Visual Voicemail concerns

[magicandmystery]

I've been lurking for a while now, and finally had a question that I thought would be worth discussing. It's simply this: If your phone is off or your phone drops service, how do you think the visual voicemail will respond after it regains service/powers up?

Here are my concerns- we've all been (I think) in an area where we either lose service temporarily, or where the phone just happens to not register a missed call which results in you getting a voicemail notification. So... no missed call, but yet a new voicemail notification. Sometimes, there is not even a new notification until a few messages have been stacked up. How will the iPhone's VM system work?

It stands to reason that the new VVM uses EDGE to retrieve the voicemails, as there is no inbox to call; and in the videos, messages play automagically when they are touched (which suggests that the messages are 1st downloaded, then stored locally on the phone). What happens when you don't get a data connection?

I'm assuming that the ANI (or caller ID) is stored relative to the person calling, which then cross references your local address book to provide a name of the person calling. Similarly I'm guessing that if no name is found, the system simply displays the number, or lack thereof (ie., Restricted or Unknown Number). Any thoughts?

Since you can't call in to check your voicemail as you do now, how do you think the system handles it when you're outside a coverage area? Do you have any concerns of "not receiving all voicemails" if coverage drops and/or (assuming they are transferred via a data connection) there is no available data connection?

Visual VoiceMail is one of the features I am looking forward to the most, as sometimes I ignore calls on purpose, miss calls as a result of me not being near my phone, or just don't get a missed call due to either the phone or coverage drops. I'll frequently have 6 to 11 voicemails stacked up, and VVM is a great way to be able to listen to the ones that I want to. I just wanna make certain that I'll be getting ALL my messages in a timely manner.

Thoughts? Other concerns?

 

[rSm00th]

I would be surprised if the VM's are downloaded to the phone... as far as I am concerned, visual voice mail is just graphical front-end to the old voice mail system that we are used to calling into.

 

[JMax1]

I think if you don't have it on your iPhone, you'll probably be able to call it in too. Perhaps they'll also store a copy on regular voicemail as well as the HD on your phone, and will delete it off the server when you delete it off your phone too - synced up.

We'll find out in 2 days, eh?

 

[JMax1]

I would be surprised if the VM's are downloaded to the phone... as far as I am concerned, visual voice mail is just graphical front-end to the old voice mail system that we are used to calling into.

I think they will be downloaded to the phone - I mean you can FFW and RWD within the voicemail. Not to say VM doesn't already do that, but I don't know about you, but when I press 3 to fast forward it takes the same amount of time to get to the fast forwarded part as it would to just listen to that part.

 

[magicandmystery]

I would be surprised if the VM's are downloaded to the phone... as far as I am concerned, visual voice mail is just graphical front-end to the old voice mail system that we are used to calling into.

One of the requirements for the iPhone is the data plan, and Apple states that you need the data plan for the visual voicemail, so I don't think it's a graphical frontend. If there is a "backup" system available to be able to call your voicemail (the way that is done now) in addition to the visual voicemail, I would feel a lot better. I rely on VM, and the unknown is a little concerning.

 

[kdarling]

It stands to reason that the new VVM uses EDGE to retrieve the voicemails, as there is no inbox to call; and in the videos, messages play automagically when they are touched (which suggests that the messages are 1st downloaded, then stored locally on the phone).

Our collective problem is that Apple's ads are not very trustworthy.

When we see web pages and You Tube instantly appearing, then an ad that shows voicemails instantly playing, becomes suspicious as well.

In any case, I'd suspect that they chose the method which downloads the least data at a time. I know I would. So they probably don't come down until clicked. And might not even come down, as someone else suggested.

 

[jshbckr]

is there also the possibility that VVM will use Wi-Fi when it's available?

What I'm thinking is that VVM is all run through a server and that the VVM on the iPhone isn't a simple graphical interface, but they are stored on your phone. But they aren't ONLY on your phone. They are transported to your phone whenever the system is able to send it, otherwise, they are also located on the server. When you delete a message from your phone, it relays that command to the server as well, deleting it both places.