PhoneFusion Questions
 

Hello everybody. I just bought my first WM phone about a week ago in the form of a Verizon TP2 and found this forum shortly thereafter. So far I'm really liking the phone and I've been reading up on various threads here and on xda to try and get up to speed. Anyway, my issue is this:

I just setup a PhoneFusion account so I could avoid paying Verizon the $3 a month fee for their Visual Voicemail. PhoneFusion is working great but I still have a few questions.

1. When I receive a voicemail, there is a sound notification but there is no notification displayed on my Today screen. How can I make a notification show up on the Today screen just as it would if I was still using Verizon's VVM?

2. When I receive a voicemail, the PhoneFusion application is automatically launched. Instead I would like to manually launch it when I'm ready to view the voicemail. Or even better (assuming #1 is correctable) launch it by tapping the now absent voicemail notification on my Today screen.

I hope I have clearly communicated my questions. If anyone knows how to remedy these issues or even if you could just send me in the right direction by pointing me toward some registry edits that might help, it would be much appreciated. I apologize if I've posted in the wrong forum or if this issue has already been covered. Thanks in advance for the help.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

I still haven't been able to figure this out. I guess no one else so far knows the answer either. I'm not looking for a set of step by step instructions on how to fix this or anything, maybe just some guidance from the informed members here on where to start, what they would look at first, etc.

So far I've been able to find the registry key in HKCU\ControlPanel\Notifications that specifies what sounds to play when a voicemail is received. I'm guessing (please let me know if I'm totally off base here) that when a voicemail is received, some status flag in the OS gets set. Then, the value of this registry key is one of the things that gets looked at. What should also be looked at (once again I'm guessing) is some registry key somewhere that tells the OS what executable to run as well as what to display on the Today screen. The executable file for the visual voicemail client that gets executed when a voicemail is received is called "FVMPlus.exe". I would have thought there would be some registry key somewhere that specified this executable as the one to run upon receiving a voicemail but searching the registry for "*FVMPlus.exe*" yielded nothing. I'm kind of at the limits of my knowledge here and don't really know what else I should try.

So, am I going about this all wrong? Is this how you would go about trying to solve this problem? Anybody have any ideas? Thanks.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

I just signed up for this service and will be looking at ways to integrate this. Its a good solution, especially when VVM is $3 a month. Not sure when I will have an answer but lets see how far we can get.

Steve

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

i have phone fusion working. do you have the show all selected? I to am getting no notification only the program launching.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

is that part of the programs design or is there supposed to be some for of notification implemented, LED light...something on the notification bar...SMS sent...anything?

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

if this is not allowed i will happily remove it. but i found an updated version on xda, havent tested it yet though

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

I've been making a little progress on this.

I have succeeded in preventing the FVMPlus application from launching when a voicemail is received by doing the following:

In the \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\ directory I renamed the FVMPlus.lnk file to FVMPlus_bak.lnk. I didn't want to totally delete it because I wasn't sure if it would break anything. Now since it's renamed, what ever it was that was starting the FVMPlus application upon receiving a voicemail won't find the .lnk file it's looking for so the application does not get started.

Next, in order to make the FVMPlus application still work when executed manually from the start menu I changed the value of the HKLM\SOFTWARE\HTC\Manila\ProgramLauncher\3\Path registry key to \Program Files\FVMPlus\FVMPlus.exe. I have that application in slot 3 of my start menu (i.e. left column 2nd row). You may have to change the 3 accordingly.

I also found the registry key responsible for making the new voicemail notification pop up on the Today screen. It is HKCU\System\State\Messages\vmail\Total\Unread\Coun t.
Changing the value from 0 to 1 or greater makes the notification for unread voicemail pop up on the today screen.

Now I'm trying to figure out where the OS is told what to do when the unread voicemail notification on the today screen is tapped. If I can find that and assuming it's in the registry somewhere, I can change the action from, call *86 to run FVMPlis.exe. In theory, I could also add something to make it change the value of the HKCU\System\State\Messages\vmail\Total\Unread\Coun t registry key to 0 so the voicemail notification would go away after tapping it on the today screen.

I'm also trying to figure out how the phone is told from the network that there is a new voicemail waiting. There has to be some registry key somewhere that does this otherwise the FVMPlus application wouldn't know to launch automatically when a new voicemail arrives.

Once I figure the last two things out, I think I can come up with a workaround. Then maybe I can generate a .cab for people to use in the future when changing to PhoneFusion.

Anymore ideas anyone?

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

Version 2.3 dated 9/15/2009 is the latest version. Once you sign up for PhoneFusion and are logged into your account, go to Voicemail Plus Options > Voicemail > Fusion Voicemail Plus Destinations. Then click the button "Send Link" that should be next to your cell phone number. That will send a link to the .cab file of the lastest version.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

The application is designed to receive a text message that arrives in a special format that tells the application a new message has arived and needs to be downloaded.

