Anyone using, or planning to use, the HTC Touch Cruise on the UK T-Mobile network will very probably need to do a special setup on their device to get voicemail access working properly.
The symptom is that your callers will be able to leave you voicemail messages but you will not be able to pick them up from your phone. When you get a voicemail message you will get the notification but when you press the soft key to access voicemail it will dial the number but you will then get an error message saying "access to this number is barred" and the system will hang up on you.
If you try accessing voicemail by holding down the "1" key or by explicitly dialing the voicemail access number retrieved from the network (probably of the form "+44050<your mobile number minus the leading zero>" or ""+44068<your mobile number minus the leading zero>") you will get the same message. Dialing 222 will work but will also initiate a voicemail setup message each time and however many times you switch your phone on and off to reload the voicemail settings from the network it still won't work.
I just spent 2 days with the very helpful T-Mobile support to sort this out, ultimately getting escalated up two levels in the technical support group, until I got someone who recognised the problem.
The issue is simple to resolve. The problem is that the format of the voicemail access number that the T-Mobile UK network pushes down to the handset is incompatible with the HTC software on the Touch Cruise (and maybe other devices too). The thing the software doesn't like is the "+" at the beginning.
To fix it go to the Settings/Personal/Phone application and click the second tab ("Services"). Now select "Voice Mail and Text Messages" and click "Get Settings...". You should now see a screen with two access numbers populated, one for voicemail and the other for text messages. Both will probably start with "+44". The text message access number is OK so don't mess with that but the voicemail access number won't work with the UK network. Simply replace the "+" with "00" and click OK and then your voicemail should work as you expect.
I haven't tried accessing voicemail outside the UK so it is possible that the above might break your access when roaming and you might need to edit back the "+" when travelling. I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has any experience with non-UK access and a "0044..." setting rather than the default "+44...", does it dial the UK access number OK?
(Actually, I never looked at the mechanics of accessing voicemail outside the UK, does it still dial the UK number or does the host network automatically push an alternate local access number to your phone when you register with the network?)
- Julian
Nice on Julian. I bought an Orbit 2 on O2, but my number doesn't transfer to O2 for few days yet, so have been using my T-Mobile SIM, and also experiencing this problem.
Thanks for sharing the tip!
I'm on UK T-Mob Web&Walk. Switched the +44 entry to 0044...but my TC then coundn't send texts. Switched it back and fortunately can still access voicemail as well as send texts. Strange.
I'm with T-mobile running an old T-mobile sim card on my new TC, when first called voice mail it gave me a long introduction then said "turn of your mobile off and on again to not get this messages again", I turned TC to "air plain mode" back to on mode and everything was cool from there on.
It seems that not everyone have that problem OR T-mobile has sort out that problem after Julian told them about the problem. In any case, thanks Julian to share this with us.
PS (today after reading this post is the first time that I use voice mail with my new TC)
Similar problem on WM 6.5 Asus Crystal
I had exactly this problem with T-Mobile and WM 6.5.
T-Mobile technical support was excellent, ringing back on several occasions to ensure that the problem was fixed, even though my handset is not a supported model. Once I was put through to 2nd layer support they fixed it in seconds.
In a nutshell, if you text and voice service centre numbers begin with a +44......, change them to 0044......
This did not happen on my XDA Exec WM5.0, so appears to be a new thing in WM6.5?
I was helping someone get started with Google Voice in a thread, and thought a little tutorial might help people out, so I wrote one. I'd like input if you guys think I got something wrong, or left something out. I hope this can help someone.
The pdf has been updated as of 2/16/2010 with more info:
http://i0v.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Google-Voice-for-Noobs.pdf
But I figured some people might like plain text, so I'll paste it too.
I probably won't update the plain text here because it will just be getting longer and longer
(that is, unless someone requests it)
Google Voice for Noobs
Transitioning to Google Voice, on a Sprint HTC Hero
First Revision 2/14/10
What Is Google Voice?
