Have had the Icon about a month, moving over from Android (cut my smartphone teeth on the Droid X; last Android phone was GS4).
Fast phone, nice screen, and, having a Surface RT, I like the looks of the tiles. Camera is no big deal to me because I rarely take pics.
I was pleased with Android until an update seemed to permanently disable an important Bluetooth feature, so I switched to WP. As of right now, Icon is no better.
I am probably among the very rare group of people that always uses a BT earpiece. I want no sound coming from the phone itself - no ringtones, nothing. I want all sound coming thru the BT earpiece. And, the Icon's vibration is so weak, I shut it off as well. The only time I turn on the ringtone feature is when I turn off the BT and go to bed. No home phone here - my cell is my only phone, so I must hear it when/if it rings during sleeping hours.
During waking hours, when I receive a call, I want the phone, via the earpiece, to tell me the name of the person calling. If the caller is not in my contact list, I want it to tell me the number, and then I will decide whether or not to answer (if I don't recognize the number, I don't answer).
When I receive a text, I want the phone, via the earpiece, to tell me the name of who the text is from, read the text to me, then give me the option to reply, with the capability to listen to what I say and send the response.
Both of these scenarios worked well with Android prior to the update mentioned previously.
I have yet to be able to get either of the above to work using the Icon and my BT.
When receiving calls, the only thing I hear from BT is "Incoming call - answer or ignore". Even if the person calling is in my contact list - same thing. I have to quickly pull the Icon from my holster if I want to see who is calling. And even then, only the number is displayed. Contact name is not.
I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Verizon yesterday. After a few tests, their solution was to keep ringtone on. By doing so, the phone, but not the BT, does announce the number, but still does not announce the caller's name. Of course, this defeats my desire for a "silent" phone. They also advised to try a different BT, so I do have a different brand on order. I currently use the Blueant Q3, and will be receiving a Motorola H19txt next week.
As far as texting goes, even with ringer off, the BT does read what number the text is coming from, but not the name of the texter. It would seem to me if these phones are as smart as they are supposed to be, it could also at least give me the number of a caller via BT when I get a call.
Sometimes I think the phone doesn't have enough sense to link the contact numbers with their respective names, and vice versa. Here's the reason why I think this, which is just another weird function of this phone:
Suppose I want to send a text to my wife Nancy. I tap Messaging, then +, then I type her name in the "To" space. Type my message and tap send. She receives the text and responds. But when she responds, her response arrives, not from Nancy, but from her number! In other words, I have two different threads....first thread is to Nancy, 2nd thread is from 123-456-7890. You would think it would be all one thread since Nancy = 123-456-7890 and 123-456-7890 = Nancy. I don't know, I just haven't seen anything like this before. Verizon didn't have a clue.
I've already removed the BT from the pair list. Reset the BT. Did a soft reset on the phone. Re-paired the BT. Same old thing.
Will I keep the phone?
Probably.
But I'm disappointed.
If I could get these two items working like I want, the phone would be absolutely perfect.
I did the Edge program to get this phone 6 months before my upgrade date. I would love to stay with WP because I despise Google.
Unless some of you have some suggestions, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new BT, or 8.1, will solve these aggravations.
Thanks for reading.
Fast phone, nice screen, and, having a Surface RT, I like the looks of the tiles. Camera is no big deal to me because I rarely take pics.
I was pleased with Android until an update seemed to permanently disable an important Bluetooth feature, so I switched to WP. As of right now, Icon is no better.
I am probably among the very rare group of people that always uses a BT earpiece. I want no sound coming from the phone itself - no ringtones, nothing. I want all sound coming thru the BT earpiece. And, the Icon's vibration is so weak, I shut it off as well. The only time I turn on the ringtone feature is when I turn off the BT and go to bed. No home phone here - my cell is my only phone, so I must hear it when/if it rings during sleeping hours.
During waking hours, when I receive a call, I want the phone, via the earpiece, to tell me the name of the person calling. If the caller is not in my contact list, I want it to tell me the number, and then I will decide whether or not to answer (if I don't recognize the number, I don't answer).
When I receive a text, I want the phone, via the earpiece, to tell me the name of who the text is from, read the text to me, then give me the option to reply, with the capability to listen to what I say and send the response.
Both of these scenarios worked well with Android prior to the update mentioned previously.
I have yet to be able to get either of the above to work using the Icon and my BT.
When receiving calls, the only thing I hear from BT is "Incoming call - answer or ignore". Even if the person calling is in my contact list - same thing. I have to quickly pull the Icon from my holster if I want to see who is calling. And even then, only the number is displayed. Contact name is not.
I spent 45 minutes on the phone with Verizon yesterday. After a few tests, their solution was to keep ringtone on. By doing so, the phone, but not the BT, does announce the number, but still does not announce the caller's name. Of course, this defeats my desire for a "silent" phone. They also advised to try a different BT, so I do have a different brand on order. I currently use the Blueant Q3, and will be receiving a Motorola H19txt next week.
As far as texting goes, even with ringer off, the BT does read what number the text is coming from, but not the name of the texter. It would seem to me if these phones are as smart as they are supposed to be, it could also at least give me the number of a caller via BT when I get a call.
Sometimes I think the phone doesn't have enough sense to link the contact numbers with their respective names, and vice versa. Here's the reason why I think this, which is just another weird function of this phone:
Suppose I want to send a text to my wife Nancy. I tap Messaging, then +, then I type her name in the "To" space. Type my message and tap send. She receives the text and responds. But when she responds, her response arrives, not from Nancy, but from her number! In other words, I have two different threads....first thread is to Nancy, 2nd thread is from 123-456-7890. You would think it would be all one thread since Nancy = 123-456-7890 and 123-456-7890 = Nancy. I don't know, I just haven't seen anything like this before. Verizon didn't have a clue.
I've already removed the BT from the pair list. Reset the BT. Did a soft reset on the phone. Re-paired the BT. Same old thing.
Will I keep the phone?
Probably.
But I'm disappointed.
If I could get these two items working like I want, the phone would be absolutely perfect.
I did the Edge program to get this phone 6 months before my upgrade date. I would love to stay with WP because I despise Google.
Unless some of you have some suggestions, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new BT, or 8.1, will solve these aggravations.
Thanks for reading.
)
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