The application should run ONE TIME and then be left in the background (don't close it) where it will display a new message notification if you get a new one, but it won't launch every time a new message comes in because it's running.

It does not currently integrate with the today/home screen.

If you prevent application from launching when a text message comes in then you will have to manually sync the application. The application can only access the text message when it comes in, it can not access the inbox for text messages.

We do not reccommend that you modify the registry entries for the application.


I hope that answers all of your questions.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

By "the application" do you mean the FVMPlus.exe application?

Also, does this mean that I get charged for a text message by my carrier everytime I get a voicemail?

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

this is something i don't agree with. The application should not have to be left running in the backround. When i had phone fusion before i did not have to have it running all the time, it would open up as i received a new voicemail. Now it does open up when i recieve the voicemail but it doesn't download the message until i press sync. I think a notification should pop up instead of the program opening up imho and it definitely shouldn't have to be left in the running programs menu.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

I agree. I have never before had to manually start the application (assuming the application to which the previous post refers is FVMPlus.exe) and it still launched on it's own when I recieved a voicemail. If the application must be running in the background for it to show up when a new voicemail is recieved and if I don't manually start it then wouldn't FVMPlus.lnk have to be in the \Windows\Startup directory because it isn't on my phone.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

So folks on Sprint, you are paying the .020 a minute for the call forward or were you able to get them to do so for free. I remember using YouMail for a long time but paying like 30 -60 bucks per month in forwarding charges, which that got to be not worth it.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

i had my account set up with phone fusion for over a year and for some reason the way they set it up i don't get charged. I have been unable to duplicate this on any of my other accounts or my gf's account, so everyone should be paying .20 a minute.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

yeah that is what I figured. I've tried many times to get that dang thing waived and they wont. The best I was able to do was with retentions, is get a $15.00 + 25% discount each month to help off set it, but it still costed too much to justify.

I really wish they would do it for free like VZW does.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

Yes and yes.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

If you don't leave it running it needs to start each time you get a message, that's how it works. You can close it, it's just going to take longer and interrupt whatever you are doing because of the way WM works if the app is not running.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

We've heard various things. Sometimes they will waive it if you escalate high enough or just get lucky. You could always try the 'I'm going to port my number and cancel my account' route.. Which I guess you did with limited success. We don't have very many Sprint user because of this and we warn every Sprint user up front.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

i agree. Or they should at least off the option for 3.99 like vz does.

oh, ok. thats what i figured.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

So where is it specified that when this specially formatted text message arrives, FVMPlus should be executed? Is it in the registry somewhere? Is the argument contained in the text? Other?

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

if you leave it running in the background does it consume a considerate amount of battery?

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

It doesn't do anythig unless a message comes in. It's just quickly available if you want to go into it or a message comes in.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

OK, I'm making slow but steady progress. I found where in the registry it is specified to run FVMPlus.exe when the text message arrives. It is:

Key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Inbox\Rules\ FVVM
Value:
Command
Value Data:
\Program Files\FVMPlus\FVMPlus.exe

Just to test this I changed the path contained in value data to another executable and then left myself a voicemail. Sure enough the other executable ran shortly thereafter. Something else interesting happened though. A few minutes later I received the specially formated text message that the Phone Fusion guy talked about. Before I changed the path in value data I never actually saw the text, everything just happened in the background, but after I changed the path, it showed up like a normal text message. So, it is clear that I still don't fully understand what is going on here.

What I'd like to do eventually is when this special text is received instead of running FVMPlus.exe, it would increment the unread message count registry entry. This would cause the voicemail notification to show up on the Today screen. Then, when the user clicks on the unread voicemail notification, instead of calling *86, it would run FVMPlus.exe and set the unread voicemail registry entry back to zero (causing the unread notification to go away on the Today screen). I still haven't figured out how I can change the action that happens when the unread voicemail notification is clicked though. I did figure out where in the registry the number to call upon clicking the unread voicemail notification is stored. It is:

Key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Vmail
Value:
UserProvidedNumber1
Value Data:
*86

I would also like to prevent the specially formatted text message from popping up. Not quite sure on that one yet either.

One of my problems is that even after I figure out the interactions going on here, I'm not quite sure how I would go about implementing the changes. Can I write some sort of script to handle this? If my approach outlined in the above paragraph would work, it will probably have to be 2 scripts. I'm fairly proficient with C, Perl and Assembly for Microchip but I've never done any sort of programming for a WM device. I've heard about Mort Scripting from various threads but don't really know what it is or what it's used for.

Spetrillo, Herbal954, P-slim, Phone Fusion, anyone...Ideas, suggestions, comments, criticisms, etc? Thanks!

