Getting Started

StratusWEB PHONE is a browser-based softphone that utilizes the WebRTC standard. This softphone requires no additional software installation. This web phone uses the same login credentials used to log into your Stratus web portal.

StratusWEB PHONE can be accessed by directly navigating to https://stratus.spectrumvoip.com/webphone.
It can also be accessed by clicking Apps on the top left and selecting StratusWEB PHONE from the dropdown like so:

Grant Permission to the Microphone

When first launching StratusWEB PHONE, the browser will prompt you to grant access to the microphone. 

Select Audio Devices

After granting permission for StratusWEB PHONE to use your microphone, you will be prompted to select your preferred audio devices. 

While selecting a device to use for your microphone and audio output, you can check the activity of the device to confirm it is functional.

Allow Browser Notifications

If you would like your browser to show notifications for incoming calls, click the ALLOW button in the Allow browser notifications prompt. 

After clicking ALLOW, follow your browser's instructions to allow notifications.

Allow Your Web Phone to Ring

If your current answering rule is configured to ring only your main extension when first launching StratusWEB PHONE, a warning will appear that states that the StratusWEB PHONE may not be configured to receive all incoming calls:

If you are seeing this warning, your answering rules may need to be adjusted to allow this device to ring. If needed, contact our technical support team to have a support specialist assist with this change. 

If you would like to make this change yourself, use the module below to learn how:

The Sidebar

On the left toolbar of StratusWEB PHONE, you will see many tabs that can be viewed to help manage calls and your Stratus account. Read more of this guide to explore these tabs and the tools they have to offer.

Handle Calls

With StratusWEB PHONE, you can place, answer, and handle calls as needed from your PC. This can make it much easier to work remotely from home or any other location where you do not have a desk phone. 

Place a Call

With StratusWEB PHONE, there are many ways that you can place calls to other people and companies. The different methods you can use include the following:

• Dial a phone number or extension number using the Dial Pad.
• Call a contact that you have saved in your Stratus account.
• Use the Call History to call someone that you have spoken to or missed a call from.
• Call someone that has left you a voicemail message in your voicemailbox. 

Use the module below to learn how you can use the methods listed above:

Receiving a Call

When you receive an incoming call, your PC will play a ringtone, and StratusWEB PHONE will display the following call options:

Active Call Features

When you answer a call or a caller answers your call, you will be able to view and utilize the active call menu and its features.

In this menu, the following functions will be available:

Function	Description	Note
Mute	Disable your microphone. Click Mute a second time to unmute yourself.	The caller will not be able to hear you, but you will be able to hear the caller.
Hold	Place your caller on hold.	While waiting on hold, the caller will be listening to your music on hold.
Dial pad	Show the dial pad so that you can enter digits for automated menus, such as auto attendants.
Transfer	Transfer the call to a contact or a dialed number.
Park call	Transfer the call to a park queue where the caller will wait on hold for someone to pick up their call.	Other users viewing the parks on StratusWEB PHONE or their other devices can retrieve and handle the call.
Add call	Put your current call on hold and start a second call.
Switch phone	Move the call to another device registered to your extension number.
Start Recording	Start recording a snippet of the call.  When you are ready to stop recording, click Stop recording.	Since different states and countries have laws regarding consent for recording, make sure to ask for a caller's consent before recording a call. To learn more about recording calls as a Stratus user, read this article.
Hide call	Return to the main page while keeping the call active.    This allows you to look at the other tabs of StratusWEB PHONE, such as your contacts, call parks, chat/SMS messages, voicemails, and more.	To view the active call again, click More on the active call card that appears on the right.

Transfer a Call

While handling a call, it may be necessary to pass the phone call along to a user, call queue, or an external phone number. This can be done through transferring. 

Using the StratusWEB PHONE, there are three different types of transfer that can be utilized depending on how exactly the call needs to be transferred and handled:

1. Blind Transfer - Transfer a call directly to another person without talking to that second person.  This is sometimes referred to as a “cold” or "unassisted" transfer.
2. Assisted Transfer - Speak with the person being transferred to before completely transferring the call.  This is sometimes referred to as a “warm” or “attended” transfer.
3. Voicemail Transfer - Transfer a caller directly to a general mailbox or the voicemailbox of another user.

Use the module below to view step-by-step instructions about how you can perform these transfers:

Park a Call

As an alternative to placing a call on hold, you can park the call to give other users a chance to handle the call for you. Calls that are parked can be retrieved from other devices and softphones that are able to see these parks. Some accounts may set up different parks for different departments/sites. 

There are two ways that a call can be parked: Static parking and Dynamic parking. To learn more about parking calls using these two different methods, read the module below:

Retrieve a Parked Call

If a call has been parked, you can use StratusWEB PHONE to retrieve and handle the call. 

