, there is a label indicating the number of participants in the conversation.

On the right side of the blue bar there are buttons for executing actions available for the currently selected conversation.

• Call the currently selected user (create a voice conference in case of a group conversation).

• Search for messages from the current conversation.

• Ask for attention - the user in the current conversation will be notified that you need their immediate attention. Not available for group conversations.

• Create a meeting with all chat participants.

Search Mode

• Add more users into currently selected conversation.

• Open the chat info.

Add users into an existing conversation

When adding users into the currently selected conversation you can filter users list by searching for a user’s name or extension. You can also filter by department, or even add a whole department into the conversation. Added participants cannot read previous messages in the conversation.

To collapse the users list and show a list of departments click on the name of the currently expanded department. To select all users from the currently expanded department, click on the checkbox next to the department name.

Chat Info

For a 1 on 1 conversation info drawer shows all participants of the conversation. You can also add users into the conversation by clicking on the + located on the right of the Participants label. You can hover over each participant to see information about their presence, and also to see available actions. You can delete the conversation by clicking on the Delete conversation button on the bottom of the window.

For a group conversation info drawer shows the group name, all participants of the conversation as well as the group administrator. If you are the group administrator you can change the group name by clicking on the current name, type in the new name and press enter on your keyboard. You can add users or filter participants of the conversation the same way as in a 1 on 1 conversation. You can hover over each participant to see information about their presence in the tooltip, and also see available actions. You can mute the group conversation by clicking on the Mute button on the bottom of the window. You can leave the group by clicking on the Leave button on the bottom of the window. When you click on the Leave button you are presented with a message box to choose if you would like to just leave the group and keep the chat history, or to leave the group and remove all messages from that group from the chat history as well.

When hovering over a participant, there are a few possible actions:

• Call the hovered participant

• Open the 1 on 1 conversation with the hovered participant

• Kick the hovered participant (only available for the group administrator)

Files overview

You can click on the icon to see all sent and received files inside the conversation.

You can search for a particular file by its name. Clicking on the file thumbnail or the file name opens the file if it is available, or offers to download it if the file has not been downloaded yet.

File name, file size, sender and time are shown for each file. Depending on the file direction (incoming/outgoing) and file status (uploading/uploaded/ready to download/downloading/downloaded) the button on the right of the file name provides certain actions:

• Click to download file

• File is already downloaded, click to show the menu and choose from Open, Show in Windows Explorer for Microsoft Windows (Show in Finder for macOS) and Save As options.
• Open option opens the file in the default application
• Show in Windows Explorer / Show in Finder option opens the folder containing the file and selects the file which is useful for locating the file on the file system.
• Save As option is used to create a copy of the file on the desired location with the desired name.

• Show progress of currently uploaded/downloaded file.

• Click to cancel current uploading/downloading. Visible when you hover the progress circle.

Options (3 dots) menu

The menu contains the following options:

• Create Group
• Close All Chats
• Show Closed Chats
• Legacy Chat History
• Options

Create group

Create Group option is used to create new groups (as the group creator you are automatically the group administrator). When creating a group you have to provide the group name. You can change the name of the group at any time after the creation in the group info drawer.
Filtering and selection of users are the same as described in the Add Users section. You can filter users by name or by extension and you can also
select 1 or more departments. The created groups are permanent, meaning that you are going to stay a member of the group after you close the application, unlike the behaviour in versions prior to . You can also have multiple groups with the same participants but with a different group name. For example, you could create groups Sales reports and New Release with the same participants, but use both groups for different topics,
so the totally unrelated matters are not mixed up in a single conversation.

Close All Chats option is used to close all your conversations easily without having to close each one manually.

Show Closed Chats option is used to see all of your closed conversations so you can find them and move them back to active.

Legacy Chat History option is used to show chat history from previous versions so you would not lose all of the messages you had in your
chat history prior to the update to Communicator version . This chat history is kept only for those purposes since old chat messages cannot be migrated to the new chat.

Options option is used to quickly navigate to Chat section in the Preferences window.

Search and Chat History

Use search to find users

The Search field on the top left of the chat window, right below the blue bar, has multiple purposes:

• Start a new conversation or open an existing conversation by searching for a user’s name, a user’s extension or a group name, and click on the desired item in the list
• Chat history

Unlike the versions prior to Communicator  chat history is now integrated into the Chat window so you don’t have to open another window to search for a message. When you type in a term in the search field, the application is going to find all users or existing conversations that match the term, and also find all messages that match the term. Users and existing conversations are positioned on the top, followed by all messages that match the term, sorted from the most recent one to the oldest one.

