New Features: Call Logs and Multi-Ring

October 29th, 2008 @ 3:26 pm

We’re pleased to announce the immediate availability of two new beta features for the ooma system!

Multi-Ring

Constantly on the go? With ooma Premier’s Multi-Ring feature, you can configure your ooma number to simultaneously ring or forward to your mobile phone or any phone number you choose. Whether at home or on the road, you’ll never need to miss a call. Combine Multi-Ring with Personal Numbers and create the ultimate communication hub for your whole family!

Call Logs

We’ve beefed up ooma Core so everyone can enjoy the convenience of checking their calling history in the ooma Lounge. You’ll quickly be able to find the incoming and outgoing calls you are looking for with super-handy sorting and filtering controls.

Have an idea for a killer feature you’d like to see on ooma? We’d love to hear from you! Please share your thoughts by commenting below!

32 Responses to “New Features: Call Logs and Multi-Ring”

  1. Paul Lee says:

    The must have feature that I had with my previous VoIP provider is the ability to black a specific number. It gets a busy signal when a call is place from that number.

  2. Kevin Amter says:

    I love both of these features, especially the call forwarding. Very smart.
    I have one request:

    I would like to be able to block certain phone numbers. Call blocking. Please add this feature to the Ooma system in the future.

    Love my system.

    KA

  3. dan says:

    i would like to have a feature that blocks selected phone numbers automatically, and either causes the blocked persons call to immediately go to voicemail, or is blocked entirely. Also a feature to turn this off or on through the ooma website.

    Thank You,
    Dan

  4. VBob says:

    Hi Kevin, Paul and Dan,

    Thanks for your feedback and comments. We plan on releasing personal and community blacklisting (blocking phone numbers on a list) by the end of this year. As Dan requested, we’ll allow two block treatment options: block the call completely or just have it forwarded to voicemail. We’ll send another note out to ooma newsletter subscribers as soon as it’s available.

    Thanks!
    Bobby

  5. Diane Martin says:

    agree with all above. blocked numbers list to go to trash basket
    forever. list can be added to .. the caller I D lists the number and then place it in DO NOT ACCEPT LIST. YEAH

  6. Rob Glidden says:

    The above all mention the same concept…going one step further, I had an answering machine that had 3 seperate outgoing messages based on the caller ID. If the name came up as out of area, I had a recorded message saying that teller-marketer calls are not accepted at this number and to please take our names off of their lists. A second message played if the call came in as a blocked/private number…telling the caller that blocked calls are not received at this number and they must push * (whatever the local disabler code is), to get through. These 2 items occured prior to any ringing of the phone…thus we were never disturbed by these. I think cell phones may be an issue for this to work, as many come up as private or unknown. A solution to this would be a setup in Ooma lounge that would be comparable to my iPhone contact list…we program in the names that correspond to the numbers that call us. A number isn’t on that list and isn’t recognized by the system for caller ID publication gets kicked.

  7. VBob says:

    Hi Rob great suggestion on the contact list. The contact list would essentially be the “white list” allowing callers to bypass any blocking features. We plan to introduce contact lists (perhaps with some sort of synchronization) in the future.

  8. Terry Barker says:

    New feature idea:
    I call it “Ooma Wee Go” (a play on words. Wee as in small, but also “we go – as in portable)
    Ith idea is a small phone/box and probably SW that will allow you to plug into your laptop computer (USB port) and use your ooma services even while you are on the road — even traveling overseas.

  9. Gene Marosy says:

    CALL BLOCKING. DEFINITELY !!!

  10. Amal says:

    I would love to have ooma work with the new bluetooth land line phones that feature the ability to hook up your cell phone so you can pick up your cell phone calls on any land line phone in the house. The cell phone calls have a different ring tone. So please ooma people, make my ooma with an extra ring tone for these phones. YEAH! Please hurry cause I need to buy new phones now but I want ooma too!

  11. George Mann says:

    I would like to see OOMA actually answer the phone when I call for something. I’ve been trying for two days to get service to port my number to my OOMA account, but no one answers the phone or my email.

