Hopper Hold Inserts explained

Most of the time you want leads to dial the moment they hit the queue. But occasionally you want them staged — loaded and ready, yet held back until something or someone gives the signal. That's what Hopper Hold Inserts is for. It's a niche setting, off by default, but if you're building a flow where an outside system decides when each lead goes live, this is the piece that makes it possible.

What it changes

Normally, when VICIdial loads a Lead into the Hopper, that lead is fair game for the next dial. With Hopper Hold Inserts enabled, leads still get loaded into the queue every minute — but they go in with a hold status called RHOLD instead of being dial-ready. They sit there, waiting, until an outside process or utility flips them on.

In other words, the queue still fills on schedule, but nothing dials on its own. Something external decides the timing. That separation — "staged" versus "released" — is the whole point of the feature, and it's why most campaigns never need it.

Where this is useful

Think of any case where the call shouldn't fire automatically. A custom script that watches an external trigger — a CRM event, a scheduled release, an integration with your own software — can pre-load the queue with held leads, then activate them on its own timetable. You get the benefit of VICIdial's loading rules (dial statuses, list order, filters) while keeping a human or an outside system in charge of the go button.

This is not something most outbound campaigns need. If you just want normal Predictive dialing or manual dialing, leave Hold Inserts disabled and let the queue work the way it's designed to. Reach for it only when an outside system genuinely owns the timing of each call.

The AUTONEXT option

Alongside the standard hold, there's an AUTONEXT mode. It does the same staging, but it streamlines the agent's hand on the HCI screen: instead of two clicks to move a held call along, the agent only needs one. If your held-lead flow is agent-driven and you want fewer clicks per call, AUTONEXT trims the friction. The default for the whole setting is DISABLED, so both modes are opt-in and nothing changes until you choose.

Should you turn it on?

Only if you have the outside process to match. RHOLD leads don't dial by themselves — that's the design — so enabling Hold Inserts without a utility to release them just leaves your queue full of leads that never get called, which can look a lot like a stuck campaign. Make sure the activation side exists before you turn on the staging side.

For everyone else, this is one of those settings you can read once and confidently skip. If you ever do see leads loaded but never dialing, our notes on fixing an empty VICIdial hopper can help you tell a held queue from a truly empty one. To understand how the queue normally feeds your dialer when nothing is held back, the VICIdial dialing strategies guide covers the standard path. If you'd rather not maintain custom hopper plumbing at all, our managed hosting keeps the common cases working out of the box — see plans and pricing.