Set up softphones, cordless handsets, and speakers

Configure the device families beyond the desk phone — Linphone softphones, DECT bases and handsets, and paging or intercom speakers.

Not every device on a phone system is a desk phone. The Phones list also holds softphones, cordless (DECT) bases and their handsets, and loudspeaker or intercom devices used for paging. Each family exposes a different set of controls, and each one gets its configuration by a different route — so the first step with an unfamiliar device is working out which family it belongs to.

Devices are added to your phone system by Steer Phones during onboarding or when you order hardware. The dashboard manages the devices that are already in the list; it does not create new ones.

Prerequisites

Phone write access to change device settings.
Extension write access if you also need to change which extension a device answers — assignments are made from the extension editor, not the phone editor.

Tell the device families apart

Open Settings, expand Call Setup, and select Phones. Switch between Card and List with the toggle in the header. Each card carries:

a status badge, active or inactive;
a type badge — Physical, Soft Phone, or Intercom;
the brand and model, and the device’s MAC address;
a banner naming the assigned extension, or a warning that it has none.

Cards with no Edit and no Push Config action are child devices: a cordless handset, or the ringer half of a speaker. They are configured from their base station, which appears as its own card in the same list.

Softphones

A Linphone softphone is provisioned by handing the app its configuration, not by pushing settings to a handset.

Select the softphone’s card to open the details drawer.
The drawer shows a QR code and a Copy Config URL button.
Scan the QR code from the Linphone app on the phone or computer that will use it, or copy the URL and paste it into the app’s remote-provisioning setting.

Treat that URL exactly as you would a password: anyone holding it can configure a device as this softphone. Do not paste it into a support ticket, a chat message, or documentation feedback.

Softphones have no Push Config action and no on-screen notification settings — the app reads its configuration from the URL it was given, so re-apply the QR code or URL in the app after a configuration change.

Cordless handsets

A cordless deployment appears as a base station plus one card per handset. The base holds the configuration; the handsets are child devices with no editing controls of their own.

Edit the base to change its name, labels, status, notification behavior, or SIP transport.
Assign each handset its own extension — or point several handsets at one extension — from Manage phones in the extension editor.
A multi-handset base covers the base plus up to four handsets. A standalone ruggedized handset registers on its own and has no child devices.
Push configuration from the base’s card. Use Push Config & Reboot after any change to monitored-extension keys or SIP account settings.

Paging and intercom speakers

Supported loudspeaker devices — the Algo 8180G2 alerter and the Fanvil A233 loudspeaker/intercom — appear as a speaker base, optionally paired with a ringer child device. Editing the base shows a Speaker Volume section that the ringer card does not have.

The available levels depend on the brand:

Device	Controls	Range
Algo 8180G2	Ringer Volume, Page Volume	0–10
Fanvil A233	Ringer Volume, Speaker Volume (Calls), Speaker Volume (Multicast)	0–9

Every level is labelled with its relative loudness, from “Extremely quiet” up to the loudest supported step. Leaving a control on Device default keeps whatever level the speaker is already set to rather than writing a new one.

A speaker base and its ringer must answer different extensions. Both accounts ride the same physical device, so a call to a shared extension would alert — and on the loudspeaker, answer — on both halves. The extension editor rejects an assignment that would put them together.

Speaker devices have no Push Config action in the dashboard; a saved change reaches the device the next time it reloads its configuration. Contact support if a change has to take effect immediately.

Choose a SIP transport

Yealink desk phones and cordless bases have an Advanced Settings disclosure on the Details tab with a SIP Transport control: Platform default, TLS (port 5061), or TCP (port 5060). It is not offered on other brands or on child handsets, because those devices do not read the setting.

Prefer TLS. It survives firewalls that mangle or block plain SIP, and it encrypts the signaling and authentication exchange. Whichever you choose, the phone stops registering until it has picked up the new configuration and restarted, so make the change at a time the device can be interrupted.

Expected result

Each device shows the right controls for what it is: a softphone offers a QR code and a copyable configuration URL, a cordless base offers editing and config push while its handsets do not, and a speaker base offers the volume controls for its brand. Saving reports the phone as updated, and the list refreshes with the new values.

Troubleshooting

A card has no Edit or Push Config button: It is a cordless handset or a speaker ringer. Configure it from its base station.
Copy Config URL reports that the provisioning URL is not available yet: Wait a moment and retry. Contact support if it persists.
A config push reports that the phone did not acknowledge it, because the phone has no assigned extension: Assign the device to an extension from the extension editor, then push again.
There is no Push Config action at all: Immediate push is offered for Yealink devices. Softphones use their configuration URL, and speakers pick the change up on their next configuration reload.
A volume control reads Device default even though a level was set: The stored level is outside the range this brand supports, which happens when a device’s brand changes. Choose the level you want explicitly and save.
A save reports that a speaker ringer and its loudspeaker base cannot share an extension: Assign them to two different extensions.
A save reports that SIP transport can only be set on a Yealink desk phone or cordless base: The setting does not apply to this device; leave it alone.
A phone stops working after a transport change: Set SIP Transport back to Platform default, save, and restart the phone at the device so it re-reads its configuration.