Team Voice Calls Admin Guide

The Team Voice Calls feature is currently in beta. Report any issues to Rocket.Chat support.

Rocket.Chat supports team voice calls through VoIP, powered by FreeSWITCH. FreeSWITCH is an open-source telephony platform that supports modern communication standards like WebRTC, SIP over WebSocket, and Secure RTP (SRTP). When integrated correctly, it allows you to make voice calls directly within your Rocket.Chat workspace. See the official FreeSWITCH VoIP Server for Rocket.Chat to learn more.

This guide provides clear steps to deploy FreeSWITCH and configure VoIP in your workspace as an administrator. In this guide, you’ll learn the following:

• Deploying the FreeSWITCH server

• Configure Rocket.Chat to connect with FreeSWITCH

• Assigning extensions to users in your workspace

Prerequisite

Before you begin, ensure the following requirements are met:

System requirements

1. For production environments, review the Rocket.Chat system requirements and FreeSWITCH performance guidelines.

2. For a small test environment, the minimum recommended system specifications are:

   1. 2 vCPUs

   2. 4 GB RAM

   3. 30 GB disk space

   4. A domain name that can be used to expose the VoIP server to the internet, which is different from the Rocket.Chat domain. You may use a self-signed certificate, but it requires additional configuration.

   5. A public external IPV4 address that can be used to expose the VoIP server to the internet, with the capacity to open UDP ports.

Network configurations

The server running the FreeSWITCH container must allow traffic on the following ports:

Confirm that your firewall or security group explicitly allows these ports.

Deploy FreeSWITCH in Rocket.Chat

FreeSWITCH can run in containerized environments like Docker and Kubernetes. In this guide, we’ll focus on Docker-based deployment, which aligns with Rocket.Chat’s recommended setup using Docker and Traefik.

• This guide assumes that you’ve already deployed your Rocket.Chat workspace using Docker Compose and Traefik. If not, start with our Deploy with Docker & Docker Compose guide.

• Before you proceed, make sure you have an active VoIP license. Contact our Sales team to purchase one if you haven’t already.

Step 1: Set VoIP environment variables

1. Update your .env file with the following to set the FreeSWITCH domain where the SIP websocket will be open and the required passwords :

   VOIP_DOMAIN=voip.example.com
   EXTENSION_PASSWORD=set_your_password
   FREESWITCH_PASSWORD=set_your_password

   VOIP_DOMAIN must be different from your Rocket.Chat domain, due to Traefik’s host rule matching.

Step 2: Update Traefik configuration

1. Modify your traefik.yml to add  --serverstransport.insecureSkipVerify=true to the command section:

   [...]
   services:
     traefik:
       image: docker.io/traefik:${TRAEFIK_RELEASE:-v2.9.8}
       restart: always
       command:
        [...]
        - --certificatesresolvers.le.acme.storage=/letsencrypt/acme.json
        - --serverstransport.insecureSkipVerify=true
   [...]

2. Recreate the Traefik container with this command:

   docker compose -f traefik.yml up --force-recreate -d

Step 3: Install FreeSWITCH

1. Go to the official FreeSWITCH compose.yaml file. Copy the URL and download the file with this command:

   wget -O freeswitch.yaml <compose-file-url>

2. Start the FreeSWITCH container by running :

   docker compose -f freeswitch.yaml up

FreeSWITCH is now successfully deployed. You can proceed to connect it to your Rocket.Chat workspace.

Step 4: Connect Rocket.Chat with FreeSWITCH

After successfully deploying the FreeSWITCH server, the next step is to configure its integration with your Rocket.Chat workspace.

1. In your Rocket.Chat workspace, navigate to Administration > Workspace > Settings > Team Voice Calls.

2. Update the required settings from the table below:

3. Click Save Changes.

Configure VoIP permissions

To use VoIP efficiently, certain permissions must be assigned based on user roles:

• Workspace admin/VoIP managers require the Manage Voice Calls permission to administer VoIP settings and extensions.

• VoIP users require the View Voice Call Extensions and Allow Voice Calls permissions.

It's recommended to create custom roles for these permissions and assign them to the appropriate users.

Assign extensions to users

Once FreeSWITCH is connected, assign extensions to users in your Rocket.Chat workspace. Each extension represents a user on the FreeSWITCH server, enabling them to make and receive voice calls. By default, 19 extensions (1001 - 1019) are available in the workspace.

To assign an extension to a user:

1. Go to Administration > Workspace > Users.

2. Click Assign Extension in the top-right corner.

3. Choose the User and select from the Available Extensions, then click Associate to assign the extension.

Alternatively, you can assign an extension by clicking the kebab menu next to the user in the user list and selecting Assign Extension from the options.

To unassign an extension:

1. Click the kebab menu next to the user in the list.

2. Select Unassign Extension and click Remove.

If you're using LDAP, you can automatically assign user extensions by mapping the Extension Field setting. Ensure this attribute is configured in your LDAP mapping; otherwise, extensions will need to be assigned manually.

Great job so far! —With FreeSWITCH deployed and configured, users with assigned extensions can now make and receive calls within Rocket.Chat. In the next section, you’ll learn how to make the most of these calling features, including placing, receiving, and managing calls within Rocket.Chat.