[Tilt, TyTN II, MDA Vario III Themes and Apps] joel2009:
Configuring Incoming Call Announcments

Incoming call announcements are another major hurdle with MSVC. Even on an otherwise functioning Voice Command, the incoming announcements won’t always function properly. One of three behaviors occurs:

No incoming announcements at all

Incoming announcements come only from the phone, and not from the BT headset.

Incoming announcements work properly…which is of course what we want!

I believe the issues with incoming announcements not working are due to one of two reasons:

An older version of MSVC (pre 1.6.17913) - In actuality, the file voicecmd.exe is solely responsible for incoming announcements. Whether or not they work for you is dependent on your version of that file. See the beginning of this article for information about proper MSVC versions and how to obtain them.

Incorrect MSVC settings – In some cases, MSVC simply isn’t set up properly. This is what I would like to detail here.

To ensure your MSVC is properly set up for incoming announcements, do the following:

Go to Start > Settings > Personal Tab > Voice Command

Ensure “Enabled” is checked (you probably wouldn’t have gotten this far if it wasn’t!).

Scroll down to “Phone” and make sure it is checked.

With “Phone” highlighted click “Options”

Check “Announce Incoming Calls”

Click OK to go back to the main Voice Command screen

Click “Notifications” and set your notification options.

Now place a call to your phone and you should have the incoming call announced. If the number is in your phone book it should speak the name, otherwise it will speak the phone number.

Where the announcement comes from (device speaker BT headset will depend on your Notification options.

Please read the following sections for more information on this!

Important Notes regarding Incoming Announcements

Location of incoming call announcements are a function of the “Notifications” settings in the MSVC applet. There are 3 setting in this dialog:

“Announce notifications using Bluetooth hands free only” - Use this if you want incoming announcement ONLY to come in over your BT headset and not your phone.

“Announce notifications using Bluetooth hands free if available” – Use this if you want incoming announcements to come in over both BT when BT device is available (and BT is on) or on your phone’s speakers (when not using BT).

“Announce notifications through device speaker or wired headset only.” – Use this if you want to have incoming announcements ONLY come through your speakerphone under any circumstances.

ISSUE #1

:

Incoming announcements (and ring tone) don't come through BOTH the BT headset AND the speakerphone simultaneously.

The problem here lies in the fact that if you have option #1 or #2 set AND BT is on, announcements/rings will only go to your BT headset. This may be inconvenient if your headset is not in your ear. Here is a summary of what will happen when using option #1 or #2:

If MSVC is DISABLED and BT is DISABLED then an incoming call will ring normally on your phone.

If MSVC is DISABLED and BT is ENABLED then an incoming call will ring normally on the phone AND your BT headset will ring with its built-in ring tone.

If MSVC is ENABLED and BT is DISABLED then an incoming call will ring ONLY on the phone. If incoming announcements are on, these will also play only through the phone.

If MSVC is ENABLED and BT is ENABLED and INCOMING NOTIFICATIONS are ON then an incoming call will announce/ring on ONLY the BT headset. (NOTE: you will actually hear the phone’s ring tone coming through your BT headset along with the incoming notification).

If MSVC is ENABLED and BT is ENABLED and INCOMING NOTIFICATIONS are OFF then an incoming call will ring on both the phone (normal ring) and the BT headset (built-in ring). No announcements will be heard.

SOLUTIONS:

If you aren’t happy with any of the scenarios presented above by choosing notification options #1 and #2 then you have the option to use notification option #3, "Announce notifications through device speaker or wired headset only." Of course this will allow you to hear notifications over the device speaker, but not over BT.

One other option which appears to work, but is not fully tested is to

set your phone to also vibrate for calls

. It seems from my limited testing that the phone will vibrate even if incoming announcements are directed to the BT headset.

Again, these are not the best of all possible worlds, but there are some other options. For more information, see the next post.

ISSUE #2

:

Calls from PRIVATE or UNKNOWN numbers do not seem to always (most of the time) properly announce. In fact, they will cut the ring off when using incoming announcements. As of current, I am not aware of any fix for this. This happens with incoming announcements over the phone AND the BT headset.

This issue seem to be coded into the Voice Command files themselves. When MSVC is enabled it installs some sort of proxy between the phone’s hardware to intercept incoming calls.

It does this whether or not you turn on incoming announcements

. This IS NOT related to the audio issues. In fact, if you put in a false value for the BTAGExtModule value then you will not be able to initiate MSVC from your BT however all the ringing issues still exist!

SOLUTIONS:

None