With Automatic Hold, attendants and multifunction telephone can alternate easily between two or more calls. For example, when an attendant or a multifunction telephone user selects a second call, the system automatically puts the active call on hold, and makes the second call active. Automatic Hold is a system-wide capability. If you do not enable Automatic Hold for your system, the system drops the current active call when an attendant or a user selects a second call. A call that is placed in Automatic Hold is in Hard Hold.

To put an active call on hold, without pressing the Hold button, the user presses a second call-appearance button. The second call appearance becomes active. A user can place more than one call on hold. However, the user must keep one call appearance available for other calls.

The controlling telephone can have only one auto-held call on soft hold at a time. A soft hold is the state of a line after the user presses a conference button or a transfer button, but before either process is complete. The controlling telephone is guaranteed the ability to reenter any auto-held call later, unless the auto-held parties disconnect, or the auto-held tone exceeds the auto-held tone time limit.