If you click on any item in the Contacts & Chats section, the application is going to open the selected conversation and clear the search field.

On the other hand, if you click on an item in the Messages section, the application is going to open the conversation, focus the desired message and load a few messages around it to give you the context of the conversation at that point. From there, you can scroll up/down to load older/newer messages, where every occurrence of the searched term is going to be highlighted.

Use search to find messages

Once you have found what you were looking for, you can delete the term in the search field to exit the search mode or click on the button on the left side of the search field. This enables you to search your entire chat history without ever leaving the Chat window.

If you type in more than one word in the search field, the application is going to find all messages that contain both of those words in any order.

For example, searching for Hello Bob Matches all of these:

• Hello, how are you Bob?
• Bob? Hello? Are you there?
• Hello Bob, do you have a few minutes?
• hello Bob, how are you?

Searched term is highlighted

But maybe you just wanted to find the last two messages, where words “Hello” and “Bob” are right next to each other and in the right order (where the word “Hello” comes before “Bob”). In that case you have to put quotation marks around the term.

For example, search for: “Hello Bob” Matches just these:

• Hello Bob, do you have a few minutes?
• hello Bob, how are you?

As you can see in the examples above search in the Chat window is case insensitive.

Conversations list

On the left side of the Chat window, right below the search field, there is a list of all your conversations sorted by their most recent activity. These conversations are persistent, meaning that they will appear in the chat window even after you restart the application. To remove the conversation permanently you have to delete the conversation which can be done from the info drawer. In case you just want to close the conversation you can hover the conversation and press the “x” icon that appears in the top right corner of the conversation. This way you can keep visible only those conversations you are interested in currently. If you want to close all of your conversations you can do so by clicking on the Close All Chats option from the global dots menu in the Chat window. Any activity in the closed conversation will move it back to active (any new messages, new participants added etc.) so you never miss the latest messages and events. You can find any of your closed conversations by searching for them in the Chat window. You can also have an overview of all closed conversations by clicking on the Show Closed Chats option from the global dots menu in the Chat window. From there you can move any conversation to active just by clicking on it, or you can move multiple conversations to active without leaving this mode by clicking on the icon that appears on hover in the top right corner. Click on the Back to active chats label to return to your active conversations list.

Conversation with a user which has been deleted from PBX will be marked with a prefix (Deleted). You can no longer send messages
to this conversation, but it is still useful because of the chat history and all existing messages with that user before deletion.

Hover Options

When you hover a session, besides the “x” icon there is a dots icon in the top left corner of the conversation. Clicking on this icon opens up a menu containing the following options:

• Search
• Call
• Mute (only for group conversations)
• Close All Except This Conversation

Search option allows you to search for messages from that conversation. This is useful to search only for messages from a specific user unlike global search which searches for messages from all conversations. There are two ways to get out of this mode: by clicking on the Back iconlocated on the left side of the search field, or by pressing the ESC key.

Call option allows you to call the user or to create a conference call in case of a group chat.

Mute option is used if you want to stop receiving notifications for a group chat maybe because there are too many messages exchanged and it distracts you. You can unmute a group chat in the same way as mute, and also by clicking on the speaker iconthat appears if a conversation is muted. You can also Mute/Unmute a conversation from the Chat Info screen.

Close All Except This Conversation option allows you to close all conversation except this one. This is useful if you have only one conversation you are currently engaged in, so you want to hide all others so they don’t distract you.

Options (3 Dots) Menu

For each 1 on 1 conversation in the list you can see:

• User’s avatar with his status icon
• User’s name
• Last message in the conversation
• Time of the last message in the conversation
• Number of unread messages (if any)

For each group conversation in the list you can see:

• Group chat icon
• Group name
• Last message in the conversation
• Time of the last message in the conversation
• Number of unread messages (if any)

While in search mode conversations list will change its items according to the searched term which is explained in the Search and Chat History section.

Unread messages indicator

At the bottom left of the Chat window there is an unread messages indicator to inform the user if there are currently any unread messages. This is useful in cases where you’ve scrolled down and you don't see your most recent conversations, or if you are in search mode.

