Idea

So how do you hang up a call programmatically once it is established?

I'm curious what the use-case for this is Dave, I personally am not aware of any situation where I would want anything other than a human to hang up a phone once a call is established, except in cases of a dialer (when it has reached a voicemail or IVR).

Really curious about your use-case for this. :)

@Dave Welch, Currently we do not support disconnecting the established call using APIs . The only way to disconnect the call during the ringout is before the call is established(within 2-4 seconds of initiating the ringout) .  

Benjamin,

In answer to your question "' I'm curious what the use-case for this"

Several quick cases I can think of.

• The calls are placed out of a call center application.  The call is begun using a control in the call center application.  It is natural to try and end a call in the same way
• The call is abandoned by the caller but is not hung up due to a problem such as the PSTN CO fails to signal the hangup.
• We want to use hands free call control.
• A call is passed around a queue without being answered and we don't want to use system defined call routing.

From my perspective, I can't think of why an application could start a call programmatically but not be able to  end it the same way. 

Those are all pretty valid use-cases. Would you mind answering some clarifying questions that I may better understand please?

1. If calls are placed out of a call center application programmatically, you mean a dialer...right?
2. When you say abandoned by the caller, you mean the person you're calling hung up, but your system didn't receive notice of the call disconnecting...right?
3. Don't hands-free call controls still require a human to press a button or interface with a device/application? (meaning a human is involved in the process...right?)
4. If a call is passed around a queue without being answered, why wouldn't you want the system defaults to kick into action so the person doesn't end up in limbo (so they can leave a voicemail, or be re-routed back to an available operator, etc...)?

I'm just trying to better understand how our customers use cloud communications and how our API (or IF our API) can be used to solve their use cases. :)

Answer to question 1

Current Call Flow:
i. Agent clicks Place Call control in the Call Center application.
ii. Call Center signals Place Call to a web service.
iii. Web Service places call using REST Ringout method.
iv. Agents Softphone automatically answers incoming call.  Agent hears ringing of the second leg of the call.
v. Call is answered by contact.
vi. Agent conducts the interview entering data into the Call Center app.
vii. Either party hangs up the call to end.

Desired Call Flow
i. Agent clicks Place Call control in the Call Center application.
ii. Call Center signals Place Call to a web service.
iii. Web Service places call using REST Ringout method.
iv. Agents Softphone automatically answers incoming call.  Agent hears ringing of the second leg of the call.
v. Call is answered by contact.
vi. Agent conducts the interview entering data into the Call Center app.
vii. Call Center app hangs up the call after interview is concluded or either party hangs up the call to end.

Answer to question 2
Yes there are some phone systems that do not automatically hang up a call to an invalid number.  If the caller does not hang up the call, it never ends.  A way this can happen with Ring Central is in the case where a call is in progress on the RC Softphone and the Ringout method is called.  The Softphone will offer to answer the call and will automatically put the previous call on hold.  Once the second call is terminated, the first call will remain.  Any subsequent Ringouts will continue this behavior.  Since our agents are not looking at the softphone, they look at the Call Center application, they will have no indication that the first call remains active.     

Answer to question 3
When I speak of "Hands Free", I'm referring to not controlling the soft phone directly but through another program.  As an example a survey application may automatically begin a call when the agent enters the Intro page and then hang up when the survey was completed.  This frees up the agent to concentrate on the interview and not the phone.

Answer to question 4
We may want to dynamically change the call routing as agents are assigned or unassigned to projects. We already have applications that control the call routing automatically and these apps are already integrated into our survey process.  If we want to make the same changes to the Ring Central call routing we will have to continuously  manage that on the Ring Central system as well.

I hope these responses address your questions.

Thanks a bunch Dave. Your detailed responses have been shared with our Engineering team for consideration and review. I will do some asking around to see if I can find out how other customers are handling these various use-cases and will respond if I hear anything different than what I currently know.