Voice for Teams: How to Configure Your Service to Use 8x8 Voicemail

Configure the 8x8 Voice for Teams Admin Portal

This process will update the applied Teams Calling Policy of your Teams users to force unanswered calls to 8x8 user voicemail.

Note that this procedure will enable 8x8 voicemail for all of your Voice for Teams users. If one or more of your Teams users should require the use of Teams voicemail instead of 8x8 voicemail, perform the configuration changes below, and then see the section Overriding Teams Calling Policy for Individual Users in this article for further steps.

1. Log in to the 8x8 Voice for Teams admin portal.
2. Navigate to Services > PBX.
3. In the Calling Policy section, click the Manage Teams Calling Policy checkbox to enable it (if it is not already enabled).
4. Click the dropdown arrow of the Teams Voicemail menu and select one of the following:
   • Prohibit Voicemail
     • Prohibit Voicemail effectively means "Prohibit Teams voicemail. Use 8x8 voicemail instead."
   • Prohibit Voicemail & Call Forwarding
     • Note: This option removes the Voicemail and New number or contact options from Microsoft Teams in the Settings > Calls > Call answering rules > If unanswered menu. See this article for more details.
5. Click Save at the bottom to complete your changes.
6. Click the Sync Now button.
7. Once the sync process is complete, your affected Teams users must log out of and log back into Teams to complete the update to their Teams Calling Policy.

Configure 8x8 User Call Forwarding Rules

For Microsoft Teams users whose unanswered calls are forwarded to 8x8 voicemail, their associated 8x8 user profiles must be configured to correctly trigger appropriate call forwarding behavior.

Note: If Teams users do not have access to their 8x8 user settings, an administrator must configure this option for them.

1. Log into Admin Console:
   • Administrator login (displays all permitted options)
   • User login (if permitted: displays only the user's Account Settings)
2. Editing the user profile:
   • Administrators: Click on Home > Users, locate the user you are changing, and click on the pencil icon to edit their profile.
   • Users: The user's Account Settings page will appear immediately.
3. Scroll down to Call forwarding rules.
4. Click to place a checkmark at the left of all appropriate options.
5. Configure the forwarding rule options. Example:
   1. Click the pencil icon to edit the When the user does not answer the call within xx seconds forwarding rule.

2. In the pop-out window, set When no answer for (seconds) to the number of seconds to wait before an inbound call is forwarded.
3. Select the appropriate option in Forward the calls to. In the example, we've set inbound calls to ring for a maximum of 20 seconds, and then forward to 8x8 Voicemail.
4. Click Save.

6. When the user's forwarding options are all configured, click Save again to complete the process. The changes will take effect immediately.

User Configuration of Voicemail Options in Teams

Once the above configurations have been made, Teams users must verify their Microsoft Teams voicemail configuration, so that it does not cause issues with the use of 8x8 voicemail.

1. If users have not logged out of Microsoft Teams since configuration steps in the sections above were completed, they should log out of and back into Teams.
2. Then click the three dots in the upper right corner of Teams and select Settings.

3. Finally: in Calls > Call answering rules > If unanswered, click the dropdown arrow and select Do nothing.
   • Note: Do nothing in this context basically means "Do not use Teams voicemail."
   • Whichever available option is selected, it's critical that this field not be left blank. In that case, routing of unanswered calls to 8x8 voicemail may not function correctly.