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

You can do anything that you want but the app can't read the text messages from the inbox and everytime it runs it re-installs the hook to catch the messages.

We'd like to add toady/home screen support but that has a number of issues with it.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

I understand that you recommended not to make any changes to the registry and I understand that you can't guarantee that Phone Fusion will be stable if I do so but that being said, I like to tinker, I understand that anything I break is my fault and I would really like to integrate Phone Fusion with my Today screen. If worse comes to worst and I totally jack up my registry I can just hard reset.

Thank you for pointing out the fact that the hook gets reinstalled every time Phone Fusion runs. It probably would have taken me some time to figure out what was going on there. I did figure out a way to work around it though. I basically copied over the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Inbox\Rules\ FVVM key and named it something different. Now I can use that key to increment the unread voicemail count so that a notification will show up on the today screen. I also renamed the FVMPlus.exe file in the Program Files\FVMPlus folder to prevent the original registry key that gets reinstalled every time from running Phone Fusion. I know renaming that file will probably break some other things. I can clean them up later.

I want to understand why you mentioned that the app can't read the message from the inbox. Were you saying that to make me realize that doing the work around the way I'm suggesting will necessitate a manual sync of Phone Fusion after it 's started sometime later by tapping the notification on the Today screen? If that's the only thing this method would result in me having to do, I think I could live with that.
Also, why does the text message show up in my inbox when I stop Phone Fusion from running upon receiving it? What does Phone Fusion do to stop this from happening normally? I would really like to prevent that from happening. Thanks for your help.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

My understanding it that when you are left a voicemail phonefusion sends your phone a text message. This message alerts the local phonefusion app that you have a voicemail. The app then deletes the text message

It sounds like this might be fixable by using a mortscript to increment the vm counter launch phonefusion and then shut phonefusion down again.

I was going to look into how force phonefusion to route the audio to the headset instead of speaker using audioroute. I have not had much time to do this yet.

But if you can make it so that clicking the voicemail indicator lauches a mortscript, that script could call audioroute and then phonefusion.

This is very interesting and sounds like it might be doable. I have not done much with mortscript yet, but appears to be a simple scripting language.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

If i may make a suggestion since it seems staff is present here, i would certainly use the program if when you get a voice mail instead of launching the program it sent you a text message or a notification of some sort alerting you to manually launch the application

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

HOLY CRAP!!! Mortscript rocks! I downloaded and installed Mortscript 4.2 and within 10 minutes I had my first script implemented. The following script increments the unread voicemail message count. Any value greater than zero makes the notification show up on the Today screen. It's so simple:


# Phone Fusion Fix Script 1
#
# This script is called from the registry key:
# \HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Inbox\Rules\FVVM_Today_Fi x\Command
# when a text is received to notify the Phone Fusion application of a new voicemail

unread = RegRead( "HKCU" , "System\State\Messages\vmail\Total\Unread" , "Count")
unread = unread + 1
RegWriteDWord( "HKCU", "System\State\Messages\vmail\Total\Unread" , "Count" , unread )

So as of now, I fixed it so that when a voicemail is received the notification shows up on the Today screen and at the same time the Phone Fusion application is prevented from automatically running.

Next, I need to find the callback associated with tapping the Today screen notification. Once that's figured out I can write a second script that will set the unread message count back to zero and then launch the Phone Fusion app.

Finally, I need to figure out how to stop that pesky text from showing up in my inbox. I'm thinking that maybe I can add something to the script above that will intercept and delete the message before it shows up. This bit is still a mystery to me. Maybe the Phone Fusion contributor to this thread can help shed a little light. Thanks.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

thanks pretty cool, but i would like to see this as an option implemented into the application natively

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

there are a number of reasons that the application functions that way that it does.

First a notificatiion, run, sync operation is a very expensive operation on our side as well as on the phone side. In addition to that, you then have to manually download any message that you want to hear/view so there is a wait for that.

The idea behind the application is to get notified on just new messages and then download them in the background.


Please don't create an automated script to force manual syncs. If we see accounts that are doing that frequently we may have to take action to deal with it. Keep in mind that we have hundreds of thousands of users and we watch performace stats like a hawk.


I know where/how to set the number of new messages but without better intergration it doesn't have a lot of value.

We have codes to change audio on a few different devices but the manuafacturers do not give this information freeley and in order to properly mange audio we would have to write our own player or risk interfereing with proper phone operation. It's on or list.


What really is the issue here? Leaving the app running in the background? It doesn't do anyting if it's not active, but if you get a message it does exactly what it's supposed to.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

FYI. It looks like Verizons Visual Voicemail works the same way. Same set of registry keys in use for intercepting a special txt message. I am going to play with them later to see about stopping it from loading on its own.

I kind of stumbled on this thread for another reason as I am trying to disable all of the today screen left softkey notifications all together but visual voicemail notification was/is part of it so hopefully fixing this will help me figure blocking the rest. .... I check back in if I get anywhere myself.

