With ooma and really any provider whenever I had a voicemail the message waiting light on my phone would activate. I don't know how to make this work with the obi200 I just bought.
I just want the light to flash on my phone whenever I have a voicemail like it does with all other providers.
I probably just didn't check some box somewhere. Any help would be appreciated.
Google Voice does not support either message waiting indication (the stutter tone and the light). It's assumed you have a smartphone signed into your Google account, that will receive notifications of missed calls and voicemails.
It can't relay through the obi200 since it shows up as a device in google voice? I figured they would have some kind of agreement with polycom to do that since it's the only officially supported device. I'd think the obi200 could handle doing that. Is this incorrect?
Long story short, this simply won't work?
Thanks
It simply won't work.
Ugh...ok. Thanks.
Google should work on this if they are going to say Obis are officially supported. Obi should be required to say it's limited support.
Right now, it's a lie that they are supported. This is a standard feature for any voice device. It would have influenced my decision to buy the Obi. There is definitely a bait and switch component to this.
Quote from: twood on April 05, 2019, 02:09:54 PM
Ugh...ok. Thanks.
Google should work on this if they are going to say Obis are officially supported. Obi should be required to say it's limited support.
Right now, it's a lie that they are supported. This is a standard feature for any voice device. It would have influenced my decision to buy the Obi. There is definitely a bait and switch component to this.
Oh Puhleeze. You missed the entire point. Google Voice notifies users of voicemail messages waiting by sending you, the user, a text message, or a push notification, and/or an email transcript of the message. That's how the Google Voice service works. It's not caused by a design problem with the OBiTALK devices. If you don't like this, then use some other service provider. For example, MWI and VMWI work perfectly with Callcentric provisioned on OBiTALK devices.
It's a misrepresentation, plain and simple. You endorse bait and switch that's fine. I don't.
If any friends ask me about it, I'll tell them this up front. It may influence their decision, it may not. Obi should say it on the box. Most people are buying the box for the free service.
I'll definitely be sure to write some reviews about it now though. I probably wouldn't have but I don't like jerks.
Quote from: SteveInWA on April 05, 2019, 02:30:13 PM
Google Voice notifies users of voicemail messages waiting by sending you, the user, a text message, or a push notification, and/or an email transcript of the message. That's how the Google Voice service works.
Obi/Google uses a crippled sip connection to communicate. Google intentionally destroyed their old XMPP offerings that worked with asterisk, etc. just so they could partner with Obi on this.
It appears the result of that partnership is NOT a fully functioning sip protocol that will simply give you a mwi. I mean how hard is that for the two companies to work out? They're going to destroy an entire ecosystem that was built up to make this?! Lol.
Easy workaround for Obi.
Create a gmail add-on offered in Google's GSuite MarketPlace like Dropbox and a bunch of others have. Have users forward either their voicemail or a transcript to their gmail. When this comes in, phone home to obi that the user has a voicemail and then send the sip signal to the Obi200 so it can light up my phone.
Hmm, I bet this won't work unless your email client is open. Dang.
Anyhow, it's just silly if Google won't cooperate to get something this simple done.
Maybe just a filter/forward rule. I bet that would work.
In my opinion, "supported" and "officially supported" are not the same as "fully compatible".
You are looking/hoping for compatibility and I don't see that mentioned. What I believe Polycom is saying is they will fix or attempt to fix what is broken (that is what support is). That does not mean that they have to incorporate features that Google doesn't offer.
Free GoogleVoice service is great, until it isn't. The lack of ability to turn off their automatic forward to voicemail is a feature many people want also that isn't going to happen.
I have both GV numbers, Voip.MS numbers and CallCentric numbers. The last two because GV doesn't do what I want and I am willing to pay some other company for the feature.
Switch your VM to Callcentric.
Get a free Callcentric IP Freedom account
Add the Dollar Unlimited DID ($1/month)
Add the Callcentric DID as a GV forwarding number
Turn off the OBi device as a forwarding number
Register you Callcentric account on your OBi
Configure your Callcentric VM to pick up before GV
QuoteTurn off the OBi device as a forwarding number
It doesn't work like that. The only thing for obi you can do in google voice is turn it off as a device I want to answer calls on. That would defeat the whole purpose.
The solution form Polycom's end if Google won't accommodate them is to have the user enable voicemail transcripts. When a transcript comes in have it filter/forward from their gmail to some polycom email server. When this server gets these messages, it notifies some service they have for the obis and the obi sends a sip mwi signal.
