March 2022: Zoom Phone group-level policy settings

Zoom Phone group management policies allow account owners and admins to set Zoom Phone policy settings at the group level (User Management > Groups > (group name) Zoom Phone tab). Policy settings under Phone System Management in the web portal will also appear at the group level.

This allows for more granular control of policy settings. Sites typically reflect location (for example, the San Jose site), while groups typically reflect organization (for example, the Accounting group). By using Zoom Phone group management policies, you can have phone users across multiple sites but they all inherit the policies you’ve set at the group level.

Starting on March 20, 2022, the group management feature and framework will be enabled by default for all customers. To avoid unexpected consequences, all group level policy settings for Zoom Phone are inactive by default for account that were not part of the beta. Account owners or admins must click Activate in the top banner notification to activate the Zoom Phone tab for each user group before group members can inherit the associated phone policy settings from the group. If you don’t see the Activate option, no further action is required.

Note: This feature was visible on March 20 and deployment was complete on March 27.

This article covers

• Summary of major changes
  • Existing account-level policy settings moved to account management
  • Policy settings available in group management
  • Ability to lock policy settings
• Tiered settings priority
• How to change policy settings at the group level

Prerequisites for changing Zoom Phone group-level policy settings

• Zoom Phone license
• Paid Zoom account

  Note: Standalone customers (accounts with one user) can’t use group management.

• Account owner or admin privileges

• Admins must have the following privileges to access these Zoom Phone setting levels:

  • Group-level policy settings: Groups privilege

  • Site-level policy settings: Phone Site Admin or Phone Super Admin default role; or Phone Management privilege

  • Account-level policy settings: Account settings privilege

Notes: By default, Zoom Phone admins with the Phone Site Admin role do not have access to group management to change group-level policies.

Summary of major changes

Existing account-level policy settings moved to account management

Existing Zoom Phone policy settings have moved to account management.

New experience	Old experience
Account Management > Account Settings > Zoom Phone tab	Phone System Management > Company info > Account Settings > Policy tab

 

Policy settings available in group management

Admins can configure all policy settings using group management.

New experience	Old experience
User Management > Groups > (group name) > Zoom Phone tab	(Zoom Phone policy settings not available in group management)

 

Ability to lock policy settings

Admins can lock policy settings at the account, site, or group level so that it can’t be changed at a lower level. The policy hierarchy for phone includes account, group, site, and user levels. See the next section for more details about locking policy settings.

Important Tip: if you want to ensure that group members will inherit policies as defined at the group level, lock the group policy setting at least once. This will push the policy to all group members. If you later want to differentiate individual users from the group-level setting, you can unlock the policy at the group level.

Tiered settings priority

Unlike other group settings, Zoom Phone has 4 tiers of settings. The following lists the order that the settings are applied and the associated menu in the web portal.

For example:

• If you lock a policy at the account level, it can’t be modified at the group, site, or user level.
• If you lock a policy at the site level, it can’t be changed at the user levels. However, as stated in the table below, group policies take priority over site policies for members of the group.

Note: If users are members of more than one group, the settings of the Primary group take precedence. Learn more about tiered settings.

Priority	Policy setting level	Location in web portal	Result when locking a setting
1	Phone user	Phone System Management > Users & Rooms	Not applicable
	Call queue	Phone System Management > Call Queues
	Auto receptionist	Phone System Management > Auto Receptionists
	Common area phone	Phone System Management > Users & Rooms
	Zoom Room	Phone System Management > Users & Rooms
2	Group	User Management > Groups	The setting can’t be changed at the user/extension level. Note: If users are members of more than one group, the settings of the Primary group have priority over other groups. Learn more about tiered settings. This only applies if all the user’s primary group has been activated for the Zoom Phone group management policies feature.
3	Site	Phone System Management > Company Info	The setting can’t be changed at the user/extension level. Exception: The user is a member of at least one group with the Zoom Phone policy tab enabled. In this case, the user-level setting will be based on the group-level setting. Note: Site-level settings have no impact on group-level settings and vice versa.
4	Account	Account Management > Account Settings	The setting can’t be changed at the site, group, or user level.

 

How to change policy settings at the group level

Follow these steps to access group-level policy settings.

1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
2. In the navigation panel, click User Management then Groups.
3. Click the Zoom Phone tab.
4. Locate the policy setting you want to change, then click the toggle to enable or disable it.
   Note: Group settings labeled with Using account setting means you haven’t modified the group level setting and it’s currently using the account setting.
5. (Optional) To prevent all users in the group from changing this setting, click the lock icon , and then click Lock to confirm the setting.
   Note: For users in multiple groups, the primary group takes priority over other groups. See the priority table for more information.

Learn more about changing policy settings and the policy settings available at the group level.