If there are any unread messages the label and the icon are emphasized in blue colour to draw the user's attention.

Click on a label to open up a menu showing a list of all conversations with unread messages indicating the number of unread messages in the parenthesis. Also, there is an option to mark all messages as read.

Marking all messages as read will effectively send seen to all those conversations even though you haven’t read those messages yet. Clicking on any other option besides Mark all as read opens the selected conversation. This can be used as a quicker way to find conversations with unread messages instead of looking for them in the conversations list.

If there are no unread messages, the label is not emphasized and serves only as an indicator, without any functionality.

Messages view

On the right side of the chat window you can see the messages of the currently selected conversation.

In case there are no unread messages in the conversation, the application will load last 20 messages and place the scrollbar on the bottom. If you want to load older messages, you just scroll up until you reach the top. This way you can scroll all the way to the beginning of the conversation.

In case there are unread messages in the conversation, the application will load all unread messages plus 20 additional older messages. The scrollbar will be positioned on the first unread message with the indicator so you know where should you continue reading the messages.

While scrolling up in the currently selected conversation, a scroll indicator appears in the bottom right corner of the messages view so you can easily move to the end of the conversation. If you receive a new message while searching/viewing the older messages, the scroll indicator will show the number of messages received. Clicking on the scroll indicator will take you to the first received message.

Message states

For outgoing messages there is an indicator explaining the current state of the message:

• Sending - the message is on its way to the server
• Sent - the message is sent and has reached the server
• Delivered - the message is delivered to the other user(s)
• Seen - the message has been read by the other user(s)
• Failed - the message could not reach the server

Text selection and context menu

You can select text inside of messages by pressing and dragging your mouse across the messages area. Click anywhere on the messages area to unselect all messages.

While there is any selected text in the messages area, right clicking brings a context menu with the Copy option to copy all selected messages in the clipboard. You could also press CTRL+C on Windows, or Command(⌘)+C on macOS to copy all selected messages in the clipboard.

If you right click inside a message bubble (gray or blue rectangle) while there is no selected text, a context menu appears with the Copy message and Show plain text options.

Copy message option is used to copy all message content to the clipboard.

Show plain text option is used to disable all message formatting (links, emojis etc.), to see the original message source. If you right-click on the message again after you’ve pressed the Show plain text option, there is a Show rich text option to revert it and to see the formatted message with links and emojis.

File message

Besides regular text messages, you can use the chat in Communicator to share files.

For image and video files there is a thumbnail which is automatically downloaded. Under the thumbnail there is information about the file name and the file size. At the bottom of the file message there is an icon used to open, download, show upload/download progress or retry file upload/download depending on the file status. This is explained in detail in the Files Overview section. Also, at the top right of the file message there is a 3 dots icon. Clicking on the icon opens a menu with options to download, open, locate the file on the file system or to create a copy of the file.

Input field

Type message field on the bottom of the Chat window is used to send messages to the currently selected conversation. After typing a message press the Enter (Return) key on your keyboard to send a message. To type in a new line press Shift+Enter or Ctrl+Enter (Command+Enter for macOS). The length of the message you can send is limited to 10 000 characters.

On the right of the input field there is a folder icon used to send files. Clicking on the icon opens up a dialog where you can pick up to 5 files to be sent to the currently selected conversation. Also, you could send files by dragging them from Windows Explorer (Finder on macOS) to the messages area inside of the Chat window.

On the right of the input field there is an emoji icon used to send emojis. Clicking on the icon shows an emojis window where you can browse through emojis separated into categories. On the bottom of the emojis window there is a list of your most recently used emojis.

Presence

Communicator  brings a unified presence that is synced across all of your devices (Desktop and Mobile). For a currently online user you can see if they are connected via Desktop, via Mobile or even both. For users who are not currently connected, you can see when was their last activity, in order to have a better understanding of their availability. For example, if you see that the user was last seen a few minutes ago, you might assume they will probably be able to respond to your calls/messages. On the other hand, if a user has not been seen for a few days, it might indicate they have limited availability and are out of office. User’s presence and availability are represented by the icon visible in the bottom right of their avatar. Details about a user’s presence are shown in a tooltip after hovering over them in both grid and list view. The tooltip contains information such as: the device that the user is connected with, their last activity, their status message and their phone status (idle, on call, do not disturb etc.).