First off, I think it helps to think of Google Voice like a switch box of some sort. You can feed telephone calls in and feed them back out, in whatever direction you’d like. The original intended functionality of GV was to allow you give people one number (your GV number) and then it would ring all of your phones when someone calls that number.
Now this might be helpful for some people, but I know the majority of people here probably don’t have more than one phone. But this setup can still be useful for people who want to use their Google Voice number as the number they give out to people. This setup is really the easiest, because once you’ve entered your cell phone in Google Voice under Settings > Phones, you’re pretty much done. The other advantage to this route is that you can have GV ask callers for their name before it rings your phone (call screening), and some other cool features. If you still want to use your Sprint phone number and just use GV for voicemail, see the next section.
Note: Now when you now first set up Google Voice, it asks if you want to set it up as strictly voicemail and then steps you through steps similar to the following section. It then gives you a more limited feature set for just the options that apply to when you’re using it as voicemail. If that’s all you want to do, then that might be the route to go. If at some point, you want to use a scenario similar to the one above Go to Settings >’Phones’ tab > Get a Google number (thanks to Jon at Hebb Networks for clarifying this)
Google Voice as Voicemail
(This is basically an explanation of what Google walks you through when you go to Settings > “Activate Google voicemail for this phone” on the GV website)
Note that sometime around November 2009, Sprint decided to make CONDITIONAL call forwarding free, so we’re going to configure it like this:
In this situation what you’ll do is dial *285555555555 (replace the 5’s with your GV number) and then press talk. You should hear some beeps to let you know everything is working alright. Then you can hang up. (To undo this feature dial *38)
Next, you want to let GV know that these calls that are being forwarded should go to voicemail. You can do this by going into your settings page in Google Voice on your computer, and clicking “Activate Google voicemail for this phone”
Another thing to note, is that there is a big difference between CONDITIONAL and UNCONDITIONAL call forwarding. CONDITIONAL forwards a call after some (you guessed it) conditions are met - i.e. Busy, or no answer. You can read more about CONDITIONAL call forwarding here: http://bit.ly/9KvT2L
On the other hand, UNCONDITIONAL call forwarding takes all calls to your sprint number, and forwards them ALL to a different number without ever ringing your cell phone. This is not typically an option that anyone would want to use, and Sprint still charges 20 cents/minute for every call that uses this. Read more here: http://bit.ly/apyfAs
Accessing Google Voice from your Hero
Now on your CDMA Hero, you’re definitely going to want to download the Google Voice app from the Market. This will currently do two functions.
1. Allow you to see and play all of your voicemail.
2. Route your outgoing calls back through Google Voice, if you want to. (This makes more sense, I think, if you’re giving out your Google Voice number to people, because then your calls will be all forwarded through GV, both incoming and outgoing. I don’t give out my GV number, so I have mine set to only make outgoing calls through GV for international calls.)
Another option is to call Google Voice from your cell phone, just like the old days with Sprint Voicemail. Be sure to go Settings > Call Settings > Voicemail and then type in your GV number. Then when you hold 1 from the dial pad, you’ll call GV and be able to access it that way too.
Yet another option is to just visit the Google Voice Mobile Page in the browser.
Notification Options
With a fresh setup of Google Voice Voicemail, you’ll probably quickly notice that you’ll bombarded with email and SMS notifications about a new message. You can turn these off, and if you’re using the Android app, you’ll probably want to. On the Google Voice site, visit Settings > Voicemail & SMS > Voicemail Notifications to turn these on or off.
I have one question about using GV. I have free mobile to mobile calling. When someone calls my GV number, which is then forwarded to my cell phone, is this still a mobile to mobile call, or will I be charged?
wjtrawick said:
I have one question about using GV. I have free mobile to mobile calling. When someone calls my GV number, which is then forwarded to my cell phone, is this still a mobile to mobile call, or will I be charged?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just did a reverse telephone lookup, and it lists my google voice number type as a landline. So, no, I don't believe it counts as a mobile number.
