"I CAN'T GET TO MY PHONE BEFORE IT GOES TO VOICEMAIL!" Sound familiar?
This thread is to discuss and discover/provide work-arounds (and potentally solutions) for the lag time between the initial ring from a caller and the incoming notifications on the android phone. Since there are other ways to make it possible to answer a call before it gets forwarded, other perspectives/ideas/questions/discussion are welcome here as well.
(Since I started the griping here I figure I better follow up.)
After a day or so of being opened, there are already several things we can do to help our phones ring faster posted in this thread. If something is confusing to you, please ask. If you click on the username of a post, you have the option to send a personal message. Unless you are darn sure other people have your question, please use this option. If it turns out your question would better suit this or any thread, you can paste your PM into the thread at any time.
I have to say this so I can rail on people: no matter how many Opening Posts say READ, READ, READ, the people who consistently don't read the thread haven't read the Opening Post, either. Don't be one of those people. The rest of us resent you for cluttering the thread, consequently creating even more clutter because there's too much crap for other people to read. We think you are being ignorant and selfish. This entire forum is public information; try to keep in mind your potential future boss might be checking this out to see how useful you might be in their workplace. So this, though probably not read by its intended audience, reserves for me the right to be even b****ier
In case anybody is inclined to test it, I already discovered that the phone doesn't ring when it's powered down....
The phone Prioritizer, combined with using ogg format, seems to do the best or me: I can't find it anywhere else. If I've posted this wrongly, please holler.
There was discussion going into the cupcake build about the latency increasing. I can't speculate on the cause of the latency, but it seems to have been going from the first OEM builds.
Delay in phone ring
Delayed phone ring (and even more delayed screen activation and caller ID) on incoming calls. Speaking for myself, callers hear a couple of rings before my ringtone starts to play. And there is another couple of seconds of delay beyond that before the screen lights up and the caller ID comes on.
I have been having this problem for the past, oh, ten or twenty updates. I have tried MANY things to fix it. If you hadn't already said that you always reinstall the radio when you flash, I was going to try that next in my quest for a solution. This ringtone delay problem is currently my number one irritation with my G1, and is at the TOP of my list of issues that I hope Cyanogen will address and conquer.
I have tried "renice -20" on the phone program, with no improvement. I have tried moving ringtones2SD from fat32, with no improvement. I have tried reformating all my custom ringtones as OGG, with no improvement. I have tried installing and uninstalling a variety of programs, with no improvement.
I am certain that Janis and I are not the only people with this problem. I have seen it mentioned by a lot of people in a variety of threads. I am glad to see a specific thread about this particular topicl If anyone has figured out a solution, please speak up. If no one has, perhaps reports from enough people will serve to convince developers to look into it more deeply. Anyone else have feedback?
I myself am curious to kno if there is any way to work on this. I have been a happy Rom switcher and each Rom has always given me 2 ring delays. The way I worked mine to get close to 1 ring is to constantly use a task killing APK, which I may add is tedious, and making sure I'm clocked 245min 584max
After I moved my ringtones from sdcard/audio/ringtones to sdcard/media/audio/ringtones a prescribed by Cyanogen when he originally took all the ringtones out, I had to re-pick my ringtone, as I would expect.
The odd thing is I also have to do it when I add (a) ringtone(s) to the folder or delete one or more. Can anyone shed any light for me on how the system/phone app references ringtones? Why would it lose a ringtone to reference just becuase I added one to the folder it's in?
How to test, or one way to do it
I use the home phone or skype, that way I can hear how many rings are actually happening for myself, count actual seconds (ear to the phone, eye on the clock), and I can see what order things happen. No one else,except you guys, has to bear with my hare-brained methods, either.
The last time I tested, the ring actually started before the caller ID popped up, but that was a first for me. Nothing happened until about the end of the second ring from the home phone.
Now I'm running Compcache 32mb, Linux partition swap 128mb, CPU 528/245.
Mines takes about a good 2 to 3 rings on the other side before my phones starts to even vibrate. Itfirst vibrates and then plays the ringtone.
Anyone remember before cupcake, when you got a call, even the call button wouldn't accept the call. Thankfully that's fixed but this still hasn't been fixed.
Mines takes about a good 2 to 3 rings on the other side before my phones starts to even vibrate. Itfirst vibrates and then plays the ringtone.