  12. VBob says:

    Hi George, I’ll ask the support team to follow up with you. I’m not too sure why you weren’t able to get through.

    Thanks,
    Bobby

  13. Ooma user says:

    Can you please make calling back caller-id numbers simple please? I get a 10-digit caller id on my phone but Ooma requires a 11-digit number for dialing. What’s up with that? Can’t you just please accept a 10 digit number like most other phone companies/systems?

    Thank you!

  14. VBob says:

    Hi Ooma User, 10 digit dialing has been a highly requested feature because of the limitations of storing 11 digit phone numbers in some cordless phones. We’ll be starting development work on support for 10 digit dialing shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday. We’re hoping to release this out to the ooma community in the beginning of January.

  15. Nancy Vance says:

    I am enjoying the phone logs, but is there a way we could add some notes and the person’s name to the log? I try to keep the logs, but sometimes I can’t remember who is connected with which number or if I called them back yet- such as for1st time inquiries to my business.

  16. VBob says:

    Hi Nancy, this is a great idea. Right now we don’t have a way to add notes to the call log entries, but I think this is something that might be added in the future. I’ll add it to our product feature request list.

    Thanks,
    Bobby

  17. Jerry says:

    Want a way to add notes to call log entries? Allow the call log to be sent to email just like voice mail. The owner could then save the file to their own computer and manipulate it as they see fit.

    Although your company will stand the phone companies on their collective ears, they have done a couple of things you may be able to exploit in some better manner within your own company.

    1) Partner with, or buy a DSL partner. This gives several possibilities:
    a) preferred pricing with yourselves or your partner (below market)
    b) a bring your own ISP option as you currently market.
    c) price the service according to the “home” content requested by the customer:
    1) The comfort of big time ISP Content providers like AOL or MSN
    2) Simple high bandwidth internet without commercial ISP fluff.

    2) Partner with a “cable” television partner or movie provider that can take advantage of your technology,( or DSL acquisition) or give you the possiblity of exploiting theirs, such as DirecTV. This also expands the ability to make specific services “free” and premium while also taking some small bit of profit from the sales of their premium packages like NFL Sunday ticket, or the Netflix video on capability.

    3) Make the OOMA hardware a multifunction wireless “N” MIMO router, or offer a version of it that is so folks don’t have to purchase separate router equipment to interface with their DSL modems. (wireless N MIMO protocol because it’s better than what DSL companies are currently offering)

    4) Ipod charging dock(s) (just wanted to see if you were paying attention)

    5) Offer discounts, free or discounted equipment, or a free service to folks for bringing in new customers, or using an idea they submitted (first). Discount a premium service user by giving them free service for a year. Make the new service free for the person who submitted it. Offer a free scout for implementing their idea. Make it a choice between these ideas

  18. Kneel Sea says:

    Any plans for some sort of SoftPhone? I’d like to ditch Vonage, but I love my Softphone on my Mac. The extra $9.99 I have to shell out to Vonage is worth it, but hey, Ooma is all about saving coin.

  19. Tom says:

    I agree with Nancy Vance. I would like to be able to add notes to messages but also to calls. I would like to expand on Nancy’s suggestion though: Ooma Business Edition would be a swell idea. Features it could include are below:
    1. It would be nice if I could integrate Ooma’s note taking feature with my company’s current phone log and knowledge base system.
    2. Ooma could call forward to a phone ring (several numbers at once or sequentially)
    3. Ooma could simplify setting up office phone systems by allowing shortcut phone numbers for offices and virtual offices
    4. It would be very convenient if the notes for a call could be entered on a simple LCD screen with USB keyboard connection. This could connect to the Ooma device and update the notes without bogging down the system with another browser instance / tab / etc.

  20. N Saini says:

    I would like to see 2 things -

    1. Create a contact list with your phone numbers. The Call logs then show the entry name from the contact list. Also, from the call log give us the ability to add a number to the contact list. Take this a step further and pass this contact name as the callerid to my phone during an incoming call (instead of what comes in from the local exchange.

