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Talkdesk Voice Settings serve as the foundational engine for modernized enterprise telephony management. These settings enable administrators to curate site-level policies, manage users and devices, and implement deterministic call routing across the organization. 

Goal

The objective of this guide is to provide a clear path for managing global telephony settings within the Talkdesk platform. The following sections detail the operational tasks required to maintain a robust global telephony backbone through the Site hub: A centralized interface used to define geographic standards, enforce compliance via call restrictions, and customize dialing behaviors through an Intelligent Dial Plan.

Table of Contents

• Managing the Site Hub
  • General Details
  • Users
  • Devices
  • Call Restrictions
    • Managing Call Restrictions
    • Site-Level Restrictions: The Default Policy
  • Patterns
    • Internal Extensions
    • Custom Patterns
    • Call Routing Precedence Logic
• Configuring User Telephony Settings
  • Assigning a User to a Site
  • Bulk Assignment
  • Internal Extensions
  • Managing Granular Overrides: Policies and Patterns
    • Outbound Caller ID Control
    • Configuring the Default Outbound Caller ID 
    • Call Restrictions
    • Dialpad Free Dialing

Managing the Site Hub

Once a “Site” is created, the configuration is managed through five integrated tabs:

1. General Details

This tab defines the core identity and geographic standards for users:

• Geographic Foundation [1]: Sets the country, time zone, and physical address, which are crucial for emergency calling and call classification (e.g., International vs. Long Distance).
• Inter-site Dialing [2]: Configures the unique site prefix used for intuitive internal dialing and allows overlapping extension ranges across websites.
• Default Outbound Caller ID [3]: Defines the number displayed for outbound PSTN calls. Note: This is only applicable if no granular selection is made by users.

By clicking the Edit button in the top-right corner of the page, Admins can also manage the “Extension auto-assign range”, allowing them to define the start and end values for extensions automatically assigned to users within this site.

 

2. Users

Administrators assign individuals to a site to inherit its policies, including the Default Caller ID, Call Restrictions, and access to Dialing Patterns.

Note: A user can only be associated with a single site at a time.
 

3. Devices

This tab lists all SIP devices associated with the site in either “Common Area” or “Companion” mode.

4. Call Restrictions

Enforce organizational policies on outbound calling privileges. Users assigned to this site will inherit these restrictions immediately.

Managing Call Restrictions

These enhanced Voice Settings provide a multi-layered security model for controlling outbound calling privileges. Administrators can manage costs, ensure compliance, and mitigate fraud by defining rules at the Site, User, and Dial Plan levels.

Site-Level Restrictions: The Default Policy

The site is the primary enforcement point, setting the standard calling policy for all assigned users. This ensures that every user starts with a compliant, cost-controlled profile.

The following categories are managed within the Call restrictions tab:

5. Patterns

This tab is used to curate access to call patterns, defining rules for digit translation and specialized call routing. It interprets every dialed number to determine its precise routing path, facilitating internal connectivity, cross-platform integrations, and external routing.

By default, users inherit all Number Manipulation Patterns and Custom Patterns from their associated site. Administrators can selectively modify these inherited rules or provide access to unique patterns at the individual user level.

Call Pattern Types

Administrators customize call handling and routing through Call Patterns. These patterns define rules to manipulate dial strings, restrict calls to specific numbers or number patterns, and define call egress routes.

There are two types of Call Patterns to customize handling:

• Number Manipulation Patterns: Transforms dial strings using operations such as Strip, Replace, Prepend, or Append.
• Custom Patterns: Enables complex routing decisions, such as Block (explicit prevention) or OffNet (external routing with custom numbering).

Number Manipulation Patterns

These rules transform dialed digits before the system routes a call.

• Operations: Transformations include Strip (remove digits), Replace (exchange digits), Prepend (add to beginning), and Append (add to end).
• Wildcards: Use X to match exactly one digit (0-9) and the asterisk ( ***** ) to match zero or more trailing digits.

Valid inputs to configure a pattern include:

• Digits from 0-9
• *
• X
• \
• #
• +

In the list above, the “*” and X are of special significance as they are wildcard characters that mean the following:

Notes: 

• + & # are to match against these characters being part of the dial string.
• The \ is used as an escape sequence when the dial string contains a “*” character.

Number Manipulation Pattern Examples

Example 1

Pattern: #49

Description: Feature Access Code for  Conference Bridge

Operation: Replace

Value: +15552672917

If a Site, user or device has access to the above Number Manipulation Pattern and they dial “#49” from an endpoint, the dialled number will change to “+15552672917”.

Example 2

Pattern: XXXXXXXXXX

Description: Normalise to E.164

Operation: Prepend

Value: +1

If a Site, user or device has access to the above number Number Manipulation Pattern, and any 10-digit numerical string is dialed, the dialled number is prepended with “+1”, so that it is normalized to E.164 format.

