How to make the callback status line blink red

A blinking red callback line is one of the cheapest ways to stop agents from missing a reserved callback. It lives in the campaign settings, takes about a minute to turn on, and needs no scripting. Here is how to set it up and what to expect once it is live.

Where the setting lives

Open the campaign you want to change in the admin portal and look for the Scheduled Callbacks Alert option. By default it is set to NONE, meaning the callback status line on the agent screen never changes color. To make it blink red, choose the BLINK RED value (or the matching DEFER variant if you want the alert to settle down once the agent looks at it).

This option only reacts to AGENTONLY callbacks, the ones an agent reserves for themselves, that have hit their trigger date and time. It will not light up for callbacks any agent can grab.

The steps

1. Confirm scheduled callbacks are enabled on the campaign so agents can disposition a call as CALLBK.
2. Confirm each agent has agent-only callbacks enabled in their user options.
3. Set Scheduled Callbacks Alert to BLINK RED, or BLINK RED with DEFER.
4. Save the campaign and have an agent re-enter their session to pick up the change.

That is the whole job. There is no extra container or dialplan edit. Once saved, any Agent in the Campaign will see the line respond the next time one of their reserved callbacks comes due.

How the line behaves

flowchart LR
  A[Standard line NONE] --> B[Callback hits trigger time]
  B --> C[Line blinks red]
  C --> D{Agent checks list}
  D -->|DEFER set| E[Line goes calm]
  D -->|No DEFER| F[Line keeps blinking]
  E --> G{Count changes}
  G -->|Yes| C
  G -->|No| E

Walking the diagram: the line sits in its standard state until a callback the agent owns reaches its trigger time. Then it starts blinking red. If you chose a DEFER value, the alert quiets down as soon as the agent opens the callbacks list, and it stays quiet until the count of due callbacks changes, at which point it blinks again. Without DEFER, it simply keeps blinking while anything is waiting.

Why DEFER usually wins

A line that never stops blinking trains agents to tune it out, which defeats the point. The DEFER variants give you the attention-grab on a new triggered callback without the constant flashing afterward. For most floors that is the better default. The plain BLINK RED value is fine when you want the line to stay loud until every due callback is cleared, which can suit a low-volume team where a single missed callback really matters.

A quick tip: test the change with a callback set a minute or two out, rather than waiting for a real one. Reserve a callback for yourself, watch the clock, and confirm the line behaves the way you expect when the trigger time passes. That short check saves you from discovering on a live shift that the value was never picked up.

Remember that this is purely a visual cue tied to the agent callback Status (lead status) line. It does not change which leads get dialed or in what order. If you also want the dialer to email the owner when a Scheduled callback triggers, that is a separate setting we cover elsewhere.

For the broader context on how callbacks flow through the system, see our scheduled callbacks guide. For more on what the option actually controls, read what the Scheduled Callbacks Alert setting does.

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