Placing a call on hold provides advantages to the party initiating the hold. The party may engage in another call or perform another action and return to the call when convenient, provided the party placed on hold is still on the call. The party on hold monitors the inactive call and waits until the call is reactivated. The party on hold is provided with a means to alert the other party via a session initiation protocol (SIP) message formatted as a ring-ping message. The message is sent to the party who placed the call on hold and the user's device activates an indicator, such as to alert the holding party that the held party wishes to re-engage the call. If the holding party does not un-hold the call or otherwise acknowledge the ring-ping indicator, another action can be initiated, such as by inviting another party to join the call.