    2. Configure 10 digit calling for local (same area code) as well as long distance. Let all dialed numbers be 10 digits (that way you don’t need to press 1 + number).

  21. Btuttle says:

    Could we have a hold option that offers music to those on hold. Would love to take a call in one room, place them on hold, and take that call back in another room.

  22. Steve says:

    I’m a few days into Ooma and still testing the waters. Two features that I liked with my old VoIP provider which I would like to see on Ooma are:
    1) Automatic redial: be able to redial a busy number for say 30 minutes and then ring back when it’s free
    2) Network availability forwarding: when the Ooma device is not connected to the Ooma server, then forward to a different phone number. My cable/internet was out this morning and it would have been nice to have my Ooma calls forwarded to a different number during this outtage. (e.g. cell)

  23. george says:

    hi, I live next to a free wireless internet area, so at any time I have free internet. now my question is: can I use my ooma phone in this situation? I believe I could. did anyone tried before? do I need a receiver for this? or a router ? thanks

  24. Lea says:

    I run a residential real-estate business. It is important for me to be able to view my incoming call logs for up to past 10 days. Many potential renters called and would not leave a voice message when unanswered. These call logs allow me to follow up with them.

    There are also instances I search call history way back in time. Vonage allows me to search call history from many years ago, from the day I signed up with them. This is excellent!

    Lea

  25. VBob says:

    george — your voice quality results will really depend on the quality of your wireless internet connection. Wireless internet connections are susceptible to loss and interference. As a result, we recommend using ooma with fixed-line Internet connections (DSL, cable or fiber-optic).

  26. MBN Blogger says:

    I would love to have the feature of call forwarding when the network connection is down.

    Also I would like the ability to have a running address book where I can import names and numbers from the call logs. Also when a caller from the address book shows on the caller ID it can use the custom name that is in there.

    Thanks

  27. Jay says:

    We live outside the US. We use Skype and Vonage to call ourfolks in the US from home. This limits our ability to use the service only at home. There is a device called “Actiontec VoSky Call Center”, which uses the Skype service, that can forward calls to another “local” country PSTN number. If the multi-ring feature of Ooma does the same thing, then I’ll buy 2 right away. If not, suggest integrating this feature. Forwarded calls, or multiring should link directly to the local phone, rather than going thru Ooma server first – because this will cost an additional international call.

  28. BG says:

    Please create a way of managing the Call Log. As it appears, we cannot delete or clean up the call log. In essence, the call log could be pages and pages, years long. It should have an item-by-item delete function like an email inbox/delete

  29. Terry says:

    Would love to be able to delete the log files will this be put in and also a contact book thanks

  30. Steven says:

    A few features I would like.

    1.) Call history that goes back since you start your Ooma service.

    2.) Automatic call forwarding if the Ooma is offline.

    3.) I understand that this would have to be a paid for feature, but I would like to be able to have all my phone calls recorded and saved. With the cheap cost of storage these days surely this could be implemented for only a cost of $5 a month. You could even tier the cost based on amount of storage space used. I couldn’t tell you how many times I have talked to a company and they promise me something only to call back a week or so later and they deny I was ever promised this. Having all my past calls recorded that I could retrieve would be awesome. If we could choose to keep or delete the recordings from the website it would help us keep the amount of used storage down so the pricing could be kept cheaper.

    4.) I love the vonage phones that kind of work like a cell phone except you just need to be in any WIFI network for it to work.

    Thanks.

  31. Maher says:

    OK, it is great that OOMA is selling a lot of units and the original buyers were a good reason for part of the success but the customer care has been dismal at best. Long wait periods and no email replies to issues. I see I share this complaint with other users above and in teh forums and OOMA needs to catch up with the volume ASAP. I have been chasing a $50 credit for international calls that was part of the deal when I bought the unit months ago…I filled out the form online months ago and nothing. No one is answering emails for help and the hold times for support are ridiculous! Good thing I bought the unit from Costco, I will return it next week if this continues… I can’t see why I should keep chasing what I was promised by OOMA to buy the unit and service for $220 +.

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