Public lines

Normally nobody can call you until you’ve accepted their knock. A public line is the one exception, and you choose it: a team or organization publishes one of its ring groups at its own address, say orders@acme.example or help@cafe.example, and anyone on any Open Lounge Phone server may call it straight away. It’s how a shop, a clinic’s front desk or a venue can be reached by people who aren’t connected to anyone there yet.

Homes don’t have public lines, and kids’ phones can never call one.

Turn one on

1. In a team or organization space, open Directory → Admin → Ring groups and open the group (or make one first: see A phone system for your team).

2. Under Public line, choose its address (orders becomes orders@your.server) and press Choose address. Lines share names with people and rooms, but may use names such as support or help.

3. The line starts off. Tick the switch and read the warning:

   Anyone on a server you haven’t blocked can call this line. Their verified address shows on every call, and you can block people and whole servers.

   Press Make it public to turn it on. Turning a line on or off, changing it and blocking callers all show up in the space’s list of changes (Settings → Changes).

Remove the line frees its address; the ring group itself stays.

Every option

Option	What it does
Name callers see	The name on the caller’s screen (the group’s name if empty).
One line about it	An optional description, such as “Questions about your order”.
Who can call	Anyone (on a server you haven’t blocked), Only people connected to someone here, or Only these servers and addresses (one per line: partner.example, ann@far.example).
Callers wait in line	On: when nobody is free, callers wait their turn. Off: they go straight to voicemail.
At most … callers waiting	The longest line (1 to 50, 10 by default). The next caller is offered voicemail.
For at most … minutes, then	The longest wait (30 seconds to an hour, 10 minutes by default), then offer voicemail, forward to another ring group or to one person, or end the call.
Show callers their place in line	Off: callers hear “waiting in line” without a number.
Offer “Leave a voicemail instead”	Callers may stop waiting and leave a message.
Offer “Call me back”	Callers may hang up and keep their place; the line calls them back (on by default).
If they miss the call back	Try once more later, then offer voicemail, or offer voicemail at once.
Callers can leave a message	Off: no voicemail at all; an unanswered call simply ends. Messages go to the group’s shared voicemail box.
Greeting	The standard one, or Record a greeting (30 s) of your own.
Limits (calls per hour)	Each caller and Each other server. Empty = the server’s limits (10 and 300); a line can only be stricter.

The ring group’s own settings still apply: who it rings and how, the ring time, its business hours and what happens after hours. Outside business hours nobody waits in line: the after-hours action applies.

How people call a line

• The companion app: Connections → Call a public line, type the address, Call.
• A personal (desk) phone: on the phone’s page in the app, under Public lines and add-ons, add the line’s address with a label (Add), then put it on a key. Lift the handset and press the key.
• A Lounge phone: someone signed in at a Lounge phone gets the lines that are on their own desk phone’s keys. A line is always called as a person, so a Lounge phone with nobody signed in can’t call one (it shows SIGN IN TO CALL).

The members the line rings see the caller’s verified address (ann@far.example, vouched for by their server) along with the name, and which line was called.

The queue

When everyone in the group is busy, offline or not taking calls, the caller waits in line, first come, first served:

• the app shows “You’re 2nd in line” (or “You’re next”) with Leave a voicemail instead;
• a phone shows IN LINE 2 / 1 VOICEMAIL, and key 1 leaves a message instead.

As soon as a member is free, the line rings for the caller at the front. If nobody answers, they go back to their place. The longest wait and the longest line do what the line’s settings say.

Call me back

Nobody likes holding. While waiting, a caller can choose Call me back in the app (key 2 on a phone, which shows 1 VM 2 CALL BACK). They hang up and keep their place in line for up to two hours (PLACE KEPT / WE'LL CALL BACK).

When it’s their turn and someone at the line is free, their app and their own phones ring: “Acme support is calling you back” (ACME SUPPORT / CALLS YOU BACK on a phone). Answering puts them through to the line in their place. If they decline or don’t answer, the line tries once more when their turn comes again, then offers voicemail, or offers voicemail at once, whichever you chose. A call back nobody answered shows on the caller’s own phones as a missed call, MISSED CALL BACK / the line’s name, until they clear it (MENU 5, then 3), call the line, or answer its next call back. A line only ever rings someone who asked it to call back, and kids’ phones can’t call lines at all. It works for callers on other servers too, when their server knows how (servers that don’t simply aren’t offered it).

Blocking and recent callers

Under the line, Recent callers lists the last 100 calls: who (verified address), when, and how it went (answered, voicemail, missed, hung up, call back, missed call back, call back expired, closed, line full, nobody free, refused). Next to each, Block person blocks that address and Block server blocks everyone on their server. Blocks cover all of the space’s public lines and are listed under Blocked from your public lines, where Unblock lifts them. The server operator’s own blocklist applies before any of this.

A line that doesn’t take someone (off, blocked, not on the allow-list, over a limit, or a kids’ phone) answers exactly like a line that doesn’t exist, so nobody can probe for lines or blocks.

Limits

• Calls per hour from one address (10 by default) and from one other server’s people (300 by default); members of the space aren’t counted.
• The queue: at most 50 callers, waiting at most an hour; a place kept for a call back lasts up to two hours.
• Recent callers follow the space’s history setting (Privacy).
• There’s no connection to the regular phone network: callers need an Open Lounge Phone account (on any server, or the free hub).

More detail for admins and developers: Team and org spaces → Public lines.