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CallerID Name: Disappeared circa 11-14?

Started by lrosenman, November 17, 2018, 06:52:58 AM

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lrosenman

Has anyone else noticed that Google is no longer sending CallerID Name?

if so, any ideas why?

N7AS

Google Voice does not have CNAM unless forwarded to Callcentric.
Grant N7AS
Prescott Valley, AZ
https://www.n7as.com

A journeyman electrician sent his apprentice with a 5-gallon bucket and was told to put the ends of the service drop in the bucket and fill it with volts. He was there all day.

Taoman

#2
Quote from: lrosenman on November 17, 2018, 06:52:58 AM
Has anyone else noticed that Google is no longer sending CallerID Name?

if so, any ideas why?

Hadn't noticed until I read your post. Same results as you.

Taoman

Quote from: N7AS on November 17, 2018, 08:39:11 AM
Google Voice does not have CNAM unless forwarded to Callcentric.


Correct, but until the last few days OBi devices displayed CNAM for all your Google Contacts plus CNAM for many business names.

drgeoff

Quote from: Taoman on November 17, 2018, 08:53:24 AM
Quote from: N7AS on November 17, 2018, 08:39:11 AM
Google Voice does not have CNAM unless forwarded to Callcentric.


Correct, but until the last few days OBi devices displayed CNAM for all your Google Contacts plus CNAM for many business names.
Only if you had either a trial or a paid-up subscription to Obi Extras?  Either of those expired?

Taoman

#5
Quote from: drgeoff on November 17, 2018, 08:58:43 AM

Only if you had either a trial or a paid-up subscription to Obi Extras?  Either of those expired?

Only? No. This has nothing to do with OBi Extras. All OBi devices (at least the ATAs) have been receiving CNAM display for all their Google Contacts and many business names since the switch to GVSIP.

Steve has confirmed this more than once. This functionality has ceased working within the last few days.

Quote from: SteveInWAYes!  the caller's name will be provided under these two circumstances:  1) the calling phone number is in your Google Contacts, so Google matches it and displays the name, or 2) the calling phone number belongs to a business known to Google via Google+ or Google Search, so the matching business name will be displayed.

This is known as "Caller ID by Google", and the feature has been around since the Google Nexus/Pixel phones came out, and it was only offered on those phones.  The names are not coming from the CNAM LIDB.

http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=13886.msg89226#msg89226

Sp0012

I'm also seeing the same issue. No CNAME from last few days. I did not sign up for OBi extra. I use Google Voice. Could this be a Google issue?

drgeoff

Quote from: Taoman on November 17, 2018, 09:09:41 AM
Quote from: drgeoff on November 17, 2018, 08:58:43 AM

Only if you had either a trial or a paid-up subscription to Obi Extras?  Either of those expired?

Only? No. This has nothing to do with OBi Extras. All OBi devices (at least the ATAs) have been receiving CNAM display for all their Google Contacts and many business names since the switch to GVSIP.

Steve has confirmed this more than once. This functionality has ceased working within the last few days.
OK, ignore that rubbish I wrote.

SteveInWA

Beats me.  I've reached out to my contacts at Google to find out if there is anything I can share with y'all.  Thanks for reporting this.

SteveInWA

#9
I'll be the first to admit that caller ID name is a big mystery with regard to Google Voice, and that I am likely mistaken.  One thing I can confirm (confirmed via my GV engineering contact) is that the Google Voice apps and new web UI can display the name associated with the inbound number on VoIP calls, pulled from your contacts.  (This is NOT the same as traditional CNAM LIDB lookup).  Whether or not OBiTALK SIP clients now do that is debatable.

I could swear that the behavior worked as I describe earlier, and the fact that you're now reporting that the behavior has changed is even more mysterious.  What makes this even more confusing is that Google's Pixel phones have their own caller ID name function (again, not via the CNAM LIDB).

Google Voice doesn't send caller ID name (in the usual CNAM PSTN format).  The working theory is that OBiTALK users who have been seeing this have been getting it from OBiTALK, not from GV itself.  In other words, if you subscribe(d) to OBiEXTRAS at one point in time, you would have authorized OBiTALK to import your Google contacts.  I have no idea where they are stored with regard to using OBi ATAs (on the device's flash memory, perhaps).  There was a brief period of time whereby this import feature was mistakenly enabled for everyone, for free.  Perhaps this error was finally discovered and fixed, thus killing the name presentation.  So, if an inbound call comes in, the name and number would be matched to that list, and the ATA would send it to the phone as standard CNAM.  This is all speculation on my part, since nobody will say with authority.

Compare this to the OBi IP phones, which have the contacts import feature for free.  In this scenario, the contacts are imported to the phone itself, so that's where the names are coming from.  You can see this if you look at your Google account's app permissions.  You would have granted (and perhaps later deleted) permission to OBiTALK to import your contacts.

If anyone has the time and energy to test this further, with a variety of calls from other GV numbers, non-GV numbers, and known business numbers (e.g. a local store or business), please feel free to report your findings.

lrosenman

I can send you the XML call logs if you want to see what happened.  I can tell you that now I'm just seeing NUMBER not NAME for contacts, and OUT OF AREA for NON-CONTACT numbers.

This is *VERY* annoying, FWIW.

PM me an e-mail address if you'd like the XML.