Example 3

Pattern: 011*

Description: Normalise International Dialling to E.164

Operation: Strip

Value: 011

If a Site, user or device has access to the above number Number Manipulation Pattern, and the string 011441632960123 is dialled, then the dialled number is transformed to 441632960123.

In order to reduce the risk of introducing patterns into production environments that could lead to unexpected behaviour, administrators are provided with a provision to test patterns before they are assigned to a site, user or device. 

Custom Patterns

Custom Patterns allow administrators to create patterns to pre-define outcomes specific to call routing. Like Number Manipulation Patterns, Custom Patterns have a specific input format, namely:

Valid inputs to configure a pattern include:

• Digits from 0-9
• *
• X
• \
• #
• +

In the list above, the “*” and X are of special significance as they are wildcard characters that mean the following:

Notes: 

• + & # are to match against these characters being part of the dial string.
• The \ is used as an escape sequence for instances where the dial string contains a “*” character.

The available pattern types are: 

• Block: This operation explicitly prevents calls to specific numbers or ranges to maintain "Do Not Call" lists or prevent fraud.
• OffNet: This sends non-E.164 dial strings to the Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN), which is required for short-code dialing.
   

Call Routing Precedence Logic

The structure of Voice Settings follows a highly deterministic logic, utilizing a strict order of precedence to resolve every dialed string. This design ensures that routing remains precise and conflict-free, even in scenarios where multiple rules or patterns might match the same number.

By defining sophisticated rules at the Site, User, and Dial Plan levels, administrators ensure that every call routes efficiently and follows a predictable path for both internal and external connectivity.

1. Number Manipulation Patterns: Applied first to clean up or transform the digits.
2. Extensions (Intra/Inter-Site): Checked to see if the number is an internal Talkdesk user.
3. Custom Patterns: Evaluated for hybrid routing (OnNet, OffNet, Blocked) as defined by the administrator.
4. PSTN Dialing: Finally, the remaining number is routed to the Public Switched Telephone Network using Talkdesk's carrier infrastructure.

Configuring User Telephony Settings

The Telephony tab within each user's profile is the single source of truth for all calling privileges, routing, and device assignment.

By default, users provisioned in Talkdesk Workspace are not assigned to a Site. Features such as call restrictions, dial plan access, and extension dialing only apply once a user is assigned to a Site and their telephony settings are configured.

Assigning a User to a Site

To configure telephony settings for a user, follow these steps:

1. Log in to Talkdesk as an administrator.

2. Navigate to Admin [1] and select the Users [2] tab.
3. Select the specific user you wish to configure [3].

4. Click the Telephony [4] tab and click the Edit [5] button.

5. Configure the following mandatory fields:
   • Site: Select the Site to which the user belongs.
   • Outbound caller ID: Choose to inherit the Site value or define a custom number.
   • Extension: Enter a unique extension for the user.
   • Call restrictions: Choose to inherit Site-level restrictions or set custom values.
6. Click Save [6].
    

 Bulk Assignment

As an organization grows, manually assigning users to Sites can become time-consuming and error-prone. Bulk assignment lets Admins assign multiple users to a Site at once. The system automatically handles extension assignment, call restrictions, and call pattern access, ensuring consistency across all assigned users.

To use bulk assignment, follow these steps: 

• Within the tab “Users”, click on Assign users [1].

• Select all the desired users [2] and click Assign users [3].

Note: An extension auto-assignment range must be configured for the Site. Make sure the defined range is large enough to accommodate the number of users being assigned.

 

Internal Extensions

Every user assigned to a Site has a configured extension for peer-to-peer communication.

• Intra-Site Dialing: Users within the same Site (e.g., "London HQ") dial each other using their short extension numbers directly.
• Inter-Site Dialing: Users reach colleagues in other global Sites by dialing the target Site Prefix followed by the user extension.
• Unique Assignment: Each user maintains a unique extension to ensure they are reachable internally.

In the screenshot above, the user has inherited the following patterns as a result of their association to a Site:

•  \*88
• #244

Administrators can decide whether to enable all inherited patterns or selectively disable one or all of them. As can be seen from the example above, the administrator has decided to explicitly disable the pattern “#244”. Lastly, users can be provided access to patterns that are not associated with a Site. In the example above, the user has been provided access to the call pattern “91\#”, which is not associated with the user’s Site. 

Note: Patterns derived from a Site are explicitly labeled as "From site". 

Managing Granular Overrides: Policies and Patterns

Administrators can maintain global consistency through Site inheritance or provide flexibility through overrides. While the default behavior is to inherit Site properties, it is possible to override call restrictions, access to call patterns and the default outbound caller ID at a user level.

Outbound Caller ID Control

The outbound caller ID can be configured at different levels:

1. A default outbound caller ID can be configured at the site level.
2. A user-level default outbound caller ID can also be configured, overriding the site-level setting.

In Conversations, agents will see a preselected outbound caller ID by default and, depending on their telephony settings, may also have additional outbound caller ID options available for manual selection.

Configuring the Default Outbound Caller ID 

All end-users (agents) are assigned to a site, and each site has a mandatory property called the Default Outbound Caller ID. 