Status icon indicator can be any of the following:

• If there is no icon in the bottom right of the user’s avatar, it means that they are currently online and available

• The user is currently on a phone call

• The user is currently online, and they’ve set their status to Busy

• The user is currently online, and they’ve set their status to Do not Disturb

• This icon has multiple meanings:
• The user is currently online, and they’ve set their status to Away
• The user is currently connected via Desktop, but they are Away from Desktop
• The user is not currently connected, but they were last active less than 8 hours ago

• The user was not active in the last 8 hours

Status and status message

You can choose your own status by clicking on the status icon in the bottom right of your avatar in the main window. A menu will pop up and you can choose between:

• Available
• Busy
• Do not disturb
• Away
• Any of the statuses defined by the PBX administrator
• Custom status

PBX administrator can add statuses through PBX GUI and those will appear as an option in the menu for all users. For example, an administrator could add Lunch Break status so users can easily inform others when they are using their lunch break and are not at their desk.

Also, you can set your own custom status, and write any message to describe your current availability. For example, if you have to attend a meeting, and you are not available to respond to calls or messages, you could choose Custom status… from the menu, select Busy from the dropdown, and type “In a meeting” as a message. This informs all other users that you are busy and the reason for that is you’re currently attending a meeting. This allows all users to have a better understanding of each others availability since each user can type a custom message to describe their current availability.

After you choose any of the statuses, you also have to specify status expiration. This allows you to let the application revert your status back to Available after a certain period of time. Using the example mentioned above, you could set your status to Lunch Break with the expiration of 1 hour,
so when you come back to the office you don’t have to remember to change your status back to Available since the application will automatically
do that for you.

When setting status expiration, you can choose between:

• Today
• 1 hour
• 4 hours
• 8 hours
• 12 hours
• 2 days
• 5 days
• This week
• Always

Do not Disturb status

Setting your status to Do not Disturb (including custom Do not Disturb statuses) disables chat notifications, conference join notifications and notifications informing you that someone has come online via Desktop. This allows you to easily remove distractions during an important period of the day when you need to fully concentrate on the task at hand. Note that this overrides the settings in Alert section inside of the Preferences window.



Away from Desktop

Setting away from Desktop

When there is no user activity on your computer for a certain period of time Communicator can inform other users that you are away from your desk. This can be configured by clicking on the status icon next to your avatar in the main window, hovering over the Set away from Desktop when inactive for item and choosing the desired option.

Voicemail

• Select a Voicemail message and click to delete it. Please note, voicemail delete is permanent.

• Click to move the selected voicemail message to the old messages directory.

• Click to place a call to a contact who left a voicemail message.

• Click to save a voicemail file to the disk.

• Click to play the selected voicemail message.

• Click tab to show new voicemail messages.

• Click tab to show old voicemail messages.

Camera

• Surveillance Camera

Opens up a Surveillance Camera preview. This option will work only if you have your surveillance camera set up in the IP address in Communicator --> Preferences --> Video --> Surveillance Camera.

Online self care

In order to login to Online Self Care, point your browser to: http://sip.AlinePhoneSystems.com. When you click on the Communicator OSC icon, you are automatically directed to your OSC page.

• Email: The email address assigned to the extension

(ex. The provided email address is used as a username for logging into Online Self Care

(e.g. [e-mail]))

([a-z] [0-9] [@_.-])

• Password/PIN: The user password assigned to the extension

(ex. This field accepts your Communicator password (e.g.n9h*Caq1Icr))

([0-9])

Options (3 dots) menu

Options menu

Options menu can be accessed by clicking on the 3 dots icon on the far right of the module icons. This menu shows all the remaining modules besides the 6 modules visible in the main window, as well as few additional options explained below.

History submenu

• Fax option is used for opening Fax History window which allows you to see all sent and received faxes.
• Clear Call History option is used to clear all your missed, received and dialled calls from the HISTORY tab.

Contacts submenu

• List view option is used to layout Communicator users in a list.
• Grid view option is used to layout Communicator users in a grid.
• Hide offline users option is used to hide all users that were not active for 8 hours or more.
• Display user numbers in list view is used to show a user’s extension number in the parenthesis in list view.
• Sort users by Online status option is used to sort Communicator users according to their most recent activity.
• Sort users alphabetically option is used to sort Communicator users according to the alphabetical order of their names.
• Refresh contacts option is used to sync Outlook (for Microsoft Windows), Address Book (for macOS), Google, CRM and Central Phone Book contacts.

