The Cisco Webex software has the capability to control a hardware phone device, very similar to how Cisco Jabber was able to do so. Please keep in mind:
- Webex can basically be configured in three different ways:
- Collaboration and Webex Calls Only - In this mode, ATU phone services are not connected either because the user chose not to connect or because the user is not set up to connect. Chat/meetings/etc will still function as will Webex-to-Webex calls but users cannot make calls utilizing their office extension. If you are not currently on the ATU Unified Communication system then this is the only mode you can use.
- Desk Phone Control - In this mode, chat/meetings/etc will function, as will Webex-to-Webex calls, but calls utilizing the ATU phone services will be answered or dialed on your desk phone that you have marked as controlled in Webex even if you click to answer or dial the call from your computer.
- Collaboration and ATU Phone Services - In this mode, Webex is acting basically as a copy of your desk phone but isn't tied to being in your office. All collaboration functions work, ATU phone services are connected so you can make and receive calls through your ATU extension, Hunt Groups, etc. and Webex-to-Webex calling is also still available if needed.
- Using Webex in Desk Phone Control mode is primarily useful when at your office where your desk phone is. Attempting to control your office desk handset from home may result in your calls being answered or dialed at the wrong location. An example would be if a user was working from home and had their Webex client at home set to control their desk phone... answering or dialing from Webex at that point would result in their desk phone at their office answering or dialing the call and the user would not be able to see or hear the person on the other end of the call.
- Webex clients have independent settings from each other which means that you can have the Webex client on your office computer set to control your desk phone, logged into the Hunt Group, etc. and these settings are not applied the Webex client on your home computer.
- Webex clients operating on the same platforms cannot all be in Phone Services mode at the same time. Only one client can act as your phone at once. Laptops/Desktops, Android devices, and Apple devices are the three platforms. So, for example, a user can have an iPhone and a laptop both acting as a phone in Webex at once but not their laptop and desktop at once.
- Webex should always be installed and run on the device you are physically present at. Attempting to use a Webex client installed on your work computer while you're at home using remote desktop can lead to issues with not being able to hear or be heard on the call, degraded call quality, etc
To set your Webex client to control your desk phone, follow the following steps:
- In the top right hand corner of Webex, click the "Connect to a device". You should see your available devices as well as the recent devices you've connected to:
The devices under "Personal Devices" should be the desk phones registered to your account. If you're in a room with a compatible conferencing device, these may appear as well.
- Select which personal device corresponds with your desk phone you'd like to control.
- Webex will connect to your phone. Once successful, the "Connect to a device" message will change to indicate which device you selected, like so:
- Webex is now controlling the selected device and any calls answered or dialed should activate and use the selected device instead of doing it on the computer. Note: Even though Webex registers to the ATU phone services as part of this process, the selected hardware device is what is actually being used as a phone. Therefore, another laptop or desktop can be signed in elsewhere and still be directly registered to the ATU phone services and used as a phone.