Why are phone calls in Voice not routing to agents?

Note: This article applies exclusively to Zendesk Voice. If your account uses Zendesk Contact Center refer to documentation specific to Contact Center.

Issue symptoms

Talk phone calls do not route correctly to agents. Examples of call behavior include:

Agents are available, but the message No support agents are currently available displays

Calls stay in the queue, but agents do not receive or cannot accept them

Calls do not route evenly among all agents in a group

Calls go straight to voicemail

Calls dial out from the wrong number

Resolution steps

To address call routing issues in Talk, follow the troubleshooting steps below.

Step 1: Check system status and agent availability

First, verify that service outages or status settings are not blocking calls:

Visit the Zendesk status page to check for active service incidents affecting Talk or Support.

Confirm affected agents hold a Team Lead or Agent role and have set their status to Online. Users with an admin-only role for Talk cannot place or receive calls.

If you use unified agent statuses, check the agent status dashboard in Explore to ensure agents show as online for Talk.

If focus mode is active, agents handling a chat ticket will not receive calls. Deactivate focus mode to test call delivery.

Step 2: Check your Talk line settings

Review your line and queue configurations in Admin Center:

Navigate to your phone line settings and ensure the Enable Talk box is checked.

Confirm the Talk line has a destination configured, such as group routing or an IVR menu.

Verify if the call arrived outside your configured business hours.

Check your queue limits. Try setting the maximum queue wait time to 5 minutes. If your queue frequently fills up, consider setting a priority line.

If you use omnichannel routing, review capacity rules in Using omnichannel routing to route calls.

If calls dial out from the wrong number on multibrand accounts, note the outbound line selection behavior:

Placing a call from an existing ticket uses the first line listed under the Lines tab in Admin Center.

If a call did not create the ticket, the system uses the main phone line assigned to the ticket brand.

Agents can manually select a specific outgoing line from the dial pad dropdown before calling.

Step 3: Check browser and network settings

Local environment issues can disrupt call routing and softphone connection:

Clear your web browser cache and cookies and confirm the browser is updated.

Test Zendesk in a different web browser or machine. Virtual private networks (VPNs) and strict firewalls can interfere with call connectivity.

If using Google Chrome, navigate to Settings > Performance > General and add your Zendesk domain under Always keep these sites active to prevent the call tab from sleeping.

Step 4: Submit a support ticket

If routing issues persist, open a ticket with Zendesk Customer Support and include the following details:

At least 3 specific call examples with date, time, and phone numbers

A list of affected agents and their browser versions

Whether the issue affects specific groups or all agents

A screenshot of a completed Twilio network test run from an affected agent browser. For details, see How do I use the Twilio network test to troubleshoot Talk agent calls?