Make a conference call

AI-generated summary

Genesys Cloud provides comprehensive conference calling capabilities supporting up to 20 participants through desktop and web applications, with separate mobile implementations available through Communicate for iOS and Android. Participants can be added through multiple methods including dialpad entry, contact searches (Users, Queues, External Contacts), call merging via Expand and Merge functions, and drag-and-drop functionality throughout the conference duration. The platform features active speaker detection that prioritizes the two dominant speakers' audio while minimizing background noise through selective audio mixing and optimized noise detection. This selective audio mixing ensures that hold music and other priority audio can be transmitted clearly without interference from participant audio. Granular participant controls are accessible through hover-activated menus, enabling users to mute individual callers, place specific participants on hold, or remove participants entirely. Individual mute functionality prevents selected participants' audio transmission while maintaining their connection, whereas placing participants on hold maintains connection without audio communication. Users can exit conferences by clicking End Call, with the conference terminating automatically when only one party remains. Conference management requires a selected phone and appropriate permissions (Conversation > Call > Add Conversation > Conference > Add). Integrated chat functionality is automatically available for conferences involving more than two organizational users, with corresponding chat rooms accessible in both the Calls and Chat panels. Non-ACD conference calls cannot be initiated from calls being coached or monitored. Conferences remain active after the initiator's departure as long as multiple participants remain connected. When participants leave, other parties remain connected through separate call legs, which may incur additional charges until all parties disconnect. This creates multiple billable call legs—one from the original caller to Genesys Cloud and another from Genesys Cloud to transfer recipients—until one side disconnects. The platform is available on desktop and web applications, with users able to initiate multi-party calls through the Calls panel by accessing the Dialpad and entering phone numbers or searching contacts by name with available filtering options.

PrerequisitesClick to expand

Notes:

This article applies to the Genesys Cloud desktop and web apps. For more information about Associate for Android, see FAQs: Associate for Android. For more information about Associate for iOS, see FAQs: Associate for iOS.
This article describes non-ACD conference calls. For more information about ACD conference calls, see Add participants to an ACD conference call.
You cannot start a conference from calls that are being coached, monitored, and so forth.
If your organization enables call recording with the Stop Recording When Only External Parties Remain option, then Genesys Cloud issues a secure pause when all internal conference participants leave the call. For more information, see Manage recordings.

To create an immediate conference call, invite other users to join an active call. While on a conference call, you can mute someone, place them on hold, or disconnect them.

As long as more than one party remains in the conference, the conference call persists even when the person who started the call leaves. When one party remains, the conference ends. Conference calls can have a maximum of 20 participants.

Note: To manage audio quality in conference calls, Genesys Cloud uses active speaker detection. Genesys Cloud only mixes and transmits the audio from the two dominant speakers to the other participants. This selective mixing reduces background noise, which would otherwise degrade the overall audio quality if all participants were included. For example, if a caller and an agent are joined in a conference with an external IVR playing hold music, the agent may choose to mute themselves—and possibly the caller—to ensure that the hold music is detected as a dominant speaker and transmitted clearly. Without muting, background noise from the agent or caller could cause them to be mistakenly identified as dominant speakers, preventing the hold music from being heard.

A conference call that includes more than two users in your organization automatically opens a corresponding chat room in the Calls panel. The chat room also appears in the Chat panel in Personal Groups.

Call multiple people at onceClick to expand

To open the Calls panel, from the menu bar, click Calls .
Click Dialpad .
Use the dialpad to enter a phone number.
Alternatively, in the Please enter a number or contact window, begin to type a name and from the list, select the person that you want to add to call and press Enter.
- To see all suggestions, click All .
- To filter by Genesys Cloud users, click Users .
- To filter by queues, click Queues .
- To filter by External Contacts, click External Contact .
  Note: The All tab shows the sum of the initial results for the Users, Queues, and External Contacts tabs. To see all matching results, click the User, Queue, and External Contact tabs and scroll until the total showing is the same number as the matching results.
Repeat the previous step until you have added all the users and numbers that you want.
To start the conference call, click Start Conference.
To leave the conference, click End Call
The conference ends when only one party remains.
Note: If you leave a conference, the other parties remain connected through Genesys Cloud. These connections result in two or more call legs: one from the original caller to Genesys Cloud and the other from Genesys Cloud to the transfer recipient. These two call legs can incur charges until one side disconnects.

Merge active callsClick to expand

Add new callers to an existing callClick to expand

You can add participants to an existing Communicate call:

From your current call, click Expand and select Add Participant.
Use the dialpad to enter a phone number.
Alternatively, in the Please enter a number or contact window, begin to type a name and, from the list of suggestions, click the person that you want to add to call and press Enter.
- To see all suggestions, click All .
- To filter by Genesys Cloud users, click Users .
- To filter by queues, click Queues .
- To filter by External Contacts, click External Contact .
Click Call .

Place the conference call on holdClick to expand

Place a conference call participant on holdClick to expand

To place a single conference participant on hold, follow these steps:

Hover over the icon of the participant that you want to place on hold. The view changes to display options you can make to the participant’s interaction.
To prevent the caller from speaking to or hearing other participants, click Hold .
Click the Hold button again to allow the caller to participate in the conference call.

Mute a conference call participantClick to expand

Remove a participant from a conference callClick to expand

Leave a conference callClick to expand

To leave a conference, click End Call . The conference ends when only one party remains.

Note: If you leave a conference, the other parties remain connected through Genesys Cloud. These connections result in two or more call legs: one from the original caller to Genesys Cloud and the other from Genesys Cloud to the transfer recipient. These two call legs can incur charges until one side disconnects.

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