1. Navigate to the Call Parks tab using the sidebar.
   
2. Click the Retrieve icon next to the parked call you want to pick up.
   
3. On the call notification that pops up, click ANSWER.
   
    

Conference Calling

For some calls, it may be imperative to merge another party into a call. This can be done using conference calling. 

To start a conference call on StratusWEB PHONE…

1. On an active call, click Add Call.
   
2. In the Add call prompt, select one of the following:
   
   • Choose from contacts - Select the contact of the person/company that will be receiving the transfer.
     
   • Dial a new number - Dial the extension number or phone number of the person that will be receiving the transfer.
     
3. Click the Call button.

4. Once the second party answers, talk with them as needed. 
   
5. If you need to speak with the first caller again, click Swap calls.
   

6. Once you are ready to merge the calls, click Merge calls.
   

7. To end the conference call, click the End Call button.
   

8. From here you can resume a call, speak with each party individually, and end each call as needed.
   

Contacts

The Contacts tab shows any contacts added to your Stratus account, including other users in the organization, shared contacts created by Stratus admins, and any contacts you have added. 
 

By default, this view will show all contacts. 
You can click the Contacts dropdown to view contacts in specific categories, such as your favorites, personal contacts (My Contacts), and coworkers. If your organization has sorted users into Departments, you can look at the contacts of users in those departments. Contacts can also be sorted by their Status (e.g., Online, Busy, and Offline).

You can also sort the contacts by Extension, Last Name, and First Name. 

To search for the contact of a specific person…

1. Click the Search icon.
   
2. Type the name, extension number, or phone number of the contact.
   
   

Create Contacts

While handling calls with customers and clients, it can be beneficial to save their contact information in contacts so that reaching out to these people is more convenient and efficient. 

1. While on the Contacts tab, click the Create new contact icon.
   

Enter the person's name and contact information.

1. When you are ready, click SAVE.
   

View a Contact

When viewing the list of contacts, you can click on a contact to view its details. The contact’s extension/phone number(s) and email address (if available) will be displayed.

#	Function	Description
(1)	Contact Name	View the contact's name.
(2)	Contact Information	Reference the phone number(s) and email address(es) for the contact.
(3)	SMS	If you have SMS enabled, send a message to the phone number.
(4)	Call	Place a call to this phone number using StratusWEB PHONE.
(5)	Add to favorites	Click the Add to favorites button to add this contact to the Favorite folder of your contacts.  If this contact is already added to your favorites, this button will update to become a Remove from favorites button.
(6)	Options	Display a dropdown of additional options for this contact:     •  Edit - Adjust or add contact information for this contact.     •  Copy to clipboard - Copy this contact's information to your device's clipboard for pasting elsewhere.     •  Delete contact - Remove this contact from your contacts. This option will not appear for the contacts of coworkers.
(7)	Return	Click the back arrow to return to your list of contacts.

Edit a Contact

Over time, you may need to update a contact to add a phone number or update that person's email address. 
To edit an existing contact…

1. Select the contact you want to edit.
   
2. Click the Options icon.
   
3. Select Edit.
   
4. In the Edit Contact menu, adjust the person's contact information.
   
5. When you are ready, click SAVE.
   

Call History

On the Call History tab, you can view the calls your extension number has handled, including inbound, outbound, and missed calls.

While viewing this list, you will see a colored arrow that will indicate the call direction of the call.

Symbol	Call Direction	Description
	Outbound	Dialed and placed a call to another person.
	Inbound	Received and answered a call from another person.
	Missed	Received a call, but it was rejected or not answered.

You can look for a specific type of call by clicking the Call History dropdown:

To view a log for a specific call, select the call from the Call History list.

While viewing a call, you can reference the caller's information, place a call back to the person, and send the caller a chat or SMS message (if SMS is enabled). You also have the option to add this caller as a contact. If a contact already exists for this person, you can view their contact instead.

Voicemails

On the Voicemail tab, you can view your mailbox and its stored voicemail messages. If needed, you can use the drop down to view messages in either the New or Saved folders of your mailbox:

To review a specific voicemail message, click the voicemail that you would like to view. Doing so will show you additional options for handling the voicemail.

Chat and SMS

StratusWEB PHONE can be used to send and respond to chat and SMS messages. You can send chat message to your coworkers at any time. If your business has SMS registered and enabled for your account, you can send SMS messages to the phone numbers of your contacts.

On the Chat and SMS tab, you can view the chat and text conversations you have with your contacts.

Start a Conversation

With StratusWEB PHONE, you can start a chat or SMS conversation. 
To start messaging one or more people…

1. On the Chat and SMS tab, click New Conversation.
   
2. In the window that appears, type and select the contacts that should be messaged.
   
3. Select the phone number you want to send the message from. 
   
4. Click DONE when you are ready.
   

In the Conversation window, you can type a message, use emojis, and attach a file. When you are ready to send the message, press ENTER on your keyboard.

