Fred
My feedback
31 results found
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30 votes
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194 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment You might as well just set up an Echo Show on your whoevers home and use that.
I understand what you are saying and it does work. I have a Portal and an Echo Show sitting on a table in front of my wife. If I hear a call coming in on the portal, I drop in and shout Portal Answer through the show and it does cause the portal to answer.
I don't know why we can't get some kind of response on this issue from the Facebook/Portal people. They need to say something.
An error occurred while saving the comment We are now living through a time in which products like the Facebook Portal can be a tremendous help to everyone. Even though many people need to stay in their homes, there is still the need to interact with others.
The portal offer this ability and for senior citizens who may have no other means of communicating it is way beyond the word "helpful".
There are many people, including my wife who has Alzheimer's, who cannot easily answer the Portal. She tried to say "hey Portal", but she sometimes pauses between the two words and the device does not recognize it as a command.
For the next several months the Portal may be the only way a good number of people are going to be able to be in touch with another human being. And being able to see the other person is hundreds of times better then just hearing their voice on the phone.
I find it very hard to believe that adding the "drop in" feature on the Portal would not be possible. Amazon did not have this feature on the Echo for a while and then it suddenly appeared. My point being, it should be something that can be added to the software as an upgrade.
The Facebook Portal is advertised as a way of keeping generations in contact with each other. Someone needs to realize that not everyone is able to answer the device, but needs to be able to receive calls. I don't know the numbers, but I would guess that of the Portal owners, a very large number of them would greatly benefit from this feature. And if it were to be added and then advertised as a feature, sales would greatly increase, especially during these times of being restricted from being with other people.
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447 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment Not all the request for this feature are under the same subject title. If you add all of the "drop-in" request for the different subjects they are posted under, you will find an extremely large number of people have been requesting this feature.
I believe the total number of request for this feature is larger than any other feature the Portal has been requested to add.
If nothing else, would you please post some kind of date when you believe this feature will be available. A lot of us really need this and want to believe that you will make it available.
The Zoom feature that just became available was only recently requested and although a large number of people did request it, I don't believe the number was as large as for the "drop-in" feature.
PLEASE, allow all of us to believe that you will create this feature with in the next few months.
Thank you.
An error occurred while saving the comment This is getting beyond the point of frustration. Before I purchased 4 of the 10" Portals and 1 TV Portal, I already owned 4 Echo Shows. My wife has dementia and Alzheimer. She finds it difficult to use a phone and it is now difficult for her to give the Portal Wake Word to make or answer calls.
I had purchased the Portal because I wanted her to be able to connect to a number of her friends and the Portal is easier to create a call list of people than the Echo.
In January my wife was in the hospital and she had a problem using the nurse's call button. So I brought in one of our Echo Shows and set it on a shelve pointing at her bed. When I wanted to check up on her all I had to do was tell one of my Echo's at home to drop in on the one in the hospital.
The Echo also has another very good feature. It is an intercom. Just say, "Alexa Broadcast" and Alexa will ask you what your announcement is. Say something and it is transmitted to all devices that contain an Alexa.
I told my wife that if she was unable to call for a nurse, she should use the "Broadcast" feature, which she learned a while back and can say. Then I would get the call. Even if she could not leave a message, I would know it was her calling and I could drop in on her and ask her what she needed. If it required a nurse, I then called the hospital and asked for the nursing station on her floor. I told the person who answered that my wife needed her.
I'm referencing this Echo feature because the drop in feature should be added to the Portal. The Portal has a number of features that that the Echo lacks. But if Facebook can't get it through their head that this one simple "drop in" feature would give the Portal a reason to buy over the Echo, then they are missing out on sales that could put them at the top of the "voice activated devices" or whatever the proper name is for these type of devices.
When people ask me which device to buy, I find out their needs and if there is any kind of speaking issue with the person using the device I'll recommend the Echo just because of the DROP IN feature.
When or if Facebook ever gets around to adding this feature I would probably recommend the Portal the majority of times.
An error occurred while saving the comment This feature is a must.
An error occurred while saving the comment I had a long talk with a tech support representative last night and we discussed this possible feature. I was told that there were technical issues which are keeping this from being a feature and there were no plans on creating the feature. I was also told that using the feedback on the portal for sending in request might get more attention than posting here.
So I would suggest that everyone go to settings on their Portal and press HELP and then press the FEEDBACK selection and type in the request for "drop in" along with the reason. Maybe a big write in campaign will make this very important feature happen.
An error occurred while saving the comment On the Echo, you need to give permission to who can drop in. Without permission no one can drop in. I would expect this same security feature to be on the Portal.
Even when you give an individual permission to drop in on the Echo, it is preceeded by a tone and on the Echo Show, your video screen shows the person who is dropping in before that person gets a clear video from your camera. So there is enough time to cover the camera if necessary.
An error occurred while saving the comment I've also asked for an easier way to answer an incoming call. Something like "hello" or just the word "Portal answer" instead of "hey Portal".
An error occurred while saving the comment I've been asking for this since I purchased the Portal last May. Please, please, please make the drop in feature.