Other options

• My modules option is used to quickly navigate to Modules section in the Preferences so you could see which modules are available to you, and to set up those modules.
• Organize icons option is used to personalize the module icons available in the main window. Note that the first icon has to be the Phone module, but you can rearrange the 5 other icons as it suits your needs.
• Preferences option is used to open the Preferences window.

Central Phone Book

Central Phone Book is a centralized list of contacts managed by the PBX administrator. It is shared across all Communicator users, and synced together with the rest of your contacts (Google, CRM etc.). To access your Central Phone Book contacts navigate to the CONTACTS tab, and select CENTRAL PHONE BOOK from the dropdown.

You can use Search contact field to find a contact by their name. Double click on a contact to initiate a phone call. Right click on a contact to open a context menu with additional options.

Besides contacts managed by the administrator, each user can manage his own personal list of contacts. This personal list is private and visible only to you. Clicking on the button while in the CONTACTS tab opens up the Online Self Care window and switches to Phone Book tab. Here you can see all of your Personal Phone Book contacts, add new contacts, import/export contacts, or download a CSV template. To remove a contact click on the (“X”) button on the right side of each contact.

After you close the Online Self Care window, the application will automatically refresh contacts if necessary, so the modifications you made in the Online Self Care are now synced inside of Communicator.

Quick List

Quick list buttons enable a quick overview of Communicator, Contacts, Favorites, and Recent tabs.

• Communicator - Displays a list of all Communicator contacts.

• Contacts - Displays a list of all saved and imported contacts.

• Favorites - Displays all contacts that you marked as a favorite.

• History - Displays log of all recent missed, received, and dialed.

Menu

File Menu

• Log Out

Click on Log Out to log out from active connection(s).

• Exit

Click on Exit button to log out from active connection(s) and close Communicator application.

Tools Menu

• Diagnostic logs

Diagnostic Logs

Here you can see diagnostic logs with the level of verbosity that you have set in Preferences->General->Diagnostic Logs.

• Fax

Fax Menu

Add Fax Printer Automatically

Add Fax Printer Manually

Install Port Monitor

• Hidden users

Hidden Users

Opens a dialog showing all your hidden users. Uncheck the box next to a user's name if you want to unhide them.

• Shared configuration

Shared Configuration

Enable:

By enabling shared configuration, all users on this computer will share same Login account, phone mode and edition.

Account:

E-mail: email address is displayed in this field.

Password: in case that option "Enable" is unchecked, password will be hidden. After you check "Enable" option, option "Show Password" will be functional.

Login Server: Shows IP address of server.

SIP proxy (optional): this field is optional.

Edition: In this option select edition for your Communicator. Current edition is displayed, but possibility to choose between other editions is given.

Phones

Choose which phones you want to use:

Softphone: choose to use Softphone.

Deskphone: choose to use Deskphone.

Polycom: choose to use Polycom phone.

Polycom IP:

In case that user chose Polycom, in this option user needs to provide IP address of Polycom phone.

• Web browser add-ons...

Web browser add-ons

Click on Download web browser add-ons to add the browser add-on which will allow the user to select and dial a phone number directly from a web page. Supported browsers: Internet Explorer, FireFox, Safari, Edge and Chrome.

• Preferences

Preferences

Click on Preferences to open Communicator settings. For more about preferences, please visit the Preferences chapter.

Help

1. Communicator Help

• Redirect to our official website https://alinephonesystems.zendesk.com/hc/

2. 
   
   Check for updates

Communicator is Up-to-date

• Check online for official product updates.

• If there are updates available, the software will apply them automatically. If your software is up to date, you will receive a message as stated above.

3. 
   
   Submit Feedback

Submit Feedback

• User can now easily send feedback from the "Help > Submit Feedback..."

4. 
   
   
   About

About Communicator

• Communicator About dialog contain information regarding application version, revision, PBX information, libraries, and other important information. Users can easily access/copy and paste info for support if needed.

Automatic crash report system.

Automatic Crash Report

When Communicator crashes, the user has the option to send a crash report for developers to analyze the issue and solve the problem.

Preferences

General

General settings

To start click on the Settings icon inside toolbar.

Inside the General Settings section, checking the box next to “Launch application at startup” will start the application when your operating system starts, while checking the “Log in automatically on startup” will log the user in automatically every time the application is launched.

