Is anyone able to access the global wfc_ims_mode in the Pixel 4 or any later versions of android than 9? Here is the method I am referring to.
I need to know this because I am currently using an OG pixel and I manually set the Wifi Calling to Wifi Preferred as we know the toggle button verizon offers inside settings is a dud.
Without forcing the global wfc_ims_mode to 2, my phone is essentially a paperweight as all data and more importantly calls and text will always default to cellular which I have 0-0.5 bars of service at my home.
Thanks!
Deeper explanation and rant - cynicism and blame incoming.
A quick summary of Wifi Calling Preferred - There is Wifi Calling, yes I know, that toggle works and is on. Then there is Wifi Preferred, a separate setting that tells the phone it what connection to default to. This is a toggle that was inside of the the Wifi Calling settings that has been confirmed to do absolutely nothing regarding your phones affinity for wifi or celluar. It is not tied to anything on the side of the android ROM, it is just there to create the illusion that it works. It was supposed to allow people to force the phone you have to use the wifi connection over the mobile connection which really help people on the edge of a service area or, in my case, in .5 miles from a Cal State University with a partially obstructed view of a cell tower.
"But I see "Wifi calling" in the top of my phone sometimes and I have never had problems."
1. Yes, Verizon does allow calls to sometimes initiate through wifi and even stay on wifi for several minutes. However, Verizon has set conditions on what a "good connection" means in order to keep wifi routing of calls AND data to an absolute minimum regardless of how this effects the end users call and data quality. Simply put, if we rate our wifi and cell connections from 1-20 with 20 being spectacular and 1 being awful; Verizon has effectively written boundary rules that say a cellular signal rating of 1 is ALWAYS preferred over wifi signal 20. You could be standing next to a brand new gigabit router with google fiber and full signal, but if Verizon thinks it has .005 % of a bar, then guess what? No call! However, Verizon knows that it must initiate the call with good quality so they use the "wifi calling" (comes up on the top of the screen) to start the call, but as soon as the call has begun, and the phone has detected a signal of 1 on the cellular it will perform a hand-off to the cellular network. Icing on the cake?This is a mono-directional hand-off, meaning wifi MUST handover to the cellular but going from cell to wifi requires the phone disconnecting the call. Outstanding move Verizon!
2. I have 0-1 bars of service where I am so if you have more than that you wont notice the hand-off. I run my business through my phone and I was so tired of missed calls, missed texts, dropped calls, garbled sound, echo. Most people will see the "wifi calling" icon in the top of the phone and assume the entire call took place over wifi. Not the case at all. Just trying to avoid the "I have wifi calling on and everything is fine for me". Yeah, how long do you talk on the phone? How many calls are you getting? How sure are you after reading what I just wrote that the entire call, and every call that takes place in your house just simply because you are home and connected to wifi and one time saw wifi calling on the top is actually using wifi maintaining the call through your ISP??
To get around this, here is a method that I still use on my original pixle XL. I am still running android 9 as the move to 10 seems to have move the wfc_ims_mode select.
This is one of the main reasons I still use this phone. Without Wifi Calling being forced as "Preferred", I know everything will route through Verizons service which is virtually 0 where I am. This results in missed calls, dropped calls, and video qualities jumping around between 144p and 360p.
Would like to know also.
i have tried this method on my Pixel 3 android 10 stock and it didnt work.
Related
On my notifications, it says that WiFi calling is turned on, but the cellular bars are still on. On the last Samsung phone i owned, the cellular bars were kind of disabled and it only showed the WiFi bars.
Is this how it loooks for you guys?
Same here, the bars never go grey........I thought this might result from the wonders of smartswitch allowing you to pick your call where wifi falls away however even disabling it doesnt change the colour!! Do you think that this means the cellular radio is actually still active or is just a little bit of superficial window-dressing that T-mobile will change with an update?!
As long as you see the handset/with the wifi symbol above, means you are using wifi calling. That goes away when it switches to cell tower calling. If you prefer wifi calling, then make your setting as the image below.
If u put like picture you will have wifi calling fully and not be using network if you put on the middle it will show like urs wifi calling amd also using network meaning it will show the bars
I have no doubt i am using WiFi calling.