SteveInWA

Nope, I don't want to see your XML, since I can't do anything with it.  But, if this is "*VERY* annoying", why don't you at least run a test, by subscribing to OBiEXTRAS for a month, and see if you get the names with your calls.  That will at least point to what changed.  Seems worth the small cost for the test.

tazmo8448

#12
Odd thing is when incoming calls are made GV in Google Chrome shows the person calling if they are in your contacts, but not on the phone as they use to do. The 100 back in the day always showed who was calling if they had not set their Caller ID to Private.....businesses and residential callers.
It's either one or two of the obvious things...GV has changed the FW or Obi has changed their FW...no amount of FW updates or rollbacks change the behavior BTDT.

Last yr when the the 100 was dropped and i hooked up the 200 it would not show CNAM or the person calling. Found FW to extend the 100 til around May or so an when the 100 flat stopped working, hooked up the 200 lo an behold the calller names started showing again and worked up until this month reverting back to the way it was last Dec of 2017.

My point is the caller name did start working on the 200 last spring, as it had always worked on the 100. Sure seems to me that this whole thing is based on us as users having to pay a 'fee' to have functionality that was always there for yrs and yrs....now what does that tell you?

Went thru all this mess last Dec. `17 when the 100 was dropped....back then some ppl on this forum took it upon themselves to be the Obi 'Spokes Person'...saying go buy this or buy that...when all it was was a several megabyte firmware update...haven't yet to understand what's behind these 'shills'


Sp0012

I've had CNAM working on Nov 14. I received a call from my son's school at 5:01 PM ET on Nov 14 and it used the caller name from my Google contacts. I received another call from the same number on Nov 15 at 5:36 AM ET and CNAM did not work. Caller name was Out of Area. So, CNAM stopped working between 5:01 PM ET Nov 14 and 5:36 AM ET Nov 15.

I did not change anything on Obi200 side (same firmware and same settings). Also, I did not change my cordless phone (same phone and same local phone book).

Google voice history is correctly showing caller names in all instances.

Obi200 was showing 0 entries in System Status > Product Information > PhoneBookEntries. I then went to ObiEXTRAs > Settings > Import Your Google Contacts and I downloaded my Google Contacts for the first time. I now see 76 Unique Name/Number Pairs in PhoneBookEntries. I did not sign-up for ObiEXRTAs yet and I'm not seeing CNAM for new calls. I'll sign-up for the free-trial. But I'm not sure if it's a correct test as CNAM was working before without OBiEXTRAs and without the firmware change. Could this still be an issue at Google side?

tazmo8448

if it works in GV and ur phone then it has to be an Obi issue...notice that all the advice is to go to ObiExtras? what does that tell you?

Sp0012

#15
It's my understanding that during an incoming call, there is a direction connection between Google Voice and OBi device. OBiTalk has no role to play. So, I'm still curious if this is an OBi issue when there is no firmware change. Could there be a time bound feature in OBi firmware?

This hypothesis does not make sense as I did give an access to ObiTalk to read my Google Contacts before. I confirmed this by reviewing "Apps with account access" and "Device activity & security events" at myaccount.google.com. My suspicion is still with Google that something broke there recently. 

Sp0012

I've a few additional information to share.

I'm still getting CNAM from a few callers. E.g. I've one friend using Vonage. When he called me today, I got his caller name on my phone. I've written his name differently on Google Contacts. But his name came today just the way Vonage defined. However, I received a call from the same friend on Nov 13 and it came just the way I entered in Google Contacts.

So, I'm still believing that Google used to supply / override CNAM until Nov 14 and something broke recently on their end.

I suggest other people facing this issue to check "Call History" on Obi device by connecting locally (not Obi Expert). For me, it's 192.168.1.XXX. I could clearly see CNAM here. You could compare the caller for which you were getting names before and it's missing now.

I believe it's Steve who can persuade Google to diagnose this issue further. Thanks Steve.


lrosenman

I wish we didn't have to guess about what's going on. Yes, I know it's free, HOWEVER, we were told CNAM was being provided by Google from our contacts.  And that was in fact what was happening until 11-15-2018.  Now, all of a sudden, it's gone.  And SteveInWA is saying he hasn't a clue, and we have no recourse.

How can we, as users, get a definitive answer from someone in power at GoogleVoice/ObiHai/Polycom on what the official answer is?   Based on Steve's response to me, he doesn't have a clue, nor does he want the evidence I have from my call logs.

Polycom/ObiHai/Google: Can we get some answers here?


eslop

Google contacts based Caller ID (name) has also stopped working for me around Nov 14th on Obi200/GV (after having worked for many months (since I got the device earlier this year)).
I still seem to get public (?) caller ID name/info (e.g. from a business, but not as defined in my google contacts) but for every other call only the number is displayed. This is the same behavior/data I see in my Obi200 device's call history web page (i.e. for entries before Nov. 14th it shows google contact name & number, but after that it shows only "public" name & number or just the number). It would seem to me that the device is not getting google contact data any more, but is still getting data from some (public?) DB?

Note that I had my Obi200 "locked" (i.e. every auto update option disabled) pretty much since I hooked it up (so as to avoid any unscheduled firmware update, etc.). In fact on the OBI web portal/dashboard it has always showed as "offline" (but worked fine). Also I have not updated/reconfigured/restarted the device for over 3 months.

SteveInWA

Google is investigating this issue.  If/when I have an update to share, I will do so here.  Given the Thanksgiving holiday, I don't expect anything to happen until at least next week.