Checking the box next to Fix application scaling issues will enable operating system managed scaling, which fixes issues regarding the window being too enlarged on monitors with a scaling set up in Display Settings. This option is available only for Microsoft Windows. Note that the application has to be restarted for this option to take effect.

Depending on your Operating System, the “Set default program associations” button will allow you to choose which protocols application will open by default (tel://, sip://, callto://, etc.).

From the drop-down menu you can select the language and if you have your own language file you can add it by clicking the Add language button, then select the language that you wish to add from a list and then choose your language file. You will need to restart the application for language change to take effect.

Under the Always on Top section you can choose whether you would like to have call or call and contacts window always on top or if you wish to disable the always on top option. This feature will keep the Communicator window on top even if another window, e.g., web browser window is selected.

You can turn on or off diagnostic logs by checking the box next to it. When turned on, Communicator will store all logs on your computer/machine. You can specify how much data/information you want to store by editing SIP and Jabber logging levels. By default the SIP level is set at 3.

Depending on the situation you can choose between 1 to 10 levels where Level 1 would store the least amount of information and Level 10 would store all information.

You can set for how long the Communicator tray icon will blink while you have notifications pending such as missed calls or unread messages.

Contacts

To start click on the Settings icon inside toolbar, and navigate to the Contacts settings section. At the top you have 3 tabs: General, Google, and Outlook.

Under the “Default contact double-click action” you can set what action will be initiated when the user double-clicks on a contact. If chat is selected then a chat window with contacts will open, and if call is selected then double clicking the contact will call the contact. If you wish to sync your contacts daily, check the box next to “Sync my contacts daily”.

Next go to the Google tab. Here you can choose to integrate your google account contacts with Communicator. Simply check the “Enable Google contacts integration”, enter your Google email and your Google contacts will sync automatically.

Outlook Plugin with Communicator navigate to the Outlook tab and check the "Enable Plugin in Outlook" Contacts box. This will enable you to initiate calls directly from Outlook.

Communicator automatically syncs your Outlook contacts. (When I receive a call from an unknown caller, automatically display the “new Outlook contact” window) option, when turned on, it will open a new Outlook contact form every time you receive a call on Communicator from a number that is not on your contacts list.

NOTE: Users can control if Outlook’s add new contact windows shows up on Call started, answered or finished.

Phone

To start click on the Settings icon inside toolbar, and navigate to the Phone Settings section.

When turned on, “Confirm the Number when calling from web browser and other apps” will ask you to confirm the number and will also give you an option to make corrections if necessary. When "Call Waiting " option is disabled , softphone will automatically reject incoming calls if user is on another call already. Callee will hear a message saying that user is currently busy on another call. Use the ring Volume slider to adjust the ring volume.

You will need to restart the application for changes to take effect. “My phones...” button allows you setup your deskphone, softphone, and add a mobile number.

Inside the “Dialing rules tab” you can set rules for outbound calls. e.g., If you enter 061 under “text to replace” and under “replacement text” you enter 0038761, Communicator will replace every phone number that has “061” with “0038761”. However, sometimes you would only want to replace numbers that begin with 061, and not the ones ending in 061...

For a more precise replacement you can use regular expressions. For example, if you enter 061{6}/d under text replacement, and “0038761/1” under replacement text and you turn regular expressions on, this will replace 061 digits of every number that begins with 061 and has 6 more digits with 0038761 followed by those 6 digits. E.g. 061-123-456 would be replaced with 0038761-123-456.

Enabling “Detect and format USA and UK phone numbers for outbound calls” option will auto detect and format your local USA&UK numbers so that they can go through the system. This may cause problems in some countries so be careful when using this feature.

Inside the Speed Dial tab click on the Add button and from a drop-down menu and choose a number from 1 to 99, and in the field next to it assign the phone number that you want to Speed dial. For example , dialing #7 will dial 061-123-456 To edit an existing speed dial number select the number from the list and click the Edit button or press Remove to remove the number.

Inside the Codecs tab select the codecs that you wish to use. Some codecs offer higher quality but take more bandwidth, some offer better compression so they are less heavy on network resources, depending on your needs you might want to turn some codecs on or off, and if you have more than one codec you can sort them by priority using the up and down arrows on the right.

Inside the Advanced tab, you can choose to turn the encryption on or off for voice and video calls, or you can select “Use the settings from server” to use the settings that your admin has set.

