Customers don't only call any more. They type into the chat bubble on your website, or message your company's Facebook page, and expect an answer from the same people who'd pick up the phone. Yeastar's P-Series Cloud Edition 84.16.0.25, released on 28 August 2024, pulls two of those channels into the phone system.
What's new in Yeastar 84.16.0.25
The headline is omnichannel messaging with Facebook and Live Chat. Alongside it, Yeastar's release notes list a long set of improvements. The ones most teams will notice:
- Outbound caller ID per call. If the admin allows it, users can choose which number (DOD) and trunk an outbound call uses.
- Voicemail language per extension. Each user's voicemail prompts can be in their own language.
- Call waiting prompt. Callers can hear a prompt while they wait for a busy extension.
- A real-time Extensions panel in Linkus Web. See who's ringing or on a call, with caller names, and manage those calls — plus a compact view.
- Force Drop feature code. Authorised users can end an extension's current call.
- Custom ring strategy for ring groups. Each member can have their own ring delay and timeout.
- Trunk status icon for a register trunk that fails authentication.
- Persian as an interface language, and new API calls for blocked and allowed numbers.
How Live Chat and Facebook Messenger work in Linkus
Yeastar's announcement describes it plainly: Live Chat (a widget on your website) and Facebook Messenger join WhatsApp and SMS, which P-Series already supported. Every conversation lands in a central inbox in Linkus, and a chat can be escalated to a call when that's quicker.
For a small team, that solves a real problem. Website chats and Facebook messages often sit in separate tools that only one person checks. In Linkus, the people who already answer the phone see them too.
When chat is the better channel
- Quick questions — opening hours, order status, "do you ship to…"
- Customers at work who can't make a call but can type
- Sending links or files that are awkward to read out on the phone
And when a chat gets complicated, it can move to a call.
Outbound caller ID: pick the right number for each call
Many companies have more than one number: a main line, a support line, a number per country. Before this release, the number an extension showed was set by the admin. From 84.16.0.25, an admin can attach several caller IDs (DODs) to an extension and grant the Allow Selecting Outbound Caller ID permission. The user can then:
- use one caller ID for all calls,
- pick a different one for a specific call, or
- follow the system settings.
The Linkus Web client and the Linkus for Google Chrome extension (from version 4.9.0) both support it. It's handy for anyone who calls customers in different markets, or who works for two brands from one desk.
The Extensions panel: see your colleagues' calls live
The new Extensions panel in Linkus Web shows in real time who's ringing and who's on a call, with caller names and IDs. With the right permission (Allow Call Operations in the Extension Page), users can act on those calls from the panel.
That's the kind of view a receptionist or team lead uses all day: who's free, who's tied up, who to pass the next call to. The compact view keeps it usable on a smaller screen.
Ring groups with a ring strategy per member
One more change worth knowing: ring groups gained a custom ring strategy, with a separate ring delay and timeout for each member. Reception can ring first, for example, with the back office joining a few seconds later and the manager only after that — all inside one ring group, without building a chain of groups.
What came after
Messaging kept growing in later Yeastar releases:
- 84.20.0.21 (August 2025) added bulk WhatsApp and SMS campaigns and WhatsApp templates — see WhatsApp and SMS campaigns.
- 84.20.0.128 (October 2025) opened messaging up through an API — see the omnichannel Messaging API.
- V25.3 (October 2026) added the Message Flow Designer for chatbots and auto-responders.
On PBXfactory
On a Yeastar P-Series Cloud PBX from PBXfactory, Yeastar's updates are applied for you — routine ones in announced maintenance windows, urgent security fixes sooner. You don't install firmware.
Setting up messaging channels — connecting your Facebook page, placing the Live Chat widget on your website, building message queues — is done in the Yeastar admin panel. That's PBX configuration, which our included support doesn't cover. Yeastar's documentation explains each channel; your IT partner or one of our support packages can help if you'd rather not do it alone.