How do you get incoming call routing to be based on random person in Schedule?

[Calvin]

Hi all, so we have an incoming call configuration routed to particpants in schedule abcd. But it seems to always go to the first person in rotation 1 and not the person in rotation 2?

Is it an escalation policy thing to set up? Say I have it set in an escalation policy to go to "Notify members of on-call schedule" would that then randomly pick a user who is on-call at the time?

[Aditya Bodke]

Hi Calvin!

Thank you so much for reaching out to the Atlassian Community and sharing your use case. This is a great question, and I’m happy to help clarify how incoming call routing works with OpsGenie schedules and escalation policies.

By default, when you route incoming calls to an on-call schedule (like your “abcd” schedule), OpsGenie will notify the user who is currently on-call according to the schedule’s rotation. If your schedule has multiple rotations, OpsGenie typically starts with the first rotation to determine who should be notified. That’s why you’re seeing calls always go to the first person in rotation 1, rather than someone from rotation 2.

If you’re looking to randomise which on-call user receives the call, there isn’t a built-in feature to randomise selection within the on-call schedule itself. OpsGenie follows the order defined in your schedule and escalation policy.

However, there is an option in escalation policies called “Notify random member of a team.” If you use this action, OpsGenie will select a random member from your team (not just those on-call) and notify them. This can help distribute calls more evenly, but keep in mind it includes all team members, not just those currently on-call.

If you’re using OpsGenie’s Free and Essentials plans, or Jira Service Management’s Standard plan, escalation policies don't include the functionalities below:
Notify Group, Notify next user in schedule, Notify previous user in schedule, Notify random member of team, and Repeat options.

Learn more about escalation policy here - How do escalations work in Opsgenie? | Opsgenie | Atlassian Support

To summarise:

• On-call schedule notifications: Follows the rotation order, not randomised.
• Notify random member of a team: Randomises the recipient, but includes all team members, not just those on-call.

Thanks again for being part of the Atlassian Community!