BUT, i think the question still stands, why is the mobile network still on? And is there a way to turn it off?
On my S5 it would turn off. As a result, i assume battery life increased.
mrja22 said:
I have no doubt i am using WiFi calling.
BUT, i think the question still stands, why is the mobile network still on? And is there a way to turn it off?
On my S5 it would turn off. As a result, i assume battery life increased.
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Exactly what I was thinking.
Works for me
NOTE 4
jack black!:good:
BACARDILIMON said:
Works for me
NOTE 4
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Me too
I have a weird issue with wifi calling..
If I have it turned on, and I leave the house, I have no access to my data network as I travel around my area; I think the issue is that its always looking for wifi networks, and there are so many of them around me, including xfinity hot spots that are transmitting from people's homes, that I can't make phone calls easily.
Turning off wifi calling gets things back to normal, but I would like to leave "wifi calling preferred" on all the time, but it doesnt seem to be working properly..
This is in Chicagoland, where we have VOLTE, and all the "newest" Tmobile stuff active.
Anyone else notice this?
The bars are on because the Note 4 is a dual-mode device and can stay connected to both IWLAN (WiFi Calling) and cellular networks simultaneously so you can do seamless handoff from one to the other (VoLTE only). This is in contrast to previous Samsung phones that could only do one or the other. This is perfectly normal behavior.
siraltus said:
The bars are on because the Note 4 is a dual-mode device and can stay connected to both IWLAN (WiFi Calling) and cellular networks simultaneously so you can do seamless handoff from one to the other (VoLTE only). This is in contrast to previous Samsung phones that could only do one or the other. This is perfectly normal behavior.
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Yeah, the only other phone that does it on T-Mobile is the iPhone 6. I actually love this feature cause often time I'll be on a WiFi call and forget and then drive out from my home and the call would just drop.
I was on the phone with a T-Mobile rep yesterday in regards to the weak signal in my home. I never had issues with T-Mobile and signal strength, but it has gotten pretty bad around my home, where I usually am only able to get two bars of strength around my home, three when I am lucky.
I brought this all up w/ T-Mobile, they said there has been no service changes around my area, but the representative recommended that we use WiFi Calling in areas it is available.
I know this service is free, but I never bothered trying it, does it really work when dealing with poor signal strength? Does it impact battery life by any ways? Also, does it cause any sort of delay when calling people? And lastly, I'd imagine this includes texting via WiFi, correct?
If it is all as good as it sounds, I might go ahead with it, if not, I'll just ask T-Mobile about some sort of signal booster around my home.
Thanks!
Wifi calling can fix the poor range problem. You connect to Wifi and calls go through it instead of the GSM network. It works with texting. Just go ahead and try it. You don't have to pay any extra money for it. If you wanted a signal booster, I think you have to pay for it.
I have been using it for the past few days since posting it, and it seems just fine!
Let's say I use this option and walk out of WiFi signal, would my call automatically get disconnected? Also, does HD voice work on this?
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA Free mobile app
darkgiant said:
I have been using it for the past few days since posting it, and it seems just fine!
Let's say I use this option and walk out of WiFi signal, would my call automatically get disconnected? Also, does HD voice work on this?
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA Free mobile app
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Yes, if you walk out of range of wifi, your call will disconnect. Also, one thing to note is that it cannot be used on custom roms, however, with the release of this feature on this Nexus 6, we should see it on AOSP/CM in a few months. With google's project FI, this feature could be worked on by google and improve. As for HD voice, I'm pretty sure it works.
Actually, you CAN use Wi-Fi calling on custom ROMs, as long as the ROM developer didn't mess with it's functionality. (Granted, you most likely limited to ROMs that aren't drastically altered/customized, but at least they will be de-bloated...) I had an S4 with a custom ROM and I used Wi-Fi calling frequently--just have to check to make sure it's available.
I see people are still responding here - I have been using WiFi calling for about a couple of months now, it has been working perfectly fine. I had some random instances of dropped calls, I called T-Mobile and asked them about the issue, they told me it was related with my router, they went ahead and sent me a special router that is built for WiFi Calling (To be honest, I have no idea what the hardware capabilities on the router is, but it sure as hell beats the $20 Router I bought 5 years ago )
That being said, WiFi calling has been amazing for me, no more issues. Text messages are sent, calls are received, and everything works. It is a beauty of a function.