Anyone remember before cupcake, when you got a call, even the call button wouldn't accept the call. Thankfully that's fixed but this still hasn't been fixed.
I don't think you will get rid of the 2 rings on the other end before the phone rings. That is probably just the network finding your phone. However, I have had issues with my phone vibrating 2 or 3 times before the ringtone would start playing. I turned off vibrate and it helped. Then I turned it back on and disabled Missed Call. Now there is barely one vibrate before the ringtone starts playing. I'm turning off Missed call until they have an update for it.
I also found that the battery status widget causes a huge delay if you have it set to update as soon as it changes. It checks everytime the phone comes on and that slows things way down. I set it to update every 60 seconds and it still had some delay but not as much.
bout time
glad 2 see its not just me, i almost missed out on a job cause my phone will 'pause' so long it goes to voice mail b4 i can answer. seems like the issue comes and goes, but when its bad, its horrible, 1st it will vibrate for 2-5 sec b4 it rings , then its about 3 sec b4 the id info displays and when im lucky the call button wont react for like 4 or 5 pushes. sum times the phone app force closes, which means 15-30 sec wait while it reacquires the network and if it force closes the call doesnt show up in the call log.
iv had this issue with all the rom's and yes i reload the radio about 2 times a week, but even the stock 1.5 gives me the same issue
ok enough venting, any dev's that have might have an alpha or beta fix im willing to test!
SamCookD405 said:
glad 2 see its not just me, i almost missed out on a job cause my phone will 'pause' so long it goes to voice mail b4 i can answer. seems like the issue comes and goes, but when its bad, its horrible, 1st it will vibrate for 2-5 sec b4 it rings , then its about 3 sec b4 the id info displays and when im lucky the call button wont react for like 4 or 5 pushes. sum times the phone app force closes, which means 15-30 sec wait while it reacquires the network and if it force closes the call doesnt show up in the call log.
iv had this issue with all the rom's and yes i reload the radio about 2 times a week, but even the stock 1.5 gives me the same issue
ok enough venting, any dev's that have might have an alpha or beta fix im willing to test!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This isn't a ROM problem, it is a phone resources problem. There is something dragging your phone down. It might be different for each one of us having issues.
Ditching userinint.sh
I rm'ed user.conf and userinit.sh to use Cyanogen's default compcache and default CPU scaling. I re-downloaded Swapper and set up to use my 128mb (overkill) linux partition.
I got lights & vibrate at the end of the first ring, I got caller ID and ring just about halfway into the second ring.
Using the attached user.conf I didn't get ring or caller ID until the end of the second ring, sometimes after.
So I installed missed call (donation) and maxed it out. No change. Still getting first response at the end of the first ring, and ring and caller ID about 1/2 way into the second ring.
Maxed out my CPU at 528/528 with SetCPU. Got about .1 of a second advance. It starts to ring and gave me caller ID about 1/4-1/3 of the way into the second ring. Hard to tell, but a bit earlier than 1/2. The second and third time I tried it, it wasn't as fast. Caller ID came up just barely into the 2nd ring, but ring didn't start until the end.
I think the first ring is network time. For the duration of it, I'm guessing, the call isn't at my G1 yet. This sucks.
I think the phone app is set to vibrate and light the phone first, and leaves time for this to happen. It may be because it's the fastest way to alert the user, since looking for ringtone, handling it and sending it can (doesn't always) take some time, it just uses the reliable method and then triggers the less reliable, already slower ring process.
So maybe Cyanogen, or anyone who's familiar with it, can see if this ring vs. vibrate lag can be eliminated. I'd rather have the phone look for a ring first.
But, if you need to get to calls that quickly, set it to vibrate for now?
I downloaded the ogg ring package from the custom userinit thread. Trying that next.
This doesn't contribute anything to the thread at all (except maybe encouragement) but I'm glad someone is bringing this annoying "feature" up for public discussion.
I keep myself updated with CM and kspec oreo as a theme. As it is right now, I get one ring and the call goes to voicemail. The caller ID display actually lights up after the call has been forwarded. Hope the culprit (if there is just one) is found soon.
There has been a parameter on some of my previous phones called slot index. It was available through a keypad menu, it set how often the phone polled the tower. It sped up the ring responce dramatically.
Tried the ogg files, woohoo!
