Managing Common Areas (New Common Area Experience)

Zoom Phone is introducing an updated workflow for managing Common Area phones, analog telephone adapters (ATAs), and Zoom Phone Appliances in the web portal. Learn more about the New Common Area Experience

If you have this experience enabled on your account, follow this article to learn how to define Common Area, assign devices, and configure settings like the extension number.

A Common Area can be any area in an office that is available for use by more than one employee. For example, if your organization has a hybrid office space, you can define each hoteling station as a Common Area, and then assign phones to this area so that employees can use them.

This article covers:

Prerequisites for managing Common Areas

How to add a Common Area and assign devices

Follow these steps if you want to add a desk phone that can be used by anyone. You can also batch add several Common Area phones at once.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Users & Rooms.
  3. Click the Common Areas tab.
  4. Click Add and enter the following information:
  5. Click Save
  6. Click the Settings tab.
  7. In the Desk Phone(s) section, click Add.
  8. Select the provisioned desk phones or ATAs to add to the Common Area, then click Confirm.
  9. In the Zoom Phone Appliance section, click Assign.
  10. Select the Zoom Phone Appliance to add to the Common Area.

How to change Common Areas settings

Follow these steps if you want to edit the settings of a Common Area phone you have added.

Note: There are also global phone settings, and policy settings that enable or disable certain phone features.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Users & Rooms.
  3. Click the Common Areas tab.
  4. Click the display name of the Common Area you want to edit.
    You will see the following information and options:

Profile tab

Policy tab

Policy settings allow you to enable or disable certain Zoom Phone features.

Note: Common Areas have access to the same policy settings as Common Area phones, except for hot desking. You can enable or disable hot desking for specific devices by using the Settings tab.

Settings tab

Note: After setting custom hours, you can customize how inbound calls are routed during these hours. 

Call handling settings

How to add a Common Area phone to a call queue

You can add a Common Area phone to be a member of a call queue.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Call Queues.
  3. Click the name of the call queue you want to add the phone to.
  4. In the Member(s) section, click View or Edit.
  5. Click Add.
  6. Click the Common Areas tab.
  7. Select the Common Area phone and click OK.

How to add a Common Area to an auto receptionist

You can route to a Common Area phone during an auto receptionist's business or closed hours.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
  3. Click the name of the auto receptionist you want to add the phone to.
  4. In the Business Hours or Closed Hours section, click Edit next to Route to.
  5. Select Common Areas, enter the Common Area's name, then select the Common Area.
  6. Click OK.

How to add a Common Area to an IVR

If you have an a IVR system, you can provide an IVR menu option for callers to route to a Common Area .

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation, click Phone System Management then Auto Receptionists.
  3. Click the name of the auto receptionist with an IVR you want to add the phone to.
    Note: Set up an IVR if the auto receptionist if it doesn't have one.
  4. In the Business Hours or Closed Hours section, click Edit under Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
  5. Click Edit next to one of the key.
  6. Select Forward to Common Area, enter the Common Area's name, then select the Common Area.
  7. Click Save.

How to add Common Areas in batch

You add several Common Areas at once using a CSV file.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Users & Rooms.
  3. Click the Common Areas tab.
  4. Click Import at the top of the page.
  5. If you have multiple sites, select the target site you want the users to belong to.
  6. Click CSV Sample. You can download a sample CSV file and view the required fields.
    Note: Click Zoom Phone Certified Hardware to view a list of acceptable entries. Fill in the Manufacturer and Model columns using this list for the CSV file to import correctly.
  7. Click Download
  8. Fill out the fields in the CSV sample using spreadsheet software like Microsoft Excel.
    Note:
  9. Click Upload CSV and select your completed CSV file to start the batch process.
    Note: If there's an error in one or more fields, the batch process will not complete. You will have these options:
  10. Click Close if the batch process is successful.

How to export a list of Common Areas

You can also export a CSV file containing a list of all Common Areas for your own records.

Note: The Zoom web portal doesn't support batch updating Common Areas using a CSV file. You cannot edit the exported CSV then import it.

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation menu, click Phone System Management then Users & Rooms.
  3. Click the Common Areas tab.
  4. (Optional) Use the search bar and drop-down menus to filter Common Areas.
  5. Click Export to download a CSV file of the current list of Common Areas in the web portal.