Overview & Setup

The Virtual-Call Cloud PBX offers an omnichannel messaging feature that lets you integrate various digital communication channels into your phone system. Customers can reach your business via SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, or Live Chat—while your team handles all inquiries from a single interface in the Virtual-Call UC Client.

Feature Overview

• Unified Inbox: Agents receive and respond to customer inquiries from different channels directly in the UC Client—no need to switch between apps. All messages are stored centrally on the PBX server.
• Business Number: Messages are sent using your business number, keeping employees' personal numbers private. When needed, a messaging session can be elevated to a phone call.
• Seamless Collaboration: Conversations can be transferred to other agents. The new agent can see the full chat history and continue without interruption.
• Flexible Assignment: Incoming messages are distributed to available agents through message queues—either by manual pickup or automatic assignment.

Supported Channels

For details on setting up individual channels, see the respective articles:

• Set Up an SMS Channel
• Set Up a WhatsApp Channel
• Set Up a Facebook Channel
• Set Up a Live Chat Channel

Setup Workflow

Setting up omnichannel messaging involves three steps:

1. Set up a message channel—Add one or more communication channels (SMS, WhatsApp, Facebook, Live Chat) in the PBX and connect them to the respective service provider.
2. Create a message queue—Define a group of agents to handle incoming messages (see below).
3. Set up a message campaign (optional)—Send bulk messages to multiple recipients.

Setting Up a Message Queue

A message queue distributes incoming messages from various channels to a group of agents. This allows multiple team members to handle customer inquiries collaboratively.

Create a Queue

1. Log in to the Cloud PBX admin portal.
2. Go to Messaging > Message Queue.
3. Click Add.
4. Configure the following settings:
   • Name: A descriptive name for the queue (e.g., "Support Team" or "Sales").
   • Chat Assignment Mode:
     • Manual Pickup: All agents can see incoming messages. An agent takes over the session manually.
     • Auto-Pickup: The session is automatically assigned to the first agent who replies.
     • Disable Pickup: All agents can reply, but sessions are not exclusively assigned.
   • Agents: Select the extensions that should work as agents in this queue.
5. Click Save.

Assign Queue as Destination

To have the queue receive messages, set it as the destination in a message channel:

1. Go to Messaging > Message Channel.
2. Edit the desired channel.
3. Under Destination for Inbound Messaging, select Message Queue and choose the queue you created.
4. Click Save.

System Limits

The maximum number of queues and agents depends on the number of extensions (N) in your system:

Best Practices

• Create separate message queues for each department (e.g., Sales, Support) so inquiries are routed to the right team.
• Use automatic session closing in the channel settings to end inactive conversations after a defined period.
• Start with manual pickup if you have a small team—this way everyone can see all incoming messages.

New Features from Version 84.23.0.24

Duplicate Active Sessions

New configuration item: Allow the creation of duplicate active sessions for SMS and WhatsApp channels (Path: Messaging > Message Channel > SMS Channel/WhatsApp Channel > Messaging Settings).

When enabled and a user creates a session on the UC Client where an active session with the same sender and receiver already exists, a confirmation dialog appears. Upon confirmation, the original session is taken over, including the complete chat history.