Under the Register field you can set how often Communicator will send SIP register to the SIP Server or voip provider to let it know where it is. It is recommended to leave local sip port empty to allow SIP Protocol to use any port available. However, if you wish to restrict SIP (outgoing) traffic to a specific port you can enter the port number here.

Check the “Send keep alives” option to send SIP keep-alives to the server.

Check the “Enable QoS” to enable Quality of Service feature. QoS is a set of technologies that work on a network to guarantee its ability to dependably run high-priority applications and traffic under limited network capacity (must be supported by user network).

Audio

You can set input, output and ringtone device. It is recommended to leave these settings at default values. Check “Enable Plantronics headset support” option in order to integrate a Plantronics headset with Communicator. This will enable the use of Plantronics headset buttons such as answer, hold, transfer...

The same applies for Jabra and Sennheiser headsets. Turn on “Enable Jabra headset support” option, in order to integrate a Jabra headset with Communicator. Turn on “Enable Sennheiser headset support” option, in order to integrate a Sennheiser headset with Communicator.

Video

Video Settings section is divided into 4 tabs. Inside the Quality tab, you can set the resolution of the video call. You should adjust these settings based on the quality of your network connection.

For example: If your bandwidth is low or you are experiencing temporary network issues, you can set the video quality to Low resolution to get better video call performance. Inside the Codecs tab, you can enable or disable video codecs, and if you have more than one codec you can sort them by priority using the up and down arrows on the right.

Under Advanced codecs settings you can adjust how much compression the codecs will use. The higher the bitrate the less compression codecs will use, which directly relates to a better video quality but also larger files. Use default values for codecs if you are not familiar with video codecs.

Inside the Devices tab you can select the video capture device. e.g., if you have a laptop with an integrated web camera, and you connect another web camera to your laptop, you can specify which camera Communicator will use for video call from a drop-down menu. Next, inside the surveillance camera tab you can enable or disable surveillance camera and choose if the surveillance camera video should always stay on top even if another window is selected. Under the URL field, enter the url of your IP surveillance camera stream.

NOTE: Please be aware that only MJEPG stream over HTTP is supported at the moment.

Meeting

In the Meeting menu, you can set how will your meeting window look when someone shares the screen.

You have two options:

• Maximize Meeting window when a participant shares their screen.
• Scale shared screen to fit in the window

Modules

Communicator is compatible with several Customer Relationship Management solutions, such as Salesforce, SugarCRM, Zoho, Zendesk, MS Dynamics, and Bullhorn.

To enable CRM integration with Communicator, click on the Settings icon, navigate to the CRM section and check the box next to “Enable CRM integration”. Under the “Popup Options” you can set when a page with customer information should open. You can have it open when you answer the call, or immediately when your phone starts ringing, before you even answer, and you can choose not to have the customer page open at all on incoming calls.

On outbound calls, you can have it pop up when the call is initiated or when the call is answered, and same as with incoming calls - you can disable it by selecting Never.

Under Authentication you can enter account details for your CRM. Each CRM is different and requires you to enter a security token, password or a combination of both. Next, under logging options, you can specify which information you want to log... or you can choose to log information that your admin has set by selecting “Use the settings from the server” option.

Call Popup

Call Popup Settings, call popup module can be used to push the call details to browser-driven third-party software. You can set the call popup to open when call has started, when call has been answered and/or when call has finished. For each setting you can specify to enable it for inbound and/or outbound calls, and you can turn on silent mode. In the silent mode, a URL request will silently be sent to the server, meaning it will not open a web browser.

Call popup is macro based. In the URL field the following macros can be used: callerid, callerid name, extension, duration, call id, did, direction, queue number, queue name, agent number and agent name.

e.g., In Call started URL field you could enter “yourcrm.com/calls?id=%callerid%” and check the inbound calls bellow. Now, whenever you receive a call from customer call popup will open a web browser and will write the customer’s phone number.

You can send all these information silently to your CRM server and create reports such as how many inbound calls you have received, how many outbound calls you have made, average call duration etc.

NOTE: Specify EXE file, APP in MacOS, or URL that will be executed in Call Popup module.

Alerts

To start click on the Settings icon inside toolbar and navigate to the Alerts section. Check the “bring application to front when I receive a call” option to bring Communicator to front whenever someone calls you. You might not want to have your work interrupted by call alerts, in that case you can uncheck this option. You will still be able to receive the calls, however, you will have to navigate to the application yourself.