An error occurred while saving the comment I'll add my vote for this feature also. The drop in feature also allows someone to check on a Portal user who may have a problem answering a call. I own several Echo devices that allow me to check in on my wile who had dementia and is not always able to give the answer command.
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218 votes
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391 votes
As always, thanks so much to everyone who voted for this idea! As part of a recent software update, the ability to move the self-view window during a call has been added to Portal, Potal+, and Portal Mini devices. Simply touch your self-view and drag it to another corner of the screen! As this functionality is not available on Portal TV at this time, we will be marking this idea as started. Thanks and enjoy!
An error occurred while saving the comment I'm glad I saw these messages. A while back I wrote that the image could be moved. Then the other day I tried moving it and it didn't move. So I thought I might have been thinking of the Echo and edited my remarks about being able to move the camera image.
But now I realize that this feature was there last year and between then and now it was removed.
I'm more annoyed at the fact that no one from the Portal team responds to any of these messages. Not just about this feature, but about several other features, or lack of feature. It would be very helpful if someone just put in a comment about them to let us know if they are considering applying the feature.
One of the screens on this area has a pull down menu that shows how many ideas were done. How many were being considered and which ones where being worked on. But each time I look there nothing has changed and it is as though it is not currently tracking possible changes to the Portal.
There are a lot of comments from people asking for the "drop-in" feature and the Portal team has not made a comment on this.
The only time I've ever been able to get any kind of answer is when I called tech support. Maybe a few of us should start calling and just asking what is going on. Be respectful. But let them know that these wanted features are important and that a lot of people have a need for them.
An error occurred while saving the comment My original post was incorrect. I thought it moved, but it was the Echo that I was thinking of. Sorry for the confusion. Yes this feature should be available as well as the drop in feature. As just about everyone has pointed out, we've been asking for these two features for a long time. And now that these type of devices are more of a necessity than a luxury Facebook's tech teem really needs to get started on them.
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143 votes
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370 votes
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38 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment My thinking was that instead of saying "Hey Portal, Answer' the word could be "Hello" and it would on work when a call was coming through.
If you just said Hello when there was no calling being sent, the Portal would ignor it. "Hey Portal" is the wake word, although wish there was a choice of words like the Echo. So if no calls are coming through the Portal, saying Hello would do nothing. Say "Hey Portal" and the deivie is now awake and waiting for the next work for the command. If you now just say Hey Portal it may prompt you for some kind of command, but otherwise it waits for the next work or goes out of the wake mode.
I'm asking for coding to be put into the program so "Hello" translate to "Hey Portal Answer". If you now just say that, "Hey Portal Answer" and there is no call, it will respond with "no one is calling". If you said Hello and there was no call, you'd get that responce also. No really a problem.
The whole point was that if the people behind the Portal are not going to create the DROP IN feature, at least make it easier for someone to answer.
You would think that Hey Portal Answer is simple. But when someone has a disease that plays around with their brain and words are sometimes not that easy to put together, than the plan should be to make it as easy as possible to give a command.
The Echo finally has what I like to all an intercom. Say the words Echo Announce and you are asked what the announcement is and then after saying anything, all the devices on your account play that announcement in the persons own voice. Even it they can't say what they want, you'll know that you've be summoned.
The word Announce is a little difficult for my wife. I found that you can also say Broadcast and it will do the same thing. So my wife CAN say Alexa Broadcast and then I hear the tones letting me know the command was set in motion. Sometimes she says come up other times she just says Broadcast. Either way I know i'm needed.
I'd like the Portal to be just as user friendly.
Fred
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101 votes
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75 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment I had a long talk with a tech support representative last night and we discussed this possible feature. I was told that there were technical issues which are keeping this from being a feature and there were no plans on creating the feature. I was also told that using the feedback on the portal for sending in request might get more attention than posting here.
So I would suggest that everyone go to settings on their Portal and press HELP and then press the FEEDBACK selection and type in the request for "drop in" along with the reason. Maybe a big write in campaign will make this very important feature happen.
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74 votes
An error occurred while saving the comment The Amazon Echo has a feature called "announce" which does exactly this. I had asked Amazon to come up with some kind of intercom between devices and then finally did. Since it works with Alexa, I'm wondering if the Portal could support this feature.
You don't have to have separate accounts, just multiple Echos and the command is Alexa "announce" or the word "broadcast" can be used. Alexa then asked what the announcement is and you say something. When my wife uses it she will say, "Fred, I need you.". At this point, all the Echos in our house do the following. A tone and Alexa says " announcement" and then my wife's own voice is played back.
This is a great feature since we own 8 Echos. She would not know which one I might be near so by using this feature, no matter where I am I'll hear her message in her own voice. I also own two Portals. So allowing this feature to cross platform would be great.
Fred
ATTENTION FACEBOOK/PORTAL PROGRAMMING TEAM: There are more request for the "drop-in/Auto Answer" feature for the Portal than any other feature.
You have already completed features that were requested more recently and with less request than this one.
The Amazon Echo has this feature, so there is already code than can be used as a guide. And as far as privacy issues, the Echo has them and they could be used as a guide.
Why is this feature taking so long to act on?