Chorus glossary

Notice: Telephony replacement project

In response to BT switching off analogue lines between January 2026 and January 2027, the Telephony Replacement project is currently advising on and coordinating the replacement of centrally managed analogue and critical phone lines as well as managing the transition of Chorus VoIP (digital) lines to Microsoft Teams Phone (formerly referred to as Telephony over Teams at the University). For more information see the Telephony replacement project webpage.

 

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Chorus is the telephone system for Oxford University, providing voice calling, voicemail and desk phones.

'Executive assistant' working allows calls to a 'manager' to be automatically diverted to an 'assistant' - unless the caller is on a whitelist, in which case the call goes straight through to the manager. One assistant can monitor a number of managers, and make and receive calls on behalf of them.

This functionality also works in Teams Phone, as long as both the 'manager' and 'assistant' are on Teams Phone. However, note that there is not a whitelist equivalent on Teams Phone.

Hunt groups are a method of distributing telephone calls from a single phone number to a group of several phone handsets. Within a set of people, calls to a phone number are distributed to a group of several desk phones - either one phone after another until someone picks up, or to all phones in the group at once. There is no need to dial a number to pick up the call.

Hunt groups are available in Teams Phone as long as the entire group is on Teams Phone.

Phoneman is a web interface for managing your phone extensions and for telephone administrators to manage Chorus users and accounts, and group working.

Users can also be moved from Chorus to Teams Phone (and vice versa, if required) on the phoneman Numbers view.

Chorus does not have a softphone or mobile app; users will need to move to Teams Phone if they require that functionality.

Pickup groups mean that, within a set group of people, anyone can pick up calls to a person’s phone from their own desk phone, by dialling **3.

If you are not in the office, then you can't make use of this Pick up group feature, as you will not hear someone else's desk phone ring. When you are in the office, if you are using a desk phone, then you will be able to continue to pick up someone else's desk phone. If you move to Teams Phone, then you will not be able to use this feature.

Tams Phone is an add-on to the Microsoft Teams application, which requires an additional licence. It allows you to make and receive external and internal calls using telephone numbers from within Teams, using a headset/speaker and microphone rather than a physical telephone handset.

If you move from Chorus to Teams Phone, you will keep your existing telephone numbers.

To view information about your phone, directory status and dialling permissions


Phoneman

 

To change voicemail settings (Needs VPN)


Voicemail

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