Edit: Just checked my Sprint bill. I've got Any Mobile, Anytime. It is charged as a land line.
(On a side note, we just switched to the free mobile to mobile a few months ago, damn I love it: "Your account used 9,346 minutes of Any Mobile, Anytime(sm) calling last month.")
According to GV surport forum. If somebody(cellphone) calls ur GV number and transfer to ur sprint number. It should be counted as Mobile to Mobile. However, if you called somebody else through ur GV number, it will be conted as you call a landline.
link is here.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=75630cc990ea5c98&hl=en
laufine said:
According to GV surport forum. If somebody(cellphone) calls ur GV number and transfer to ur sprint number. It should be counted as Mobile to Mobile. However, if you called somebody else through ur GV number, it will be conted as you call a landline.
link is here.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/voice/thread?tid=75630cc990ea5c98&hl=en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yupp, thats how it is, I have the bills to prove it. Also, for the person calling you it counts as a landline call for them, so if they are on Sprint it is not using mobile2mobile.
If there was a way to convince google to have gvoice lines as mobile lines it would be set....to bad...
Interestingly, the Voice app for Android doesn't do push notifications of new VMs. I get my email notifications long before the Voice app picks the VMs up. (I think it's set to check every 5 minutes?)
Any ideas on that one?
Is_907 said:
Interestingly, the Voice app for Android doesn't do push notifications of new VMs. I get my email notifications long before the Voice app picks the VMs up. (I think it's set to check every 5 minutes?)
Any ideas on that one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I go to settings > refresh and notification > refresh inbox,, and there are options there for refresh rate. 5 minutes is the lowest setting. I heard somewhere that there is a 3rd party app that checks more frequently, but I haven't tried it. I wouldn't want to drain my battery with an interval shorter than 5 minutes. Maybe you'd be better off making a gmail label to sort the notifications if the delay is a problem.
I've just been setting GV to send me SMS notifications, and then when I have a VM, I just hit refresh, and look at it. I don't want it constantly refreshing because I hardly get VM's.
Is_907 said:
Interestingly, the Voice app for Android doesn't do push notifications of new VMs. I get my email notifications long before the Voice app picks the VMs up. (I think it's set to check every 5 minutes?)
Any ideas on that one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the one thing that keeps me from becoming a heavy Google Voice user. I read on the Google support forums that they're working on push notifications but they said it was difficult and didn't have an ETA.
I don't know how it would be more difficult than Gmail.
Hey, thanks a lot for this guide! I've had "setting up google voicemail" on my to-do list for a while now, and your easy to understand guide motivated me to get it set up. Thanks a lot!
Just wanted to add a little something (feel free to put it in your guide if you want, to avoid questions in the forum later) for people who are on Cricket Wireless...
If you try to set this up for Cricket, the code you dial to activate Google Voicemail is slightly different.
For Cricket, dial *74xxxxxxx.
If you get an error after dialing it, something like "Cricket does not currently offer this service", then the problem isn't that Cricket doesn't offer it, but that your account does not have Call Forwarding enabled.
So, if you use Cricket and you get an error after dialing the code, go to your My Account on the Cricket Website and double check/add the Call Forwarding feature to your account. Once you do this, the code will work and GVoicemail can be activated.
Thanks again!
raynda said:
Hey, thanks a lot for this guide! I've had "setting up google voicemail" on my to-do list for a while now, and your easy to understand guide motivated me to get it set up. Thanks a lot!
Just wanted to add a little something (feel free to put it in your guide if you want, to avoid questions in the forum later) for people who are on Cricket Wireless...
If you try to set this up for Cricket, the code you dial to activate Google Voicemail is slightly different.
For Cricket, dial *74xxxxxxx.
If you get an error after dialing it, something like "Cricket does not currently offer this service", then the problem isn't that Cricket doesn't offer it, but that your account does not have Call Forwarding enabled.
