I have moved over almost exclusively to google voice, and with tools such as iDialer and iContacts I have been able to make it a very usable technology.
However, there is one "Missing Feature" that has always bothered me. The ability to accept a call without pressing one.
The reason they do this is so that when your answering machines/voicemail from the numbers you are ringing pick up, the caller does not get switched to that system.
The problem for me is that I use a windows mobile phone, so getting to the keypad, and then pressing one is so cumbersome that I can not do it while driving, and even when I am at my desk, I sometimes do not get to my phone in time.
I have always understood that cost because as a programmer myself, the obvious solution of being able to answer a voice prompt insted (eg. "To accept this call say 'yes'") would be thwarted by peoples answering machines speaking and most likely clashing very frequently with whatever the user would be prompted to say.
Well, today I finally got my bluetooth! Exciting right? Well, g'bye google voice! Within minutes, I got my first call. Excitedly I press the bluetooth's answer button, and say "Hello" only to be greeted by "Call From Kimberly Harris To accept press one". Now, the process has gotten way more complicated... I dig out my phone, and luckily answer my wife's call just in the nick of time.
Well, defeated, I thought how I, if I were google, would fix the problem. and here is what I came up with,
1) Have a tool in the UI where the user can "recognize voicemail". What this would do, is call the phone, and you let it fail over to voicemail. Google would then record your voicemail, and would be able to recognize it when it called. This would have the added advantage of Google being able to cut off a call before it actually leaves a message. Almost every time I get receive a call, I can count on my other phones having a message that is about 6-7 seconds that says "To Accept, press one"
2) Allow the user to designate a keyword they voice to answer a call. This would allow them to pick something that would not clash with their voicemail. This option would require a "test voicemail" option so the user could make sure it would not clash.
3) Double prompt.
"To accept this call, say 'accept'"
"Accept"
"You said you wanted to accept this call, is that correct"
"Yes"
This method would add delay for the caller, and could still be fooled by voicemail, but it would be much less likely.
You could combine the above three ideas in many neat ways that could really make google voice much more friendly to the user on the go.
Is there anyone out there who has already solved this problem? How did you do it? |
LOL i've had that incoming call prompt turned off for a very long time. I'm pretty sure there's been an option to disable call screening since before Google Voice was Google Voice (Good ol' days when you could use any audio file as a ringback tone for GrandCentral)
http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=115120 |
Yes, but if you have multiple lines, then it will not work. I have it ring three of my lines, and some of them jump right to voicemail if they are not on (like my cell phone and work phone) |
Aha, this is something i've experienced, but there is yet another problem with it. Sorry, i was a bit confused because you combined two issues.
Not only do you get a voicemail (not in Google Voice) of Google Voice prompting you to press 1 to answer a call, but if you don't answer from your other line, the caller could be waiting for quite a while.
Interesting problem. Perhaps i could weigh in more if i weren't so exhausted! |
I hate when people call bluetooth headsets "a bluetooth". I'm not sure why. |
For the same reason it's annoying when people call a browser an internet or a computer a hard drive, or a PC a CPU. It's wrong. |
Or a Monitor a computer.... but what really gets me is when people use the word of when they mean have... that drives me nutz!
So back to the topic at hand..... anyone have any help for me on this issue? |
Sadly, nothing us users can do. Yet another reason why i think Google could use a public bug tracker. You could try posting to the help forums and hope a Googler comes across it but i made a post over a year ago about a bug that still hasn't been fixed... http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Picasa/thread?tid=4b780820d024303e |
