Directed Pickup

Directed pickup allows a user to intercept calls made to another user.

For example, if a user with number 1001 is ringing, you can dial *81001 from your phone and it will intercept (i.e. pickup) the call to this user.

The extension prefix used to pickup calls can be changed via the Services ‣ IPBX ‣ IPBX services ‣ Extensions page.

Custom Line Limitation

There is a case where directed pickup does not work, which is the following:

Given you have a user U with a line of type "customized"
Given this custom line is using DAHDI technology
Given this user is a member of group G
When a call is made to group G
Then you won't be able to intercept the call made to U by pressing *8<line number of U>

If you find yourself in this situation, you’ll need to write a bit of dialplan.

For example, if you have the following:

  • a user with a custom line with number 1001 in context default
  • a custom line with interface DAHDI/g1/5551234

Then add the following, or similar:

[custom_lines]
exten = line1001,1,NoOp()
same  = n,Set(__PICKUPMARK=1001%default)
same  = n,Dial(DAHDI/g1/5551234)
same  = n,Hangup()

And do a dialplan reload in the asterisk CLI.

Then, edit the line of the user and change the interface value to Local/line1001@custom_lines

Note that you’ll need to update your dialplan if you update the number of the line or the context.