Voicemail Indicator?
 

I am sure the answer is simple, but is there a voicemail indicator on the phone's home screen? I received a new voicemail yesterday and to my surprise there were 5 other vm's waiting for me. Other phones let you know with a videotape icon or something similar. What am I missing?

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

I had the same problem on Voda. My solution was to change the notification method in the voicemail setup (ring 121, or your network's equivalent). "Icon Notification" doesn't seem to work on the N900 so I switched to "Message Notification" and now get a text and a blue flashing LED with each voicemail message.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Hey thanks for the reply. Did you change the notification method in your voicemail settings over the phone (while in your voicemail options) or did you do it online (i.e. www.t-mobile.com)? I am having a hard time reaching the settings you mentioned.

Bummer we have to eat up txts as a workaround for what is, IMO, a huge oversight by Nokia and Maemo.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Not sure how to go about it on T-Mob or even if the text notification is available, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't.
On voda, I rang the voicemail number, selected 'voicemail setup', then 'notifications', then 'Text notification'. job done.

on my old 5800XM I used to get a persistent 'new voicemail' icon on the main screen, but I guess the N900 doesn't have the facility. Maybe later...

WS

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Really seems strange to me to omit this capability. It seems very basic.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Here in the UK, I've used voicemail with:

Nokia 6210 on Orange contract
Nokia 6120 Classic on 3 contract
Sony-Ericsson K850i on 3 contract
Nokia 2630 on Vodafone PAYG
Nokia 2630 (after unlocking) on 3 contract
Nokia N900 on Vodafone PAYG

Out of all of the combinations, I've only seen a voicemail icon on the ancient Nokia 6210 on Orange. All the others sent a text.

So I wouldn't call the voicemail icon a common, basic feature that other phones/networks have. Clearly they don't.

I have read that the "voicemail flag" is an operator dependent feature.

Frankly an icon or a text are both annoying. In this day and age we should be receiving "voice messages" in our inbox, alongside emails and texts. Virtually all phones can receive them.

The fact we don't is ongoing proof that network operators still hate their customers, and a reason to cheer on Google Voice, if only to force network operators to grow up.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

sounds strange but i got notification in IM/SMS as "Voice Mail" and in Phone app as "Voicemail". But only one of them at any incidents. What i mean i that i get one of those as indicator as well as notification tone (like SMS) and flashing LED (Blue).

I'm on US Tmobile.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

The tape reel notification is trigger by a special format SMS to the handset in question. This is operator dependant on how this is configured (if at all). The common alternate is a simple text via SMS.

At present I beleive you will find that the N900 doesn't support this extended capability along with a few other features. It would be nice to see this implimented but in the meantime simply call your operator customer services to ask them how to configure this for your account.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

I'm on USA's TMobile too. When someone leaves a voicemail I get a alert saying voicemail. Clicking it will dial my voicemail box #.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

I'm also on T-Mo inthe US...I activated LEDs for VM. I also get "pop-up notification", along with the "windows key" (to the left of the status bar") turning "white" whenever status changes.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Is there a way to have LED indicator blinking until you listen to the voicemail (I am on AT&T)?

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

I am with tmobile as well. I had to import all contacts from sim card to get the vm notification correctly.

I deleted all contacts once - this broke the vm notification, and I had to do the import from SIM again to get things working.

Weird, but I'm glad I know when I have a vm waiting...

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

This info seemed to be useful, and there didn't seem to be a bug along these lines already, so I created one. If you want something done, suggest the appropriate UI treatment and vote for the bug at https://bugs.maemo.org/votes.cgi?act...7595#vote_7595.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

This is optional functionality for DCS and therenot a bug. This is request for enhancement of existing functionality & therefore needs to be submitted as a brainstorm. This would allow proper discussion and voting for proposed solutions.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Certain enhancement requests must be in bugzilla first, i think.

In brainstorm, what use would it be to say "Problem: The N900 doesn't support this special SMS format. - Solution #1: Support it."?

Yes, it's an enhancement request, but nothing one would "brainstorm" about. It seems clear what to do, there's probably some documentation available to Nokia on how to do it... so what's the use of a brainstorm? The only decision to be take is if to implement it, not how.

It happens a lot to enhancement requests these days. The effect is that all these requests (and Nokia's replies) are moved away from a well-documented, structured bugzilla to a place that's become the graveyard of ideas.

One should first propose such clearly defined things as an enhancement request in bugzilla and only move to brainstorm when Nokia definitely put a WONTFIX on it.
That would do two things:
a) It would give us a clear information on what Nokia is (not) going to do about it.
b) It would allow us to really brainstorm about a much different problem: "Nokia is not going to implement this in the core OS; what could be done by the community to still have the functionality."

The way it's handled now, I don't see much value in such brainstorms.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Benny, thanks for chipping in.

The voicemail indicator is part of an optional subsystem so there is a fair amount of work involved to get this, though other nice things are available too if this is done. Whilst not quite the amount of work of MMS this is still quite a fair amount of work. The functionality is also operator dependant. As the question posted by OP was how to get notification, the use of SMS text message seems to answer the thread.

If we are going to raise a formal request for functionality would it not make sense to look at the areas of DCS that we would like to get it all in one?

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

My pleasure. ;)
I can't follow you here - which really means "I can't follow you", not "I disagree and want to play smart". ;)
Are you trying to point out that brainstorm would be a good place for this one issue because, in fact, it's not only the voicemail indicator but a bunch of stuff that will all come (or not) once the voicemail indicator works? I'm just trying to paraphrase what I think you said...