I've got my CPU set to 528/384 with SetCPU, Linux partition swap 128mb with Swapper (I can set them on the fly without rebooting), and used the ogg files in media/audio/ringtones, and I get ring and caller ID at or before the beginning of the second ring, a split second after the vibrate started. I tried messing with CPU speeds, and it does seem to make a difference as to when the ring actually sounds. I'd say about 1/2 a ring between 245 idle and 528 idle with 528 max for both.
I also have my frequency scaling at 16. So I think that means if 16% of my CPU power is being used, it hops it up from min to max. OK, maybe not 16%, I don't know how the numbers translate, but 16 is low, so I'm running at 528 when a squirrel farts outside.
I have BatteryLife and Missed Call enabled.
So there's the pause after the first ring to deal with, but I really don't think it's the phone after this. maybe we need to join forces and barrage T-mobile with complaints. I mean, why have the ringing on the calling end start if the network isn't connected?
Well, at least we won't ever have to worry about appearing too desperate.
2 or 3 bars, so my signal isn't that great. I'm in the suburbs (not that I love it, but it's where I am).
I'd be very curious to find out if others who have their CPUs running high and are using ogg files are getting a different response. I'm also going to try it in different locations.
I am going to suggest to Cyanogen to include the ogg fles as part of his add-on collection.
Face of Ring
I think I may uninstall this, even though I love it. It bumped the ring to after the caller ID. Caller ID still popped up during the pause after the first ring, but the ring and vibrate didn't happen until mid 2nd ring.
(I'm using rings to measure because 1. it's easier 2. the rings/pauses are shorter than a second 3. in large part it's the caller experience we're concerned about. I don't have a stellar chronometer handy, either.)
Well, thanks for starting this thread, Janis. It's a common complaint across all builds. I've grudgingly resorted to calling my phone after every reboot, just to try to keep the ringtone and I'm guessing Phone.apk?? in memory for as long as it will stay in there. That definitely helps for awhile. I know we're trying to make these phones more into computers, but they're still phones and as such calling and communications should be the main priority. I've converted to .ogg, however they are larger files than the .mp3's I converted from. Maybe I should have used a smaller bitrate. Anyhow, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I've tried placing them in /sdcard/media/audio/* and /system/sd/media/audio/*. Does not seem to make much of a difference.
I want a hardware hack to increase the RAM...I hate the trade off we're facing. Losing physical keyboard to obtain greater memory. Or make a "Dream plus" with more RAM. I'd even be happy with just a slight increase in internal storage or none at all and more RAM. The devs here have done wonders with the hardware provided, and the implementation of apps to sd has really made this seemingly poor thought out device (in areas), one of the best. I remember, before I was brave enough to attempt apps to sd, having to decide which app to uninstall, just to make room for one I might want more. Seems like ages ago. While I'm reminiscing, I'd like to give a retro shout-out to Lucid and MarcusMaximus who were pioneers in this area and others.
Sorry, about the tangent...but we've made great strides on the computer end of this device...let's regress, so to speak, and make the phone the primary function, hopefully without backsliding on progress we've made on our phones as a mobile computing device.
EDIT: I've also uninstalled "AutoLock" for this reason, because I'd read somewhere that this may be the culprit...I may have seen positive results, or possibly just placebo.
I have the app "Caller Lookup" installed and have noticed tha that app comes up before caller id and or the ringtone. Its there after 1 or 2 vibrate pulses.
make sure T-mobile, or whomever, has your time-before-forwarding maxed
My poor 74-year-old mom was having a heckuva time getting to her phone in time. As per the instructions from a Tmobile service rep, we punched a # and some digits and got a 65 second ring time. This was a year ago or so. I was told that same week that if my OS on my WinMo phone couldn't do it, there was no way they could (there's a way to set it in WinMo), which was BS.
I know it takes network time/space/bandwidth to let it ring, and it's not paid time. I wonder, not to be a rabble rouser (heh), if we kept calling them, maybe hundreds of us if we could get it going, and made them spend more money on customer service than that bandwidth, if they'd bump that.
Anyone?
The phone interface totally sux! Is there anything better out there? When I get a call I have to drag the thing over to answer. This is very hard to do with 1 hand. Also half the time the screen goes black and I have to unlock it or whatever. Is there any way to just tap to answer?
