The Messaging menu allows user to compose, save, view, and send canned or free-text messages. There are six options under the Messaging menu including Address Book, Compose, Inbox, Drafts, Outbox and Sent and a Check Mailbox soft key.




The Address Book lists contacts created and saved into the Indigo Xplorer’s memory. The device can save 1,200 contacts in memory with a maximum contact name of 30 characters long. Each contact has its data stored in a three-line format. The first line can have up to 30 characters, the second can have 50 characters and the third can have 30 characters.


The Compose menu allows user to edit and send canned messages, free-text messages or a combination of canned and free-text messages. Three on-screen keyboards are available for information to be entered or modified. The up key can be pressed repeatedly to switch between the keyboards. When Compose is selected, the Message menu appears with three options to choose from—Choose Canned Msg, Enter Text and Next.
The Choose Canned Msg option lists canned messages user can select.



The figure above displays examples of a few canned messages.Each message is shown on a single line. Some canned messages are too long and can only be partially displayed on the LCD screen. User can navigate by pressing the up and down arrow buttons and by pressing the enter button to show the entire message on the Details screen.
When a canned message is selected from the list, for example ‘Out of gas!!! Please send’ as shown in the figure below, the Details screen will appear to show the complete message. User has the option to pick a canned message by pressing the enter button to Select or the BACK button to go back to the original list of canned messages. If the enter button is pressed, the Message menu will re-appear with the selected canned message displayed in the text box. Scroll Up and Scroll Dn soft keys are used to view part of the canned message that does not fit inside the text box. Remove Canned Msg deletes the message from the text box at anytime even after free-text is entered.


Enter Text option lets user create free-text messages with three on-screen keyboards. Each free-text message is allowed to have up to 309 characters which are shared between a free-text message and any additional e-mail addresses attached to it (including the semi-colon or space used as e-mail address separator). Long e-mail addresses or multiple e-mail addresses will reduce the number of characters available for the free-text message (see detailed description in the next section). If a canned message is previously selected and appears in the text box then the entered free-text will be appended to the canned message.

After finish composing a message, the Next option is used to send the message. A contact selected from the Address Book and e-mail addresses to whom the message is destined must be entered through the Choose Contact and Enter Emails options. Choose Contact opens the Address Book screen. Enter Emails opens on-screen keyboards allowing user to enter e-mail addresses separated by a semi-colon. The total number of characters of all e-mail addresses including the semi-colons must be less than the difference between 309 and the number of characters in the free-text message. The device keeps track of the limit and will prevent user from entering e-mail addresses longer than allowed.

Once all required information is entered, user can either Send the message or Save as Draft. If Send is selected, a Success screen will appear to indicate that the message has been added to the Outbox. The device must be held with the antennas having full view of the sky.

The Inbox folder contains all incoming read and unread messages with the newest message on top of the list. Read messages have a white opened envelope icon next to them. Unread messages have a green closed envelope icon next to them. The arrow buttons are used to place the cursor over a message and the enter button is used to read highlighted message. The message icon will appear on top of the home screen when an unread message(s) is in the Inbox. The speaker will provide an audible alert for all new incoming messages. The Indigo Xplorer can store up to 690 messages in the Inbox.


The Drafts folder contains draft messages saved under the Compose menu. The Indigo Xplorer can store approximately 190 draft messages with the newest message displayed on top and the oldest message displayed on bottom of the list. The arrow up/down buttons are used to place the cursor over a draft message. The enter button is used to recall and display the highlighted message content. Options/Edit takes user back to the Compose menu for editing and Options/Delete removes the message from the Drafts folder. If Send is selected, a Success screen will appear to indicate that the message has been added to the Outbox. The device must then be held in a position with the antennas having full view of the sky.

The Outbox folder contains either messages in queue ready to be sent or messages failed to send. A message in the process of being sent has a << symbol next to it. A message failed to send has an X symbol. And a message in queue waiting to be sent has no symbol. Once a message is failed to send, it can stay in the Outbox until user decides to either resend (Enqueue) or delete. The Outbox can store ~170 messages with the oldest message on top of the list.


For each message queued in the Outbox, the device attempts up to three times to transmit. After three failures, the message will be dequeued to avoid draining the battery. User has to manually requeue a message. If the device is at a location not suited for transmission, user has to monitor the Outbox and repeatedly requeue until the message is successfully transmitted. Thesymbol appears on top of the home screen when there is a queued or dequeued message(s) in the Outbox.
NOTE: The Indigo Xplorer will NOT resend “failed messages” even after the Iridium signal becomes available. User has to manually requeue a failed message(s) in order to resend. This is to prevent unintentional depletion of battery power in case there is large number of failed messages in the Outbox. Failed Cancel 911 message also needs to be requeued.



The Sent folder contains messages successfully sent. When the enter button is pressed on a highlighted message, detailed information about the message appears. The message can be deleted with the Delete soft key. Or the Options soft key can be selected to resend, forward or delete the message. Resend puts the message back on the bottom of the Outbox folder’s sending queue. Forward takes user back to the Compose menu for additional information to be entered. User can then resend the message after modifying it or cancel the process. Same as the Delete soft key in the Header menu, Delete permanently removes the message from the Sent folder. The device can store ~580 messages in the Sent folder with the newest message displayed on top of the list.


Check Mailbox (Soft Key):


There are four ways the Indigo Xplorer initiates a mailbox check for any pending messages:
1. User can manually force the device to check the mailbox at anytime by pressing the Check Mailbox soft key under the Messaging menu.
2. User can manually force the device to check the mailbox at anytime using the Utilities/Check Mailbox menu.
3. When tracking mode is enabled, the device automatically checks the mailbox each time it wakes up to send a position report.
4. When tracking mode is enabled and in addition to checking the mailbox each time it wakes up to send a report, the device also automatically wakes up and checks the mailbox at a preset mailbox check rate. The mailbox check rate is set using the Report Rate menu option. A position report will not be sent when the device wakes up to check the mailbox unless the mailbox check rate coincides with the tracking report rate.


The Check Mailbox menu can either be in Idle or Checking for any pending messages to be downloaded. As the messages are being downloaded, the device shows the number of Unread messages in the Inbox and the number of messages still to be downloaded.