Setting Up UniFi Talk from Scratch

Log into the client’s UDM as an admin account and navigate to the Control Plane.

Click “Install” in blue to install the Talk app module.

Once the Talk app is installed, click the blue “Setup” link to begin configuring.

In the dropdown list select “USA”, check the box to agree to terms, and click “Start Setup”.

This is probably connected to our UniFi Site Manager, so it will notice other installs and you can click “no” and then hit “Next”. However, if this is a single install and you’re porting over a configuration, you can do so on this screen.

You need to have at least one UniFi talk device plugged into the network in order to continue. When you do, adopt it and hit “Next”.

Select the plan desired (start with the 15 day free trial) and enter the site address for emergency calls.

UniFi Talk is now set up. Time to prepare users.

From the “assignments” tab, you can adjust users, numbers, and update devices.

Click on the phone to open the assignments’ blade.

Click the gear to rename, re-assign, update, power cycle, or unadopt the device.

From the “users” tab, you can create new users (by clicking on the icon of the person in the top right), assign numbers, devices, groups, softphone, configure voicemail, etc.

Clicking on a user opens their blade, and clicking on the gear allows you configure users.

Under the “groups” tab, you can set up ring groups.

By clicking on a group, you can open the group blade and configure the number, extension, call handling, ring timeout, voicemail, group membership, and voicemail. NOTE: In order for a user to make outbound calls, it MUST be attached to a number. You can get around having multiple numbers by creating a group instead, assigning a number to that group, and then adding users to that group.

To add a device, user, or group, just click the add button in the top right of any tab.

Click on the “engagement” button on the left to set up smart attendants/call flows. First, enter a name and hit “next”.

Assign the attendant a number and hit “next”. If setting up from scratch and porting in a number, assign the number you created when first configuring the Talk app for now.

Set up the business hours and hit next.

Configure extension dialing if desired and hit “next”.

Configure the smart attendant message.

Configure any remaining dial options and hit “finish”. All of this can be re-configured after setup.

You can re-configure options by clicking on items within the smart attendant, or create a secondary call flow by clicking on the plus in the top right corner.

Hover over an item in the call flow to reveal the + icon to add another layer/step.

Clicking on an item in the call flow opens the configuration blade to set up the audio message, voice, number, extension dialing, ringback, and all other options. If you're using AI generated messages, make sure to get a script from the client and then double check the message in case you need to edit the content for phonetic spelling. This is especially important with numbers or addresses as the AI voice has a hard time reading these and may need it spelled out phonetically to sound right.

NOTE: Audio messages work a little differently than they appear to in the menu. Make sure that the audio message is attached to the item which it corresponds to (for instance, a "ring to" or press to dial needs to have the message for that attached to the option, NOT set up as all-in-one message. See below complete call flow for example:

How To Adopt and Configure UniFi Talk phones remotely with Teleport

In UniFi Network, ensure that Teleport is enabled from Settings > VPN > Teleport.

In UniFi Talk, go to Assignments > Users and select the user who needs to connect remotely.

Under the user's profile, go to Settings > Teleport and click Send Invite.

The user will receive a Teleport invite email. From the UniFi Talk phone, go to Settings > Work Remotely and initiate the Teleport connection process.

Use the UniFi Talk phone's camera to scan the QR code in the Teleport invite email to establish the Teleport VPN connection.

In Talk, go to Assignments > Devices. The phone will now be available for assignment to a user.

Alternatively, if you are adopting a phone without a user, for a user that isn’t set up yet, or you want to pre-provision a device without having to rely on end-users to complete steps, you can generate an invite from Network > Settings > VPN > Teleport (seen in step 1) and follow steps 4 through 6 and then assign the device in Talk > Assignment > Devices. I included the full step by step here in case it is needed, however, it is almost always going to be easier to just pre-provision the device without the user first.

Porting Numbers

Log in to UniFi and make sure you’re on the “Talk” app. Under settings, choose “Port from Another Carrier”.

Check the box saying you understand the process and click “Continue”.

At this point, you will need a copy of the customer’s bill from the current provider. Enter the information, including the numbers you want to port over, and hit “Continue”.

You will have to sign for the client on docusign. Do so to complete this step of the process.

In settings you should now see the numbers porting. Verification can take up to 24 hours, while porting can take up to 4 weeks.

At this point, you can either plan for a direct cut-over or set up forwarding from the old numbers/lines if you have access to the old provider account. Work that out with the client, as some want the transfer to be seamless, while others don't mind a direct cut-over with minimal downtime.

Once the port has completed (e-mail or ticket will come in alerting you), you can now configure the ported numbers from the Talk app settings. Check boxes to remove any unused lines.

VERY IMPORTANT: You aren't done yet! Make sure to change smart attendants/user/group lines to the ported numbers and remove any temporary numbers created to prevent overbilling.