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Hi Benny. There is a whole host of other potentially goodies that would be basically coming to the party, yes.

I'm posting via the N900 at present so finding the relevant link would be tough. try googling for sms indicator messages. The whole thing is explained in articles on DCS subsystem. If you PM me I'll fire the laptop up tomorrow and send you a link.

Found some basic info: scroll down: Voicemail Indicator

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

It's posts like yours that make me love this forum. Really interesting stuff!

Still, wrt enhancement requests, I firmly believe this community is on the wrong track. A clearly defined request such as "add support for voicemail indication" or "add support for mms" is what it is: a specific request to enhance the functionality. Nokia needs to decide (on a management level, not the developers) if they plan to add the functionality in the future. Again, it's not the "how" that needs to be discussed as it's written in the specs. Its's the "if".

Only if Nokia closes such an enhancement request WONTFIX it makes sense to debate how else one could achieve what was asked for. This may happen in a brainstorm, although most cases that come to my mind here from the recent past are so specific and well-defined that the only possible outcome of such a brainstorm would be "somebody needs to write an application for it".

Brainstorms don't lead anywhere. Nobody feels responsible, Nokia doesn't comment on them.... A WONTFIX in bugzilla is more useful (in terms of information about what's being worked on) than 27 brilliant solutions in brainstorm that in the end will remain theory.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Thanks, nice to know it is of interest! (nice that someone clicks 'thanks' too!)

Well maybe we should ask the Maemo council what their take is on this? There is discussion on modification of the forum, maybe someone should take the case forward for brainstorms that clearly need to be Nokia or maybe another mechanism be sought out. I agree entirely that at present there doesn't seem to be a sensible route which is daft.

Any council members care to comment or enlighten us in the correct procedure if it already exists?

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

I agree that some sort of persistent voicemail indicator (message waiting lamp, MWL) needs to be implemented and that Benny is correct in his belief that this is not a request appropriate for brainstorm, for the very same reasons he mentions.

Contrary to what other posters indicated, in the US at least, this seems to be a standard expected feature. I've used phones from half a dozen vendors on every major carrier in the US over the past several years and every single one has had it. A quick informal survey around my office indicates that everyone here expects a persistent MWL, and perhaps most importantly, this feature exists on the Motorola Droid, which is arguably the comparable competitor to the N900 in this market.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Yup, even my seven year old phone, Samsung R225 had that feature where it would show an icon for Voicemail until I listen to it.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Were all your phones from the telcos? Or did you buy some unlocked phones and try them on GSM networks? The reason why I ask is that in the USA, people typically buy their phones from the telco (I did so in the past myself with Sprint) and they tend to brand those phones with their firmware. Which is why you might find persistent voicemail and persistent features. When I switched to TMobile (to get the SIM for the N900) I got some Nokia ExpressMusic phone (gave it to my mom to use for her trip to Vietnam) that was very heavily TMobile branded (it also had persistent voicemail notifications).

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Both. My N82 (which I just left for the N900) and RAZR were unlocked GSMs that I used on both ATT (Cingular previously) and T-Mobile. All my others (an LG, a Sony/Eriksson, a couple Nokias, A WinMo device from HTC sold through ATT, and one other that is escaping me) were all vendor branded.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Do not have an indicator on the desktop but do get a yellow voicemail symbol in my call log of the phone app when someone leaves me a message. This changes to blue arrow when I ring my voice mail. So I always know when I have a message waiting.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

I remember my first Nokia..

http://www.mobile88.com.my/cellphone...40/preview.asp

It had a fixed LCD screen, not a dot matrix display.. Icons were fixed graphics.. and it had a fixed voice mail spool icon.. not a image that is generated in software, a hard indicator..

These voicemail icons have been around since 1995 at least..

Some networks use them, others don't and some are hybrid and have introduced them recently.. I believe Vodafone in the UK recently allowed users to use the spool icons on their phones..

It is a bit of a shame it isn't present on the N900.. much like it is a shame MMS isn't there.. but really it should be miles easier to add this feature than MMS!

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Firstly can people stop insisting on this or that functionality is expected in a phone, the N900 is a device that also makes phone calls. If you have a cell sim in your laptop that doesn't make it a phone magically.

The voicemail indicator, as other indicators, is an OPTIONAL part of the standard. Yes, it would be nice to have but you are working with a device that is not supposed to be mass market yet despite what you might like to believe. The carrier also has to support sending the relevant message and if they do then the device needs to support (even if it ignores) all possible messages sent from the carrier too.

As this is not a showstopper I would suspect that this will be a very low level priority. The Maemo team within Nokia is very small compared to the other areas & with all organisations their rival teams with the organisation will be fighting for their position too.

What I do think we should be doing is asking for a clearer and more sensible procedure to highlight functionality that should be included in the platform ratther than loosing it in a bug list. Bugs should be for included functionality that doesn't actually work properly.

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

so there is no voicemail icon.
there is no voicemail number/quick call!!

Why? I mean Nokia is not that stupid. Why have things like that missing from such a powerful device?

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

I put a contact shortcut on my desktop for voicemail. Now I have quick call. T-Mobile uses a shortcut phone number of 123 to call voicemail. Holding down the 1 key doesn't work like on other phones, but I find the shortcut good enough.

I would like to see a specific voicemail indicator. This would make a good desktop widget--visual display of voicemail count and click to dial voicemail. Anyone know where the message standards that drive the notifications can be found?

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Already posted in this thread on just the previous page here: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p...5&postcount=18

Re: Voicemail Indicator?
 

Is this an outbreak of common sense? Fun how lots of people missed this straight forward solution!