At the user level, admins can define the default outbound caller ID using one of these options:

1. “Site default”: The user inherits the outbound caller ID configured for the site.
2. “Custom caller ID”: The admin defines a valid custom number for that user.

• Note: The system prevents invalid configurations, such as entering an invalid or restricted custom number.

Notes:

• A site cannot be completed or activated without an outbound caller ID.
• The site-level outbound caller ID becomes the default for outgoing PSTN calls from that site.
• The configured number must be valid for caller ID usage.
• Invalid or restricted numbers cannot be saved as a default outbound caller ID.
• Any lower-level override must follow the same validation rules.
   

Other Outbound caller ID options

For users assigned to at least one queue, admins can also control two additional telephony options:

1. Automated outbound caller ID.
2. Calling on behalf of queues.

Notes:

• These settings only apply to users assigned to queues.
• If a user is not assigned to any queue, these settings are disabled or have no effect.
• Both options default to OFF.
• When enabled:
  • Automated outbound caller ID = ON: the automated option is available in the outbound caller ID dropdown.
  • Calling on behalf of queues = ON: queue-related numbers are available in the outbound caller ID dropdown.
  • Automated outbound caller ID = ON and Calling on behalf of queues = ON: both are available in the outbound caller ID dropdown.
  • Automated outbound caller ID = OFF and Calling on behalf of queues = OFF: only the default outbound caller ID is shown in the outbound caller ID dropdown.
     

Agent Experience in Conversations

When an agent opens the dialpad in Conversations, the outbound caller ID is automatically preselected. The default selection depends on the user-level configuration:

• “Site default”: The site-level outbound caller ID is used.
• “Custom caller ID”: The configured custom number is used.

Outbound Caller ID Dropdown

The outbound caller ID dropdown is enabled in Conversations. The first option always corresponds to the user’s default outbound caller ID. Additional options depend on the user’s telephony settings:

• If Automated is enabled, the automated option is displayed.
• If Custom is enabled, queue numbers are displayed.
• If both are enabled, both options are displayed.
• If both are disabled, only the default outbound caller ID is available.

Whenever an agent manually selects a different outbound caller ID from the dropdown, that selection persists across subsequent calls during the current browser session. The manually selected outbound caller ID is only reset to the default value configured in Telephony Settings when the agent refreshes the page or the agent logs out and logs back in.

Call Restrictions

The user profile displays inherited restrictions (e.g., "Outbound PSTN: Disabled"). Administrators can modify these by selecting one of the following:

• Use Default: The user maintains the restrictions set by the associated Site.

• Use with Custom Values: This allows the administrator to selectively enable or disable specific restrictions, such as International Calling, regardless of the Site-wide policy.

Dialpad Free Dialing

Conversations supports a new outbound dialing experience with No prefix as the default option.

This capability allows agents to make calls without having to manually decide whether a given number is an extension or the country to which they are dialling out to.

When No prefix is selected:

• Calls are not automatically prefixed with a country code.
• You can still manually choose a country code before placing a call.
• If you enter or paste a valid E.164 number, Voice Platform automatically detects the country code and updates the selector.
• If the number is not in valid E.164 format, No prefix remains selected.

The dialpad also includes other updates, such as:

• The Clear action is inside the input field
• + is available by long-pressing 0
• + can only be added at the start of the number
• * and # are accepted as valid characters

The same No prefix behavior is also available in the Transfers panel for Consultations, Blind transfers and Conference calls. In this case, the transfer input field also includes a Clear action.

Agent Experience in Conversations

Make an Outbound Call

1. Open the dialpad in Conversations.
2. Check the country code selector.
3. Leave No prefix selected, or choose a country code if needed.
4. Enter the number.
5. Place the call.

After the call ends, the dialpad returns to your configured default prefix.
 

If a Call Cannot Be Placed

Conversations prevent outbound calls to invalid or blocked numbers.

Invalid number: If the number is not recognized by the routing platform, the call is not placed and the agent sees an error message about invalid number.

Blocked number: If the number is blocked, the call is not placed and the agent sees the message “You are not allowed to make this call, please contact your administrator for further assistance.”

Set Your Preferred Country Code Prefix (user level)

The agent can define their own default outbound prefix in Conversations settings.

1. Open Conversations settings.

2. Go to Country code prefix.

3. Choose one of the available options:

•    Use the user's site dial plan default [1].
•    Use custom country code prefix [2].

4. Save changes.

With this behavior:

• The selected country is preserved together with the prefix
• The system no longer relies only on the prefix to infer the country
• Outbound communication uses the intended country selection more accurately

In the dialpad, the system reflects the configured country correctly. For example, if an agent selects Canada as the default country, the dialpad continues showing Canada (it doesn’t switch automatically to the United States, as before). This improves trust and avoids incorrect visual cues in the calling experience.

The same logic applies to the transfer panel. The selected default country code is handled consistently so that the transfer experience matches the user’s configuration and the dialpad behavior.