Visual Voicemail - I already have an implementation.

[Lars-Peter Clausen]

Redvers Davies wrote:
> I'm not saying it's the best implementation in the world but its simple,
> free and I like it.
>
> IMAP.
>
> Why re-invent the wheel.
>
> 1) Notification of mailbox changes (IE, immediate notification of new
> email).
> 2) Ability to scan headers.
> 3) Random access.
>
> Basically:
>
> My calls to vonage get automatically emailed.to my imap server.  I have
> a specific imap account for these calls which go to my cellphone.  I can
> see who the call is from before I download the messages.
>
> The infrastructure is simple, it would just require some application
> development on the openmoko to make it look like a voicemail client.
>
> 3/4 of the wheel is there.  Why re-invent it?
>
> Regards,
>
>
>
> Red
Yeah, that sounds like a really great solution.
But it has two drawbacks:
- You have to use vonage
- You need IP network access in order to get the emails

But as I said I am looking towards a solution that doesn't depend on IP 
network and is mostly carrier independent.
So I think it is (at least in the beging) inescapable to setup your own 
voicemail server. The server then could use many different ways to 
communicate with the phone, either email or sms or direct gsm 
connection. But what we need is a consistent protocol for each of this 
method and not many in form of a carrier specific protocol. You do not 
want to write hundreds of parsers.
So our server would you send an sms or if you have a IP network 
connection an email and than would display its content nicely on the 
screen with the ability to press on the entry an immediately hear your 
voicemail.

I really like the idea of Wilhelm Chung to use sms to notify you about 
missed calles and parse the date and caller out of it. My current 
carrier sends me sms with only date. Well that would be start, but you 
would have to write a parser for each carrier and each language used. 
And even then direct access to the voicemails would be quite 
complicated, because they first tell you what voicemails you have wait 
and than you can choose which you want to hear.

So I think we should workout some kind of a protocol for both gsm/sms 
based and ip-network/imap based access to voicemails.
And also we should constantly talk to telkos and ask them what they 
think about this and where they see possibilities to implement visual 
voicemails.

I for myself see huge potential to create visual voicemail system with 
the help of the openmoko community and establish a new way to interact 
with your phone not only for voicemails.

Lars