Hard to explain in the title, so let me give more info…
I have a Ring Group of 3 extensions set up. All desktop Yealink T46G phones for a front office. When someone calls the main line, all 3 extensions in the ring group ring and anyone can pick up, of course.
What happens often is that one of the 3 people will be on the phone when an incoming call starts to ring – so it rings the other two phones in the ring group. But now that person that was on the phone ends their current call. This actually happens often in this often because the calls are often very short. On a traditional phone system, as soon as they hang up, they could then just pick up the “ringing line” and answer that call. With my FreePBX setup, they seem unable to do that.
Basically, if an extension in a ring group was In Use when the call started, then it doesn’t appear to be able to pick it up even if they hang up while it is still ringing. If they just hang up the phone, the other two extensions keep ringing, but theirs does not begin to do so – nor can they really do anything to try to pick up that ringing incoming line.
That’s exactly how a Ring Group is supposed to work.
A Ring Group isn’t actually a destination - it’s a shortcut to “ring these phones”. If the phone is busy when the call is placed, it won’t be called and it won’t be able to join the call in progress. There’s nothing in a ring group that says “let me keep checking to see if someone that isn’t already ringing should be called.” Once the phones start ringing, they ring until someone picks up.
On the other hand, a queue manages the phones in the group and can add someone while the queue is ringing.
If you don’t want to use a queue, you could have the “unringing” phone user dial a directed call pickup and pick up the call from one of the ringing extensions.
If you disable ‘Skip Busy’ in the ring group, and your extensions have call waiting enabled, then their phones will ring while a call is in progress, allowing them to answer once they terminate (or hold) their current call.