The Longest idle time ringing rule routes inbound calls to the Aircall user who has been Available for the longest continuous period without handling a call. This ringing rule applies when calls are distributed to users within a team.
This rule helps balance call distribution by prioritizing agents who have been idle the longest.
For more information about the ring to widget, please see our article Smartflows Widgets: The Ring to Widget.
How the longest idle time rule works
When a call reaches a team using the Longest idle time ringing rule, Aircall evaluates which available user has been idle the longest and rings that user first.
If the first user does not answer, the call is then routed to the next Available user with the next longest idle time, until the maximum ringing time is reached.
Ringing time behavior
The Longest idle time ring time represents the total time the call will ring across the team, not the time per user.
- Each user rings for 30 seconds by default, or for the ringing time per user set in Smartflow call distributions.
- Once a user has been rung and does not answer, the same call will not be routed back to that user again.
- Calls are not looped back to Available users.
- If all users have been rung individually and no one answers before the total ringing time is reached, the call moves to the next step in the call distribution.
Common scenarios and outcomes
| Scenario | Result |
|---|---|
| The first user declines the call | The next Available user with the longest idle time rings. |
| Some users are Busy | The Available user with the longest idle time rings. |
| All Available users do not answer or decline | If some users are Busy, the call waits until the total ringing time expires or until another user becomes Available. If still unanswered, the call moves to the next item in the distribution. |
| Some users are Offline or Unavailable | The Available user with the longest idle time rings. If no users are Available, the call waits for Busy users. The call does not wait for Offline or Unavailable users and moves to the next item in the distribution if no Busy users become Available. |
When idle time resets
Idle time resets in the following situations:
- A call ends
- Wrap-up time ends
- Mandatory tagging is completed
- A user becomes Available after being Unavailable or Offline
Idle time does not reset in the following situations:
- A user misses or declines a call
Additional behaviors to be aware of:
- When a user enables forward call to an external number, the time shown in Live Monitoring refreshes, but idle time does not reset.
- If a user is connected to both the Aircall mobile app and the desktop or web app, logging out of the desktop or web app refreshes the Live Monitoring time, but not the idle time.
- When a user is logged into multiple applications and changes their status to Unavailable, both the idle time and the Live Monitoring time reset.
Individual longest idle times
To assign different ringing times per user, users must be added individually in the call distribution.
Important: When users are added individually, calls are routed in the order defined in the distribution, not by Longest Idle Time.
This method allows you to control the ringing time per user, which cannot be configured directly from the user settings.
Ring time best practices
If all users in a team should ring for the same duration, ensure that the total Longest idle time ring time is divisible by either:
- 30 seconds (default team ringing time), or
- The ringing time per user configured in Smartflows
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