So, if you use Cricket and you get an error after dialing the code, go to your My Account on the Cricket Website and double check/add the Call Forwarding feature to your account. Once you do this, the code will work and GVoicemail can be activated.
Thanks again!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent, and thanks; I'm glad this is being helpful to some people. I will definitely add that to at least the PDF guide today after I finish some school work. I look at this guide as a work in progress, and I'd like to eventually make it a fairly comprehensive users-guide to GV.
My one comment is:
*28 on Sprint forwards BOTH busy line, and no answer. From reading the cricket site, it seems that you'd both need to do *73 and *74 codes, so that when you're busy, it also sends calls to GV. On sprint you can do this too, as it would be the same as doing *28. Actually when I first activated mine, I had to do it that way because the exchange I was using was having some problems with the *28. Basically *28 is just a shortcut (on sprint, not cricket) for forwarding both.
So I'll add this explanation to the guide too. (along with undo codes) I totally forgot I had that problem. But I'm pretty sure you want to also do *73.
--------------------
To the people with billing comments:
So basicially everyone is saying:
1) All GV calls out are charged as calls to a land line. (which I have experienced too)
2) All GV incoming calls are charged as if you were receiving the call directly. (i.e. [Mobile call -> GV -> your phone] is charged as mobile... OR ... [landline call -> GV -> your phone] is charged as landline]
Am I right here? If so, I'll add this in today, too.
what am i missing?
* I have google voice setup correctly
* I have the application from the market installed
* I am receiving notifications in the form of text, and through the notification bar in android.
What I cannot figure out is how to opened the darn program when i want to get back into google voice to look at the messages in the inbox. i can get in when a message icon is in the tray (i just click on it and google voice comes up), but later on when i think "what was that message again?" and I go to go back to the program I cannot find a way to get in.
* There is no program in the "all programs" page (accessed by the arrow)
* There is no widget (other than the one to change how i want google voice to make calls for me)
What am I missing? I cannot figure out how to get into the program.
I could go to the mobile site, but that just seems silly when i know that the program is on my phone. I just can't find an icon to access it.
Please tell me I'm blind, and missing something obvious.
-AndyS-
realmrealm said:
* I have google voice setup correctly
* I have the application from the market installed
* I am receiving notifications in the form of text, and through the notification bar in android.
What I cannot figure out is how to opened the darn program when i want to get back into google voice to look at the messages in the inbox. i can get in when a message icon is in the tray (i just click on it and google voice comes up), but later on when i think "what was that message again?" and I go to go back to the program I cannot find a way to get in.
* There is no program in the "all programs" page (accessed by the arrow)
* There is no widget (other than the one to change how i want google voice to make calls for me)
What am I missing? I cannot figure out how to get into the program.
I could go to the mobile site, but that just seems silly when i know that the program is on my phone. I just can't find an icon to access it.
Please tell me I'm blind, and missing something obvious.
-AndyS-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can only guess that you're looking for an icon that says "Google Voice" when actually the icon just says "Voice"
yikes!
@thematrixkid17 - see, I asked for something obvious and you gave it to me
I'm really pretty embarrassed considering the time that I was trying to figure this out, and that it was in front of me the whole time.
Thanks for the quick reply.
-AndyS-
laufine said:
According to GV surport forum. If somebody(cellphone) calls ur GV number and transfer to ur sprint number. It should be counted as Mobile to Mobile. However, if you called somebody else through ur GV number, it will be conted as you call a landline.
link is here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sprint has a feature called "Sprint to Home" for $5 /month. If you add that to your plan ALL calls going to and from google voice are free. I use my phone ALL the time and only manage to rack up a 20-30 minutes a month .
realmrealm said:
@thematrixkid17 - see, I asked for something obvious and you gave it to me
I'm really pretty embarrassed considering the time that I was trying to figure this out, and that it was in front of me the whole time.
Thanks for the quick reply.