Making calls is 10 times worse, you have to unlock the phone, find the phone app, open your contacts, tap your contact, tap make call, and then tap call!! It’s like I have to type a freaking paragraph just to make a call! Is there any way to just press one button to open the phone and then press 1 button to speed dial??
Also I turned on Google Voice to make all my calls. It nice and I know how to turn that off, but now all my incoming calls it says "incoming call from so-and-so... Press 1 to accept" so I have to tape the dial pad, and then tap 1, adding 2 more taps just to answer a freaking call! How do I turn that off?
I love everything else about this PDA, but the phone sux! Please help...
---signed, frustrated
P.S. I think I used less key strokes typing all this than I need to to make a call! lol
Any chance they will improve this interface in v2.2??
Very constructive. And I see it’s your 11th post. It’s not a matter of being impatient. It’s a matter of missing calls because its nearly impossible to do while driving, walking a dog with a leash in one hand, caring groceries, almost every real life situation that keeps you from using both hands on your phone. And as I described it’s a lot more than the 1 swipe.
If you don’t agree with me you don’t need to reply but I find the swipe open to be unacceptable and I'm asking if there is another interface out there that is just a tap open. Or a way to map a hard key to answer the freaking phone!
I'm sitting here at my work phone calling myself over and over to "practice" answering with the swipe. I can do it with one hand but it’s a pain in the ass and just thoroughly a really, really bad design. There has to be an app or mod or something that does away with this.
I just saw the new "Rule the air" Droid commercial. Cool commercial... Notice the one thing they didn’t show anyone doing? Getting or making a call!!!
All these new devices are fantastic PDAs with a really bad phone function slapped on top...
BTW with an 2.2 Froyo official release or rom, when the call comes up theres no need to unlock or swipe, just a click of a button.
What are you running 2.1, 2.01/0 or 2.2? Why don't you try finding an app on the store or searching here? You never know....
So I literally called myself 10 times and practiced answering the phone with one hand. Then I went out to bars and got actual calls and it was like impossible to answer them. That drag thing is just ridicules!! You have to drag it all the way across the screen!! Cany they at least meet me half way?? Even with 2 hands it’s hard to answer!!
Come on, you guys all know this is true. This design is just awful!
I understand why they did it, so when you get a call while it’s in your pocket it doesn’t tap against something and answer when you don’t know it… but it’s just terrible!! And like I said making calls is even worse. It’s like a ton of taps so there is no way to make a call while driving.
The Bluetooth headset would help but we all know anyone that actually uses that looks like a total D-bag..
So here is my solution… Someone will make a killing on this and it will make a mockery of the Android phone interface at the same time. We need a little, lightweight Bluetooth dumb phone that has physical answer and hang-up buttons as well as the full number pad that you can assign speed dials too like a NORMAL F-ING PHONE!! If this was out there on the market I would pay $100 easy for! Leave your brilliant PDA that sucks as a phone in your pocket and use the Bluetooth handset to actually make and take calls like a normal human!!
1. how tiny are your hands that you can't slide the bar down with your thumb?
2. i think there's an app called dialer one that will open a keypad where you can see all your contacts and spell their names out with the numberpad to make it easier
Just because some of you don't have the same issues as the OP doesn't give any of us the right to respond in this manner.
The OP has been called dumb, amateur, told he shouldn't have a smartphone; and the list goes on.
I personally have the EVO; there's not a damn thing wrong with my hands and I come from a very long time of smartphones. MORE times than I can count, I'm swiping the screen and not a damned thing is moving. By the time it unlocks, the caller is gone.
So until you have the same problem, some of you might want to get your head out the clouds and stop replying like these *smart* phones are perfect and the people using them are too dumb to know what they're doing.
On HTC phones with Sense you simply press a button to answer. No swiping. I'm surprised there's no app out there to do this on other Android phones.
Just cleaned this thread. All deleted posts are in violation of rule 2.
Please be aware of the rules before posting. Nothing constructive to say; then don't post!
WB
gtg465x said:
On HTC phones with Sense you simply press a button to answer. No swiping. I'm surprised there's no app out there to do this on other Android phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to slide to answer my phone if it's locked before I get a call. I prefer the swipe because I don't want to accidentally answer a call while the phone is in my pocket. That said, I would recommend the op check out the app I mentioned or root his phone and find a sense based rom
there are apps for this kind of problem search market and google
gtg465x said:
On HTC phones with Sense you simply press a button to answer. No swiping. I'm surprised there's no app out there to do this on other Android phones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do not be surprised, because there is an app to achieve this. It is called ed's Droid Tools.