Once the message it sent, you can chat to your heart's content.

You can also Minimize the window and Pin the conversation to StratusWEB PHONE's main screen.
 

Manage a Conversation

While viewing an active conversation, you can click the Options icon to view additional options for managing the conversation and its participants.

Use the table below to learn more about these available options:

Option	Description
View Participants	View the people in your chat/SMS conversation.  If needed, click the Add Participant icon to add more people to the conversation. Click the Remove icon to remove that participant.
Turn off/on notifications	Toggle browser notifications on/off for messages received in this conversation.  If you are having issues receiving notifications for StratusWEB PHONE, make sure that it has permission to use notifications.
Change Conversation Name	Give the conversation a fun or descriptive name.
Add Participants	Add more people to the conversation.
Leave conversation	Select this if you no longer want to send or receive messages from this conversation.
Delete conversation	To remove this conversation from the Chat and SMS tab, select this.

Answering Rules

The Answering Rules tab can be used to view and reorder the answering rules that have already been created for your own account.

This list of answering rules goes by priority. The answering rule at the top of the list has the highest priority, while the bottom answering rules (i.e., Default) has the lowest priority. You can click and drag these answering rules to reprioritize them.

When the time frame of an answering rule is active, a blue Active indicator will be next to the answering rule. 

To view more information about an answering rule, select the Answering Rule in the list. You will be able to view when the answering rule is active and the destination for your calls.

If an answering rule is no longer needed, you can click the Options icon to view two ways of turning off the answering rule: Disable and Delete.

• Disable - Turn off the answering rule without removing it.
• Delete - Remove the answering rule so that it is no longer in use or viewable.

Greetings

On the Greetings tab, you can view and manage the voicemail greeting(s) that you have created so far for your voicemailbox. 

Create a Greeting

If needed, you can create multiple greetings for different scenarios. To add an additional greeting, 

1. Click the New greeting icon.
2. Give the greeting an identifiable Greeting Name.
   
3. Click the Record button.
   
4. When you are done recording, click the Stop button.
   
5. In the Sound Good? section, click the Play button to listen to your greeting and make sure it sounds correct.
   
6. Do one of the following:
   • If this greeting needs to be re-recorded, click the REDO button.
   • If the greeting is correct, click the SAVE button.

Manage Greetings

If you have multiple greetings, you can view and adjust the greetings that have been created for your extension number. You can select a greeting from the Greetings list to manage that greeting.

Settings

One the Settings tab, you can view and configure your StratusWEB PHONE's settings, such as its connected devices for audio. 

You can also view the Version of your StratusWEB PHONE, which may be useful if you are troubleshooting issues regarding StratusWEB PHONE.

Select Your Calling Device

Select the device you want calls to be placed on when you dial someone using StratusWEB PHONE. You can select any device that is currently registered to your extension number. By default, this setting should be set to ring StratusWEB PHONE, which is the device shown as your extension number appended “wp” (e.g., 108wp).

The suffixes that may be listed include the following:

• No suffix - This is usually the main extension number that is usually reserved for a desk phone
• wp - StratusWEB PHONE
• sp - StratusHUB desktop app
• i - Stratus mobile app on an iOS device
• a - Stratus mobile app on an Android device
• m - Our obsolete SpectrumVoIP mobile app for cellular devices
• h - Commonly used for a second desk phone that is usually used at home.

Select Audio Devices

Many users that handle calls will have different speakers or headsets connected to their PCs. If you have multiple audio devices, you can select the Microphone and Speaker to use when handling calls with StratusWEB PHONE.

• Microphone - Select one of your connected devices to use as your microphone for calls.
  
• Audio Output - Select a device that should play the audio for calls.
  
• Ringtone Output - Select which audio device should play your ringtone when StratusWEB PHONE receives a call.
  

This section of the Settings will also have a tool where you can check that your microphone is picking up audio input:

And a slider that you can use to adjust the volume of your speaker:

Adjust Your Ringtone

StratusWEB PHONE will play a ringtone when you are receiving a call. There is a variety of ringtones that you can select from. With the Ringtone option of the Settings, you can listen to and select a ringtone that you prefer.

You can also adjust how loud your ringtone will play using the provided slider. 

Call Waiting Tone

When there is an additional call waiting to be answered while you are actively on a call, you should hear a tone.
You can use the Call Waiting Tone option to adjust how additional calls ring. You can select from the following for this option:

• Enable - Have StratusWEB PHONE play a tone for each call you receive while handling an active call.
• One Time - Only have StratusWEB PHONE play a tone once when you receive calls while on your current active call.
• Disabled - Have additional calls waiting ring silently while you are on an active call.

EMERGENCY CALLS