Voicemail - how/where ??

[Eagle_Kiwi]

Hi all,
I find it hard to believe that GoogleTalk actually has "voicemail" now.
When I rightclick an online friend, it offers Call, and Chat, but no sign of any voicemail option.
And if I open the CHAT window, and click the triangle there, it offers only "Go off the record", and "Block xxxxx" (not like in the graphic at their website )

What's more, the GoggleTalk Search HELPCenter comes back with: "Your search - voicemail - did not match any answers in our Help Center.
Please edit your search terms and try again."

I also got my friend to CALL me while I deliberately did not answer. ALLEGEDLY after 4 rings she should have been diverted to voicemail. Well, after about 12(!) rings we gave THAT up too.

Can anyone help ?

Also, is there any way to find what VERSION I am on ? The usual "Help, About" doesn't exist, and searching their Help for "version" simply tells me it updates "automatically" - so - I guess I just have to ASSUME that the version I have WILL be "the latest" !!?? (Seems pretty weird setup to me. )

When I click "check for updates now" it seems to do absolutely nothing - not even acknowledge my click.
My gosh, I admit I used to think GTalk was a trashy half-baked program - nothing's recently improved my opinion.

[Nessa]

Did you click the update Spike offered? That option is there on mine...

It's suppose to eventually update on it's own but in some cases if it hasn't you have to click the link.

The voicemail option becomes more obvious if the person is off-line.

Also, if when you are typing to someone it doesn't say "Send Files" as an option, that should tell you the other person isn't using the latest version, which means you can't send them voicemail!

[Eagle_Kiwi]

Thanx for the suggestions, V - AND the voice chat later to try to sort it out.
So - I can now SEE a "send voicemail" option, but when I click it it appears to briefly CALL, then get no answer, but does NOT play me the recorded message (that I didn't know it was meant to, till YOU relayed it thru from YOUR end!) telling me to record my message.

So - glad it seems to work for you, and others .... but it still sure doesn't work for me (OR my computer-savvy friend in France either)

[jdelectro]

The voicemail feature works for @gmail.com contacts. if you voicemail a contact wich is in another service, google talk will ring once and say call was not answered.

[Eagle_Kiwi]

ok, thanks for that suggestion, JD.

I use an @gmail.com id there, but HatedJ has an @bigblueball.com.
So perhaps THAT's why she could send VMs to me, but I couldn't send back to her ?
(Yet she says she's received them ok from other people !!?)

[jdelectro]

Now that´s weird, EK! i dunno how she can use gtalk using an address like @bigblueball.com. Maybe i´m wrong in my suggestion or she´s using another software to voicemail, instead of gtalk. ... Btw it would be cool if Gtalk were able to play voicemails without the need of getting into gmail, downloading the mp3 and playing it with the media player software... that´s a looong way to do... In this subject i like the way gtalk2voip does.

[Eagle_Kiwi]

On reflection, JD, I think the @bigblueball (that some staff members here use) IS actually allied to @gmail in some way.
But - I've tried VMing to 2 other contacts, both definitely @gmail, both when they're offline and when they're online, but ALWAYS I get the same negative result.

Makes me wonder if for some reason MY PC simply cannot play the prerecorded message to me, no matter what.

[Nessa]

I am using the original GTalk, and the reason my name ends in @bigblueball.com is because Jeff implemented us staff to have Gmail accounts with Google using the bigblueball addresses. They work just about the same as regular gmail account does. Also, Yes, i did get a voice message from my friend Karina, who has a @gmail.com account to my @bigblueball.com account on GT.

Edit: Just read Ian's reply... And yeah i think maybe this is another problem, has anyone OUTSIDE of the U.S. been able to voicemail?

[jdelectro]

Yes, me

[Eagle_Kiwi]

Ok, so where ARE you, JD ?
Perhaps if Canada then it could well be only USA/Canada !??