The extension is a companion to the CoverTree Switchboard phone system your organisation runs. It
places calls and sends texts through that system and does nothing on its own, so most questions are
answered inside the Switchboard dashboard rather than in the extension.
The extension says it is not connected. Sign in to your Switchboard dashboard, open the
Phone screen, press Browser extension, then Connect this browser. Nothing to copy or
paste — the dashboard hands the extension its token.
Connect this browser says the extension connects only to its own Switchboard. The extension
takes a connection only from the Switchboard it was built for, the one it is already connected to,
or one whose address you typed into it, so that no other website can connect it to a server of its
own. If your organisation's Switchboard has an address of its own, click the extension's icon,
choose Enter it by hand instead, type the address and press Connect, then press **Connect
this browser** on the page that opens.
The CoverTree Phones desktop app set up Firefox. On a computer with the desktop app, the app can
put the extension into Firefox and connect it for you: it opens a page in Firefox that says who the
extension is connected as, and then numbers on web pages in Firefox have their call icon. It does this
on each of your computers, even when Firefox on another one is connected already. If that page says the
extension has not arrived, start Firefox again (on Windows, close every Firefox window and open it
again; on a Mac, quit Firefox with Cmd+Q and open it again) and start again from the app. If it says
click-to-call is already on, the extension was connected as you before, and nothing was changed. If it
says the extension is already connected, it was connected before, as somebody else or to another
Switchboard, and the app leaves that alone and says so in its settings: to connect it as you, sign in to
Switchboard in Firefox and press Connect this browser, then press Sign in in the app's settings
so the app knows it is done. That page connects only with a code the app itself made on the same
network, so a link to it that somebody sends you connects nothing. While the app is open and signed in
on your computer, calls ring in the app, and a Switchboard tab does not ring or show an incoming call.
Calls you place from the tab still go out, and the tab takes calls again once the app is closed.
The popup no longer offers to turn on a phone in Firefox. Since version 1.2.0 the extension has
no phone of its own in any browser: Firefox never let the extension use the microphone, so that phone
could ring but not carry a call. Calls ring in Switchboard itself (the CoverTree Phones desktop app, a
Switchboard tab or its phone window) or on your desk phone or mobile, and a number you click is
placed exactly as before.
A number has no call icon beside it. The icon is drawn beside North American numbers written as
text, such as (313) 555-0142 or 313.555.0142, and beside tel: links. A number inside a text box, or
anything you are typing into, gets none, and so does one inside a longer run of digits, such as an
order number. Only what is on your screen is looked at, so a number further down the page gets its
icon as it scrolls into view. For anything else, select the number and right-click — **Call with
Switchboard** works on any selection — or press Ctrl+Shift+C.
The icon sits over the words after a number. An icon cannot push the page's own text aside, so
beside a number in the middle of a sentence it is drawn smaller, raised over the number's last
digits. Rest the pointer on it to see whose number it is, and to text it instead of calling.
The icon moves up when the pointer is on a row. Some pages put a button of their own right after
a number, such as a Copy or Call button that shows only while the pointer is on the row. The icon
moves up out of its way, drawn smaller over the number's last digits, so a press there reaches the
page's button and not the call; it goes back beside the number once that button has gone.
Calls do not ring in the browser. Calls ring in Switchboard itself, never in the extension.
Taking one in a Switchboard tab or its phone window needs the browser phone switched on in your
Switchboard profile and a microphone the browser may use. Until then a number you click rings your
desk phone or mobile, which is the default. The Phone screen in the dashboard shows whether the
browser phone is registered.
The phone window opens but does not call. A browser-phone call you click is placed by
Switchboard's phone window, from the line you chose in the extension. It waits up to 20
seconds for its phone to connect; if it does not, the number stays in its keypad, the window says
why, and one press of its Call anyway tries it, still from the line you chose in the
extension. A window that was open before the extension last updated cannot be handed a number:
close it and click the number again. If the browser is not signed in to Switchboard, the sign-in
page opens instead; sign in, then click the number again.
The desktop app placed the call, not the phone window. When the CoverTree Phones desktop app is
open and its phone is connected, Switchboard hands a number you click, in any browser, to the app,
which calls it in one press, from the line you chose in the extension, and comes to the front; the
notification says "from the desktop app". If you would rather the phone window took it, turn off
Place calls I click from the CoverTree Phones app in the popup, or the same switch in the app's
settings: it is one setting for you, wherever you are signed in.
The phone window opened although the desktop app is open. The app takes a click only when it is
the one copy of CoverTree Phones open for you, on the same network as the browser you clicked in, so
an app left running at home never takes a call you click at the office. If the app was already open
before the update that brought this, quit it (from the tray, or the menu bar on a Mac) and open it
again once; after that it takes your clicks.
The number did not ring while I was wrapping up a call. It is next, not lost: the phone window
keeps your wrap-up card and note, shows who is next, and calls them when you save or skip.
No name shows for a caller. The extension looks the number up in your organisation's own
contact records, and, where your administrator has connected a CRM, in that. A number nobody has
saved has no name to show.
The toolbar badge is wrong. It counts unread texts and callers holding in a queue you belong to,
and refreshes about once a minute. Opening the popup shows the current unread count inside it
straight away; the badge on the icon catches up at its next refresh.
browser and can revoke each one).
For anything the dashboard cannot answer, email support@covertree.com. Say which browser you
use, what page you were on, and what you expected to happen. Do not include customer names or
phone numbers in the email — a screenshot with those covered is enough.
The extension talks only to your organisation's Switchboard server, and never uses your microphone.
It keeps no record of the pages you visit. The full policy is at