There won't be any privacy concerns since Obi could already listen to every call if they wanted to anyhow since at the very least, the boxes are centrally configured.
OBi cannot listen to the calls since the connection from Google is direct and does not go thru OBi servers. Only configuration relies on OBi servers.
These devices work with all sorts of providers and are not limited to Google Voice. Unhappy with a provider, switch to another.
Quote from: twood on April 08, 2019, 12:12:59 AM
QuoteTurn off the OBi device as a forwarding number
It doesn't work like that. The only thing for obi you can do in google voice is turn it off as a device I want to answer calls on. That would defeat the whole purpose.
It DOES work like that. GV forwards the call to your Callcentric number. Callcentric rings your OBi and you answer the call.
QuoteTurn off the OBi device as a forwarding number
IT DOES NOT WORK LIKE THIS!!!! You cannot turn off the OBI as a forwarding number. Even if you could that would defeat the whole purpose of Google Voice. Why am I going to buy an Obi where I can't be reached on it from my Google Voice number? Anyhow you CANNOT EVEN DO THIS ON VOICE.GOOGLE.COM. It is not even an option.
QuoteOBi cannot listen to the calls since the connection from Google is direct and does not go thru OBi servers.
The point is they COULD if they wanted to as it is centrally configured. So it's the same if they get a transcript on their email servers. Sure they COULD read them but they don't have to.
Obi can make this work for it's customers. That's the point. It would be opt in anyhow so customers would make that privacy choice themselves.
QuoteTurn off the OBi device as a forwarding number
I think you mean remove Google voice as a SP from the Obi. If I do that, then I'm getting charged by callcentric which is not what I want.
Anyhow, it's good enough for me without the mwi. I can just check. It's just silly though that between the two companies, they can't get this working--or don't want to.
Quote from: twood on April 08, 2019, 09:45:39 AM
QuoteTurn off the OBi device as a forwarding number
IT DOES NOT WORK LIKE THIS!!!! You cannot turn off the OBI as a forwarding number.
It works EXACTLY like that!!! Gotta love it when a noob with 10 posts tells someone with over 3500 posts how an OBi device works. ::)
Quote from: twood on April 08, 2019, 09:52:34 AM
I think you mean remove Google voice as a SP from the Obi. If I do that, then I'm getting charged by callcentric which is not what I want.
No! Where did I say that. GV remains your outbound provider. Inbound is switched to Callcentric which supports MWI. In addition, you will get CallerID name, all for $1 per month. A lot cheaper than switching to another provider.
QuoteIt works EXACTLY like that!!! Gotta love it when a noob with 10 posts tells someone with over 3500 posts how an OBi device works.
NO IT DOES NOT. Screenshots! Show the screenshots. IT IS NOT EVEN AN OPTION IN GOOGLE VOICE. Noob or not, it simply does not work like that.
You go find a screenshot in Google Voice where you can turn off forwarding to the Obi device. You either delete it where it's not a device or you don't.
I see what you guys are talking about. Like I said there is no option to "Turn off the OBi device as a forwarding number" which is what I was looking for. That option does not exist. The option is "My devices/Turn on the devices you want to answer calls on".
There is an option for "Call forwarding Turn on the linked numbers you want to forward calls to." which like I said, does not have the Obi listed and you cannot do that.
I see that you can accomplish what you guys are saying though so my bad on implying the functionality doesn't exist. Still, it's probably best to reference this the way Google Voice does.
So, inbound for ALL CALLS on callcentric is just 1 dollar a month? If so, that's a cheap option for sure.
Quote from: twood on April 08, 2019, 10:22:28 AM
NO IT DOES NOT. Screenshots! Show the screenshots. IT IS NOT EVEN AN OPTION IN GOOGLE VOICE. Noob or not, it simply does not work like that.
Ok, here are two screenshots. You can disable it in the Legacy version or the new UI.
Quote from: twood on April 08, 2019, 10:34:13 AM
I see what you guys are talking about. Like I said there is no option to "Turn off the OBi device as a forwarding number" which is what I was looking for. That option does not exist.
Wrong again!