Inbound Call Alert duration can be set between 5 and 15 seconds. This option controls the duration of a small notification window that pops up in lower right corner of the screen whenever you receive a call.

To turn off inbound call alert completely, simply uncheck the “Notify me when I receive a phone call” option. You can also set to receive notifications when a contact comes online, when you receive a new message, when somebody joins a conference and or when call is finished. Only the duration of the call alert notification can be adjusted, all other notifications have a fixed duration of 5 seconds.

Under the Sounds section, you can choose to turn sound notifications on or off for contact sign in and or for new chat messages. If you select “Always play notification sound for new messages”, you will hear a sound notification for every message received, even if you have a chat window currently open. For this feature to work the “New instant message received” option has to be selected as well, otherwise you will hear no sound.

To preview a sound, click on the play button on the right, and if you wish to change a sound, double-click an item and select the sound file you wish to use. Please note that only .wav files are supported.

Chat

Below the “Save received files” click on the drop-down menu and choose Other to specify the location where Communicator will save received files. And under the “Change font" menu you can choose the default font for chat layout.

Profiles

To enable profiles click on the “Enable multiple login profiles mode”. With this option enabled you can add, edit or remove an existing profile.

To add a profile click the Add button, follow the setup wizard, enter the profile name, enter your Communicator email and password, and under the Advanced tab enter the server address, and if needed specify the SIP proxy as well. When done click Next to continue.

Adjust the phone settings to your preference and click Next, review your information once more and click Finish to create a profile. Once created you can edit the profile by selecting it from the list, and clicking the Edit button or you can remove selected profile by clicking the Remove button.

To log in with your newly created profile on the Communicator login screen, from a profile drop-down menu select your profile and click on the Login button.


Advanced

In the Advanced menu you can change the Polycom listening port to suit requirements of your Polycom phone.

The default port is set to 10983 which can be changed by clicking inside the box and entering your listening port number.

Skype for Business Module

Skype For Business module is used for integration between Skype For Business and Communicator. The idea behind this module is to provide integration between Skype For Business client and user’s phone system (PBX).

It consists of four parts:

• Presence
• Click to dial
• Conferencing
• Control of ANY SIP deskphone/softphone/mobile device registered on the PBX telephony platform from the PC

Presence

Whenever a user is on a call with ANY of their devices, including deskphone, softphone or mobile phone, Skype For Business will change its presence automatically, and other Skype users will see this presence as “On a call”. Once the call is completed, Skype presence will revert back to the previous state.

NOTE: Red marked squares are showing status change inside Skype for Business.

Click to Dial

The click to dial plugin allows you to make regular or conference calls from Skype For Business using PBX phone system. It allows the user to use ANY of their devices to make the call through their Phone System.

This includes: deskphone, softphone and mobile phone. The user can even make a call from Skype with a single click through the mobile network (GSM) and Skype will still show its status as “On Call” until user hangs up on GSM. When click to dial plugin is enabled, two options appear in Skype For Business: "Call via Communicator" and "Conference via Communicator".

When we click on the “Call via Communicator” option, a dialogue appears, as seen in the next image. We have to choose the contact number that
we want to call and the device from which we want to make a call. Only one Skype For Business contact can be selected if we want to use this option. If check box below "Show this window before placing a call" is selected, every time we are placing a call from Skype for Business this windows will popup (this can be changed in preferences). Once we press “Call”, the call will be placed, in this case using our deskphone.

Click to Dial

Conferencing

We can also invite Communicator contacts in this conference. We add them by typing their name or number into search field where we can also enter any other number we want, and then press “Enter”. [X] button is used to remove contact/number from the list of users that we want to invite to the conference. Once we press “Start Conference”, an audio bridge will be automatically created on the PBX, and all the invitees will join automatically. We will join on our deskphone in this example. Although the call is in progress on our deskphone, we can see and control this audio conference on the PC in the Communicator app, as displayed in the next image.

Settings

If we want to enable/disable Skype For Business module plugins for all Communicator users on one computer, we need to navigate to Preferences > Modules > Skype. After we enable/disable Skype For Business module plugins, we have to restart the Skype For Business application in order to apply the changes made. Even if these plugins are enabled, we can use them only if the logged user has Skype For Business module enabled by supplier.