-AndyS-
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem. I knew that was probably your problem, because I had to do a double-take the first time I installed it too. Voice sounds really generic and has a pretty generic looking icon, so its not hard to overlook. I should add a picture of the icon to my guide
biggoan said:
Sprint has a feature called "Sprint to Home" for $5 /month. If you add that to your plan ALL calls going to and from google voice are free. I use my phone ALL the time and only manage to rack up a 20-30 minutes a month .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've heard about that. So you use google voice to dial to everybody? Cause I have 300 mins/month(Family plan,1500mins, 5ppl), if next month I use more than 300 mins, I'll call sprint to add this service.
anyone happen to happen an invite
[email protected]
so could i use this as my primary voicemail with my sprint number or would i have use the gv one? which i would see no point in if you don't use the gv number? thanks to whoever can clear this up for me
ko0pa11 said:
anyone happen to happen an invite
[email protected]
so could i use this as my primary voicemail with my sprint number or would i have use the gv one? which i would see no point in if you don't use the gv number? thanks to whoever can clear this up for me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can use it as primary voicemail, while still using your Sprint number. That's how I primarily use mine, since I'm on a 1500 minute 5 line family plan with free mobile to mobile any network, and we barely use 200 anytime minutes COMBINED. So it doesn't make sense for me to use GV for calls, when everyone already has my Sprint number. just follow the section in the guide "google voice as voicemail" or the setup instructions on GV.
What is nice about GV for voicemail is that you get visual voicemail via the GV android app, access to voicemail on your pc, its easy to archive messages, custom greetings for different groups of callers, and a bunch of other stuff. Voicemail transcription isn't great yet, but makes it nice to get an idea of what callers are saying if you can't listen (class, meeting, etc)
Invites are pretty sparse. I only ever got three, which I've used for my close friends, or i'd hand them out.
Again, i'll be updating the guide semi-daily based on questions in this thread
laufine said:
I've heard about that. So you use google voice to dial to everybody? Cause I have 300 mins/month(Family plan,1500mins, 5ppl), if next month I use more than 300 mins, I'll call sprint to add this service.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of the family plans now have the free mobile to mobile any network, so if you mainly make mobile calls, you might take a look at that as an option too. (sorry if I keep bringing this up, but it did really do a killing on my plan; my sister used almost 9000 free minutes last month because of this)
Hello Everyone,
I have Star x18i Mobile with android installed on it, i did search alot of applications and used and really like most of them, now what is my issue i m not able to find any suitable auto call answer machine software,
There are many software of auto answering machine which send message to unknown number calls as soon any call come,,,,
What i want is i get alot of wrong calls each day, i dont know who is calling maybe friend or romour, and i not want to talk to them directly so i m looking for software to install into my mobile which do following main functions :
1. When unknown number call comes, my phone auto pick the call and play an audio file which i will select or built-in in software to that person and record the phone call as well, Audio i will use will be something like that ( Person you are calling is busy please record your msg person will get back to you ) when ever an unknown number call come i want to play sound and record so later i can listen who that person was calling me, if any known person then i will contact them otherwise will block them number....
That is the simple thing like software i want, Please tell me if anyone know any of that type software ? again please i not want sms reply software, i want to play sound to that person auto and record voice....
Hope someone will guide be better.
Thanks allot in Advance
rayice said:
Hello Everyone,
I have Star x18i Mobile with android installed on it, i did search alot of applications and used and really like most of them, now what is my issue i m not able to find any suitable auto call answer machine software,
There are many software of auto answering machine which send message to unknown number calls as soon any call come,,,,
What i want is i get alot of wrong calls each day, i dont know who is calling maybe friend or romour, and i not want to talk to them directly so i m looking for software to install into my mobile which do following main functions :
1. When unknown number call comes, my phone auto pick the call and play an audio file which i will select or built-in in software to that person and record the phone call as well, Audio i will use will be something like that ( Person you are calling is busy please record your msg person will get back to you ) when ever an unknown number call come i want to play sound and record so later i can listen who that person was calling me, if any known person then i will contact them otherwise will block them number....