You are trying to turn Google Voice into something it's not. It is not a "free telephone company". It is not a bare-bones SIP ITSP. It is a complete, integrated telephone call forwarding, calling, voicemail and text messaging service. You cannot pick and choose, and you cannot make it work like an old-school SIP ITSP. You cannot disable its voicemail and use Callcentric's voicemail. IF you attempt to do that, and you are on a phone call, and another call comes in, that call will go to Google Voice's voicemail. Now, you will be worse-off, because you have VMs going to two different places.
Google Voice was not designed to be a standalone SP for OBiTALK products. It was designed to enable OBi's to just one more place where you can send calls. Google assumes you are using their service as designed, which means you have a smartphone that can run the mobile Google Voice app. You receive notifications via the app, and/or via email. I already explained that you can set it to push a notification to your phone of missed calls and/or voicemail messages and/or SMS/MMS messages. You can also have it send an email notice. Those are the notification methods, not MWI. Period.
If you don't like this, like zsak23 said, go get your VoIP service from some other company. You are just being unreasonably argumentative because you want everything for free. This service doesn't meet your needs, so go pay a modest fee to use another service and not Google Voice.
See:
https://www.callcentric.com/dids/dollar_unlimited_phone_number
It looks like you also get E911.
Quote from: azrobert on April 08, 2019, 10:57:31 AM
See:
https://www.callcentric.com/dids/dollar_unlimited_phone_number
It looks like you also get E911.
NO. Callcentric sells inbound and outbound services separately. E911 is an outbound call. You either pay them $1.50 for that service a la carte, or you pay them for one of their monthly OUTbound calling plans that include E911.
Taoman
Yeah, I see what you guys are saying. Still you have to know to go to legacy or use the other option.
Thanks for the screenshots.
I still think Obi should implement the service I described. Then they would have a full service imo but hey, I'm just one guy. Still, I'm certain many, many others would want that too. It's tantalizingly close to being 100% awesome.
It's good enough for me though. Thanks.
QuoteGoogle Voice was not designed to be a standalone SP for OBiTALK products. It was designed to enable OBi's to just one more place where you can send calls.
No, Google Voice was not designed to be anything for ObiTalk. ObiTalk is an afterthought on some backroom deal a couple of goobers had where they disabled functionality for all the people that WERE USING IT JUST FINE just so a few people could profit.
One thing is certain, they CAN make this work. They probably won't though (they certainly won't if you guys are successful in squashing all the squeaky wheels) and what likely will happen is in a year or two, Google will drop support for Obis out of the blue just like they dropped support for everybody else using XMPP at which point, I'll toss my Obi in the trash and regret telling others about it.
Quote from: twood on April 08, 2019, 11:13:13 AM
It's good enough for me though. Thanks.
I sent you a PM.
Quote from: SteveInWA on April 08, 2019, 10:57:13 AM
IF you attempt to do that, and you are on a phone call, and another call comes in, that call will go to Google Voice's voicemail. Now, you will be worse-off, because you have VMs going to two different places.
Please explain how this works. I thought GV will ring for 25 seconds even when you're on another call and definitely when call waiting is enable. Callcentric VM should pickup before GV VM.
There is no reliable way to make it work as you think it will work. Test it yourself and see.
Assumption: Google Voice number forwards to a CC DID. CC DID is provisioned on an OBi device.
Call the Google Voice number from some unrelated phone number. Answer the call on the OBi-attached phone using the CC DID as the SP. Remain on that call.
Call the Google Voice number from a different unrelated phone number. You'll hear a call-waiting beep tone on the first call. Ignore the CW tone. The second call will eventually go to Google Voice VM, depending on the ring period set for the CC DID.
If you set the CC DID's ring period to be significantly shorter than 25 seconds, it may work, but you, the answering party will have to rush to answer the call before it goes to CC VM. Also, if a third call comes in, that call will go to GV VM. It will also interfere with any other 10-digit forwarding phone number's ability to answer the calls, as the CC DID will grab the calls before the other numbers can answer it. Eventually, the user will miss some important voicemail message that ended up on the wrong VM system.
Remember: the very large majority of Google Voice users use the service with linked mobile phone numbers set up with conditional call forwarding. Trying to "win the race" against Google Voice's voicemail will interfere with any other 10-digit forwarding phone number's ability to answer the calls, as the CC DID's VM will grab the calls before the other numbers can answer it.
Bottom line: Google Voice is not a bare-bones SIP telephone service provider; it's an integrated calling, voicemail and messaging service. If users just want bare-bones SIP phone service, then the better option is to pay for it on an ITSP.