Residential domains differ slightly for residential users, this explains the main differences.
Normally a domain is designed to group entities together who all need to / are required to interact with each other but not outside of the domain.
However, when dealing with residential customers it can seem quite extreme to have to create a domain for every single user, as such there is the option when creating a domain to turn it into a residential domain.
A residential domain is very similar to a normal domain, however users inside a residential domain are unable to interact with each other in any way. This means you can put all your residential users under a single domain and they won't be able to see each other.
To break this down, the exact differences are as follows:
- No Extension To Extension dialing, users cannot dial each others extensions.
- No presence, users cannot see the existence nor the presence of other users on the domain.
- No shared directory, users can have their own personal directories, but there is no way to share a directory between users.
This has 2 main benefits, firstly it means you don't have to create a domain every time you get a new residential customer, and secondly it means you can configure a product set for your residential domain and have it shared across all your users in the domain. Both of these mean you save a significant amount of time when it comes to configuring new users onto the platform.
To understand more about domains and how to configure them, please see How do I configure a new domain?