-T

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

to help expand your market if i were on phonefusions team i would try to take this product to sprint and try and try to become their visual voicemail provider for smartphones because they obviously dont have one. you guys are in a strong position to make that bid but this app just needs to be perfected 1st. with some of the suggestions you guys can do this and help out the sprint community that would pay for this feature like the vz customers. 1st a today screen notification needs to implemented and also the program shouldnt have to be running in the backround to download messages. im sorry i dont have technical advice because i went to school for business and marketing, so my techincal isnt as advanced as vne147, but he is headed in the right direction.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

The issue is that I don't want PhoneFusion to pop up when I get a new message in the middle of whatever I'm doing. If I simply stop the app from launching, then I have no way of know that I have a new message unless I periodically launch and manually sync. That's the only thing that's motivating me to find a work around. I'm not planning to write any script to force periodoc syncs of the application. All I want to do is:

1. Stop PhoneFusion from automatically launching when a message is received - That's done.
2. Make the new voicemail notification show up on the Today screen - That's done.
3. Launch the PhoneFusion app when and only when I want to by tapping the the notification - Not done.
4. Stop the PFMA formatted text from showing up in my inbox - Not done.

Once I start the app by tapping the notification, I'll manually sync to see my new messages. If there is an argument I can pass to FVMPlus.exe to automatically sync when I start the app to read new messages, that would be ideal.

Are any of these things going to cause a problem on your end?

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

While testing this I found that if you do #1, then you will always get the SMS message in your inbox. I think the rule works by launching FVM and passing it the SMS message to process, then FVM deletes the message so you never see it.

I decided its best to just minimize FVM since it does not take much resources.

#2 was easy to do, but the problem is I have not found a way to make clicking on it do anything, but dial a number.

#3 I found that with FVM running and minimized that there is an icon in the taskbar that if I click on will bring up FVM.

#4 I was unable to find a way to prevent this without allowing FVM to run from the rule.

I am still looking for a good way to force audioroute to run when the message is played. But so far this does not seem possible without keeping the mortscript running in the background since I can not find a way to make the VM indicator launch anything but the dialer.

I'll see what else I can find, but I don't think a very smooth integration can be made without hacking manilla which I have no idea how to do.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

I agree with what you're thinking about how FVM works to prevent the PFMA text from showing up in the inbox. Right now I'm exploring API options for deleting it. If I figure it out I could have the first mortscript make that happen.

I also have been unable to figure out how to change the action associated with clicking the notification. I don't know how to hack into Manila either but this could be my oppourtunity to learn. Lots of times I'll spending more effort than necessary doing something simple just so I can learn more about it. I don't necessarily care that there might be easier ways to do it.

I also agree that leaving FVM running is an option. You can also add it to the exception list so it doesn't show up in the task manager menu. It does however use between 5-7% of my available RAM and I like to limit that as much as possible.

So, is it a giant incovienience to just use FVM as it was intended and keep it running all the time...no. But if I make my idea work, that would be much better, IMHO.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

I am not thinking of leaving it running all the time. Just until you check your voicemails. Once you check it you can shut down the FVM client.

I am hoping to have something fully working by the end of the weekend. If you find out how to launch an app by clicking on the VM indicator that would make this solution very usable.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

In case you haven't guessed already I'm one of the developers for this so I have intimate knowledge of it.

I have on my list of things to do the following (in no order):
1. build a player so I can control audio output (on certain devices)
2. create a non-sms/cached version
3. modify it so that I know if it was launced from a message or the UI and act differently. non-ui would download, notify and exit.
4. increment/decrement voicemail counter. Launching from existing vm notification is going to be an issue that I don't know we can taclke.
5. today/home screen integration


It's a long list and not a small amount of work. I'm currently working on the Android version as well as other things and we just got done with CTIA in San Diego where we were in MS's booth for the second time in a row. So busy is an understatement.


We have problems with Sprint on every device. They just don't care about subscribers and they want VM that integrates with their old archaic systems and it's just not possible.

When development starts back up on this again I'll add some people to our beta group if they want. Please don't ask me when I'm going to fire up Visual Studio!

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

glad to see you care about our concerns bro, i would love to beta test...let me know

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

Yeah sprint is killing me with this, i really wish they would open their eyes and offer this as a product.

anyways its good to have you in the community, thanks for taking the time to explain everything. Like herbal said if you need beta testers i'm more then willing to help out. I'm probably one of the very few sprint users that actually have this service.

Re: PhoneFusion Questions
 

I figured it out. I think it might have been the name that gave it away. Either that or the informed responses.

Thanks for chiming in and I would certainly be interested in beta testing.

Just out of curiosity, why do you say that launching from the existing VM notification is such an issue?