Set up desk phones

This feature is available with the Voice Standard and Premier subscriptions. Learn more

You can set up desk phones to use with Google Voice in your organization. These phones let people make and receive calls over the internet instead of over dedicated telephone lines.

Before you begin

  • Provide power to the phone using a separate power adapter or a PoE (Power over Ethernet) cable.
  • Connect the phone to the internet, either through a wired connection or Wi-Fi. Learn about network requirements.
  • Find the MAC address of the phone. It's printed on the back of the phone or shown in the Settings panel on the phone.
  • Make sure the users you want to assign a phone to have a Voice license and number.

Add desk phones for Voice

Add phones to users individually

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Appsand thenG Suiteand thenGoogle Voiceand thenService Management.
  3. Click Desk phones.
    The Admin console shows a list of the desk phones in your organization.
  4. In the upper right, click Add Desk phone.
  5. At MAC address, enter the MAC address of the phone.
  6. (Optional) At user name, assign a user to the phone. Enter the first few characters of their name or email address. From the list of suggestions, select the person. You can also wait and assign a user later.
  7. At Desk phone name, enter a name that identifies the desk phone.
  8. Click Next.
  9. In the desk phone added box, click Close.

Add phones to a large batch of users

  1. Sign in to your Google Admin console.

    Sign in using your administrator account (does not end in @gmail.com).

  2. From the Admin console Home page, go to Appsand thenG Suiteand thenGoogle Voiceand thenService Management.
  3. Click Desk phones.
    The Admin console shows a list of the desk phones in your organization.
  4. In the top right, click More More and then Batch Add Desk Phones.
    A window opens with options to make a new list or use an existing one.
  5. Click Start New List or Use Existing:
    • Start New List—Voice creates a spreadsheet with the filename, "New user desk phones on date."
    • Use Existing—A window opens showing your existing spreadsheets.
      1. Click the name of the spreadsheet you want to use. To use a spreadsheet that isn't listed, at the top, click Upload.
      2. Click Select.
  6. Click the name of the spreadsheet.
    The file opens in Google Sheets in a new tab of your browser.
  7. For each user you want to assign a phone to, fill in the 4 columns with each phone's information.
  8. After you complete the spreadsheet, return to the Admin console and click Continue.
    Voice verifies each MAC address and email address:
    • If there are errors, a window opens. You can fix the errors and resubmit. Learn about verification errors below.
    • After Voice verifies the information, a window opens showing the user information.
  9. Review the information for each user, and click Add Phones.
    • To view the status, in the top right, click Tasks Tasks.
    • When Voice finishes adding the phones, you get an email notification.

Depending on the number of phones you add, it can take up to 24 hours to add all phones.

Guidelines and tips

You can enter information only in the columns available in the downloaded file. You can't add new columns.

  • Email address—Use the format username@yourdomain.com
  • MAC address—Use the 12-hex digits format. For example, ABCD-1234-5678. For Polycom VVX OBi Edition phones, the serial number is the MAC address.

Verification errors

If you have trouble uploading a list, find the error message below for details. After you correct all errors, submit the list again.

  • Device has already been assigned—This phone is assigned to another user. Unassign from that user.
  • Email doesn't match a user—This email address doesn't belong to a user in your organization. Change to a valid email address.
  • Email format is incorrect—This email address isn't in the correct format. Change to the correct format.
  • MAC address must be 12 hex digits—The MAC address isn't in the correct format. Change to the correct format.
  • The phone model is required—This row has no phone model. Add the model.

The phone might restart several times and take a while before it's ready. When done, the background screen image changes to show the Voice logo. In the Admin console, the desk phone page shows the phone and the Voice number of the assigned user.

Video: Add a desk phone

Get started: Google Voice desk phones

Assign a different user to a phone

You can change the Voice number assigned to a phone. If the phone already has an assigned number, you first need to unassign it.

  1. From the desk phone homepage, click the desk phone in the list.
  2. On the left, click Unassign.
  3. At the prompt, click Unassign.
    Voice removes the previous user from the phone so you can assign it to a new user.
  4. From the desk phone homepage, point to the desk phone you want to update and click Edit Edit.
  5. At Desk phone name, enter a name that identifies the desk phone.
  6. At user name, assign a user to the phone. Enter the first few characters of their name or email address. When the name you want appears, select it.
  7. Click Next.

Supported desk phone models

You can use these models of desk phones with Google Voice:

  • Polycom VVX 150 OBi Edition
  • Polycom VVX 250 OBi Edition
  • Polycom VVX 350 OBi Edition
  • Polycom VVX 450 OBi Edition

If you don't have the OBi Edition, or aren't sure, learn how to identify your model and convert to the OBi Edition Software at Polycom support.

Restrictions

  • Google Voice for G Suite does not support Obihai phones used with the unmanaged version of Google Voice. You can't connect those phones to your work or school account.
  • When you set up a phone to use Google Voice, it can't use any other service provider. Any existing lines and numbers on the device are removed.

Desk phone status

The desk phone homepage shows the status of each phone.

Indicator Status Description
Online Online Phone can make and receive calls (if it has an assigned phone number). It can also get configuration updates.
Limited Service Limited Service Phone can make and receive calls, but can't get configuration updates because it can't connect to the provisioning service.
Out of Service Not in Service Phone can't make or receive calls because it can't connect to Google Voice.
Offline Offline Phone can't make or receive calls because it can't connect to Google Voice and can't get configuration updates.

Offline devices might have lost power or network connectivity. Devices without full service might be unable to connect to required services. Review network requirements.

What is a MAC Address?

The MAC address uniquely identifies every networked device, such as a desk phone. The MAC address is globally unique unlike a serial number assigned by the manufacturer.

Note: For Polycom VVX OBi Edition phones, Google Voice supports using the serial number as the MAC address. The only number on the back of a VVX phone is the serial number

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