That is the simple thing like software i want, Please tell me if anyone know any of that type software ? again please i not want sms reply software, i want to play sound to that person auto and record voice....
Hope someone will guide be better.
Thanks allot in Advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is is truly unbelievable to me that in this day and age such an essential phone function could have been overlooked! I have been searching for days and days and found NOTHING or got stupid responses such as "use Google" (Online only, uses Data and for US Citizens only) or "use voicemail" (expensive cellular provider subscription add-on)... I mean, come on! When even the cheapest home phones can be gotten with built in answering machines, how come this essential feature is nowhere to be seen on android phones?
What's the deal, what's the technical hangup, what's the problem? Can anyone explain the REASON why there are NO call answering machine-like apps of any kind out there?
Old faithful said:
Is is truly unbelievable to me that in this day and age such an essential phone function could have been overlooked! I have been searching for days and days and found NOTHING or got stupid responses such as "use Google" (Online only, uses Data and for US Citizens only) or "use voicemail" (expensive cellular provider subscription add-on)... I mean, come on! When even the cheapest home phones can be gotten with built in answering machines, how come this essential feature is nowhere to be seen on android phones?
What's the deal, what's the technical hangup, what's the problem? Can anyone explain the REASON why there are NO call answering machine-like apps of any kind out there?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im looking for the same thing and can't find it too!
Here is my need. I have a business phone number and my personal cell phone number. All my customers should call me to my business number which I can set to auto-forward to my cell only at the time I want to. But some of my customers know my cell phone number and they keep having this bad habit of calling me on it instead of my business phone number.
I'm looking for a app that will be tracking in the background the caller id number of incoming calls, if the number is a on list of unwanted that I have set, it will auto-answer, play an audio file recorded by me (like: "Please dial 111-222-3333 to reach me, thanks you") and then hang-up.
I don't feel alone with the need of a solution like this. And there are apps that can auto-answer call according to the caller id and there are apps that can play audio in a call, I don't see why it could not be technically possible to combine both.
wow
can't belive it, i was looking for the same and found several threads like this one, that's sad
let's hope sth comes up
Yeah, I used to have this function on my old fliphone from way back in 2002! Also, on my Windows Mobile phones after that...
Exactly. My nokia flip from ages ago (ran symbian OS) has an app on it called "Advanced Answering Machine" or "Advanced Call Manager" or something similar.
I could set it up so that it would direct calls to different greetings depending on the caller ID. An example of this is, I wont accept calls from "unknown" or "blocked" etc numbers. ACM/AAM would handle this perfectly. It would answer the phone, play the Telstra (thats a telco in australia) message "the number you have called is not available from this service." twice, then hang up. Later on I found out I was missing some important calls (the message confused some people such as the landlord who had a blocked number) so I changed it to "I do not accept calls from blocked numbers. To unblock your number, dial 1831 in front of your number. It wont cost you any more". This fixed the problem.
It was also programmed to answer calls after 30 seconds of ringing and play a standard greeting then take a message.
It was a very versatile program. I could (for example) divert certain calls to a party line if I didnt want calls from that particular number; however I didnt, as the diverted leg would cost me a fortune.
Its a shame on these advanced handsets today that such a simple, commonly available on landline phones, feature is not available. I can control televisions, fly remote controlled toys and vapourize components with a big bank of capacitors over bluetooth using my phone, yet it cant perform a simple answering machine function.
From what I hear the API that handles these functions is not directly accessable to developers; probably because "malware" could hook in and dial high priced premium calls and rack up huge bills all the while the phone owner not knowing until the monthly account comes in.
I did see one answerphone somewhere but it utilised the speaker so if it took a call (for example while your at the pub) the caller would not hear your greeting, or on the train everyone around you would hear your greeting and then the callers message, so not very practical. It would NOT work properly while the phone was on mute.
xperia phones come with buit-in answering machine feature. or use jail broken iphone and u have half a dozen apps which can do it.
unfortunately in android noway.. even if u r rooted.. no way