I've used Gesture Search (by Google) since it was released on the Market for finding and calling and/or texting my contacts. Put it on your home screen, then when you want to call somebody, open Gesture Search then write their first initial with your finger (or thumb) then touch the phone icon to call or the message icon to text. Works well for me. Never tried it driving, but then again, I'm one of those guys who yells at idiots who drive and talk on their cell at the same time (it's illegal here).
The standard Droid UI doesn't have a skin, so you get the basic Android dialer. While I don't think the slide-to-answer is all that bad, I'm also coming from a Blackberry Storm, which was wicked-terrible when it came to doing... well anything, so I don't complain much about the stock android experience. One thing Android is good for though, is allowing UI replacement apps (ala Dialer One) so poke around the Market and I'm sure you can find something that changes the answer experience for you.
Love windows
Love windows
i am also fooled by android
power user any thing u want to do go with windows mobile
Droid9 said:
The phone interface totally sux! Is there anything better out there? When I get a call I have to drag the thing over to answer. This is very hard to do with 1 hand. Also half the time the screen goes black and I have to unlock it or whatever. Is there any way to just tap to answer?
Making calls is 10 times worse, you have to unlock the phone, find the phone app, open your contacts, tap your contact, tap make call, and then tap call!! It’s like I have to type a freaking paragraph just to make a call! Is there any way to just press one button to open the phone and then press 1 button to speed dial??
Also I turned on Google Voice to make all my calls. It nice and I know how to turn that off, but now all my incoming calls it says "incoming call from so-and-so... Press 1 to accept" so I have to tape the dial pad, and then tap 1, adding 2 more taps just to answer a freaking call! How do I turn that off?
I love everything else about this PDA, but the phone sux! Please help...
---signed, frustrated
P.S. I think I used less key strokes typing all this than I need to to make a call! lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey dude
to help you out with your dialing problem all you have to do is put the phone/contacts app on your homescreen. the way you described calling the contact is the same way you'd have to do it on almost every other phone so don't act like its a huge task.
organize your homescreens to your preference so that it could make your life easier.
also you can add people to your favorites list so you dont have to scroll through your whole contact list.
as for answering calls, its not that bad. you just gotta hold that green button and slide your finger over. I don't understand how that's difficult or why you'd need practice
phone doesn't suck at all bud
Hi There,
I was thinking of getting one of those because most of my calling during driving...
do you advice me to do so? i mean is the hardware bad? or it is just a matter of waiting for sometime to get an update solving all these problems?
Thank you in advance.
I didn't want to crowd the slimbean thread with my noobish questions, so I thought I'd ask here. Any help is greatly appreciated.
1- When texting someone, I don't see the little mic on the keyboard so I can speech to text. Any way to get it back?
2- I really enjoyed the TW(?) Contacts way of doing things in GB, like swipe left to text, swipe right to call. Is that possible in 4.2?
3- It seems the touch sensitivity is good, but I'd like a bit more, as I have to sometimes touch somethings 2 or 3 times to open it. Is there a way to increase sensitivity?
4- Is there a task manager of some sort to end processes? Someone told me to long press the home button then clear the screen to do this. But if say I have Pandora playing and long press home/clear, it still keeps playing. Leading me to believe it doesn't really stop app/processes. Any ideas?
5- When receiving texts when phone is idle, there is only a tone alert, but when turning on the screen, there is no obvious (visual) indicator that I have a text to read. I have to pull down from the top to see it. Any way of getting a more visual indicator? (Like the puzzle piece)
Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about JB, but the way GB did some things was really good and I wish they could have kept some things the same. Is there any way I can get these features back?
If you don't know all of the answers, that's OK. Any and all help will be much appreciated.
Thanks for all the help guys. I've decided to go back to GB. It just works 100%. Sure, JB is pretty cool and I appreciate all of the hard work that goes into it. But it just didn't feel "finished" for lack of a better word. Camera didn't work right, no HDMI, no mic on keyboard, touch screen not as responsive, slightly glitchy, among other things.
Good luck to the devs, and keep up the good work. It's just not for me. When GB is no longer supported by app devs, I'll just get a new phone. Take care guys and gals.