What is a Ring Group?
A ring group is a set of phones or users that all ring for the same incoming call, either all at once, one after another, or round-robin, with a fallback destination, like voicemail, if nobody picks up. It’s the simple option for a small team where anyone can take the call, without the hold state, skills, and reporting of a full ACD queue.
How it works
A call is routed to a ring group instead of a single extension. The group’s strategy decides how members are alerted: ring_all rings every member simultaneously (first to answer wins), sequential tries members one at a time, and round_robin rotates who’s tried first across calls to spread load evenly. A ring timeout caps how long the group rings before falling through to an exit destination, commonly voicemail, though it can be any call-flow target. Ring groups don’t hold a second caller in a wait state; if nobody answers in time, that caller goes straight to the fallback rather than queuing.
Why it matters
Ring groups are the right tool when a team is small enough that anyone answering is fine, and there’s no need to measure wait times, apply skills-based routing, or show a supervisor a live queue: a front desk, a sales pod, an on-call rotation. Reaching for a full ACD queue in that situation adds configuration and reporting overhead nobody needs; reaching for a ring group when call volume actually requires holding and distributing calls fairly leads to dropped calls during busy periods. Choosing between the two is really a question of whether you need hold-and-distribute behavior or just fan-out-and-fallback.
FAQ
What is a ring group? A set of phones or users that all ring for the same call, simultaneously, in sequence, or round-robin, with a fallback (usually voicemail) if nobody answers. Used for small teams that don’t need full queuing.
What is the difference between a ring group and a call queue? A ring group rings members for one call with no hold state; a second caller typically goes straight to the fallback. A call queue (ACD) holds multiple waiting callers, distributes them by strategy and skill, and reports on wait times and service levels.
Related: What is ACD? · Ring Groups · Call Queues