What the On-Hook Agent setting does

On-Hook Agent is a small toggle on a phone entry that changes how inbound calls reach an agent. With it off, the customer is dropped straight into the agent's session and the agent talks the moment the call connects. With it on, the system rings the agent's phone first and only joins the customer to the session once the agent picks up the handset. It is a per-phone setting, so you can use it for some agents and not others.

What it actually controls

The setting only matters for inbound calls going to an agent who is logged in with that phone. When On-Hook Agent is set to Y, the dialer calls the agent's Extension and waits. The customer is not connected to the agent's session until the line is answered. That means the agent hears their own phone ring, lifts it, and then the customer audio appears. The default is N, which means the customer is already live the instant the agent's screen lights up.

This is most useful for agents on a desk phone or Softphone who do not sit with the handset already off the hook. A traditional call center keeps the agent line open all day, so On-Hook stays off. A reception-style or part-time agent who only picks up when their phone rings is a better fit for On-Hook on.

How the call flows with it on

sequenceDiagram
  participant C as Customer
  participant V as VICIdial
  participant P as Agent Phone
  C->>V: Inbound call arrives
  V->>P: Ring the agent extension
  P-->>V: Agent answers handset
  V->>C: Join customer to session
  C->>P: Two-way audio live

The key difference is the gap between the call arriving and the customer hearing the agent. With On-Hook Agent on, the customer hears ring tone or hold while the agent's phone rings. With it off, there is no gap, but the agent must already have the line up and ready.

When to turn it on

• The agent uses a physical phone and does not keep the line open all shift.
• You want the agent's handset to physically ring before the customer is connected.
• Calls are low volume and answered on demand rather than in a continuous queue.

Leave it off for high-volume outbound or blended teams where the agent's audio path is already established and you want zero delay on connect. Turning it on there only adds ring time the customer has to sit through.

Setting it correctly

On-Hook Agent lives in the phone entry, not the campaign. The actual ringing happens inside the Dialplan that Asterisk runs, so the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) phone has to be registered and reachable for the agent to ever hear it ring. If the phone is unregistered, On-Hook on will look like calls that never connect. Confirm the device is online first, then flip the setting.

Because this is a per-phone field, it pairs naturally with the other identity fields on the same entry. If you are still mapping out how a phone is built, the phone extension field walks through the part that On-Hook actually rings. For the wider picture of every field on a phone entry, the VICIdial phones guide ties them together.

Most teams never need to touch On-Hook Agent, and that is fine. It is there for the handful of agents whose phones should ring like a normal desk line before a customer joins. If you would rather not manage Asterisk phone settings by hand at all, a managed VICIdial box keeps the dialplan sane for you. See VICIfast pricing to see what a fully managed dialer includes.