The only complaint I have is that sometimes if I hop in my car, drive away and am still on a call, the call will get disconnected (I now just avoid making calls while I am leaving my house). Another issue is that when I connect to any WiFi network, whether at a mall or a friends house, I sometimes do face issues as there may be some sort of hardware capabilities needed in order for the feature to work properly.
Hope that helps for people considering WiFi calling!
I recently purchased a brand new XT1103 64gb N6 and was hopeful to make this my daily driver, but having nothing but issues with this phone ever since I've started using it...in fact, it has been so horrible I went back to the LG G4 that I was using before the N6...my issues:
#1. Wifi calling - I have gotten this feature to work at home, but it won't work if I put the phone in airplane mode and connect to a wifi network. For example, on Delta flights that have internet they offer free tmobile texting...by following the directions and prompts, it says that I'm connected, but when I try to send a text it tells me to enable cellular network. On my LG G4, if I do the same procedure, it enables the wifi calling feature and displays the wifi calling icon and I'm able to send/receive texts. On the N6, this feature does not work. I have yet to see any discussion on XDA about using the N6 to text inflight on Delta flights. In addition, I was recently in Paris and tried to enable a wifi call and it gave me the same error...."please enable cellular network to make a call"...when I take the phone out of airplane mode and enable wifi calling (when connected to the hotel wifi), it thinks for a period of time then will allow a wifi call, but only if the cellular network is enabled...never in airplane mode with just wifi enabled. Is there something that is wrong with the N6 in regards to wifi calling? On my LG G4, if I put my phone in airplane mode and turn on the wifi, it will enable wifi calling if I connect to a wireless network. Overseas it's imperative that I'm using a wifi call since TMO charges 20 cents/min on the cell network, but having to enable the cellular network forces me to initiate a call before I see that it's making a wifi call. I am not happy about the wifi calling implementation on the N6 and wish it was more like every other TMO phone I have used in the past...
#2. Signal quality and battery life - as noted in many posts, the signal is horrible and continually bounces around. I've followed several recommendations and have done the following when I received the phone - opened the box, flashed TMO 5.1.1 rom and rebooted with my TMO sim...phone did several updates, then updated to Marshmallow...signal was extremely weak anywhere I used the phone (I live in central Iowa and they only have HSPA+) TMO has not turned on LTE in my area of Iowa...I went to Chicago and experienced the same issues...fast battery drain and poor signal....I flashed Pure Nexus 6.0 and TMO 5.1.1 radio and experienced the same issues so instead of getting a headache messing with the phone, I just went to a local tmo store and got a new sim chip for my LG G4 and have been using it without issue for the last couple of days...It worked much better in Paris and maintained a better cell signal in Paris and I was able to make several wifi calls in airplane mode at the hotel there...
Can anyone share their thoughts and help me improve my experience with this phone? I really like the camera, screen, and feel of the N6, but I can't have a phone with poor signal, poor battery, and faulty wifi calling. Thanks in advance. Nick
wifi calling has never worked for me in airplane mode.. is it supposed to, i dont think so? and it sounds like you live in a small city or in the country? it sounds like it when youre talking about your signal. i live in nyc, and am on tmobile, and i am always connected to lte. my signal never changes, except on one spot on a highway near the ocean. other than that, my signal is perfect. anyways, you can flash and try different n6 radios. some work better for some and worse for others. and you dont need root to flash radios, but you do need to use fastboot.
demonkc135 said:
#1. Wifi calling - I have gotten this feature to work at home, but it won't work if I put the phone in airplane mode and connect to a wifi network. For example, on Delta flights that have internet they offer free tmobile texting...by following the directions and prompts, it says that I'm connected, but when I try to send a text it tells me to enable cellular network. On my LG G4, if I do the same procedure, it enables the wifi calling feature and displays the wifi calling icon and I'm able to send/receive texts. On the N6, this feature does not work. I have yet to see any discussion on XDA about using the N6 to text inflight on Delta flights. In addition, I was recently in Paris and tried to enable a wifi call and it gave me the same error...."please enable cellular network to make a call"...when I take the phone out of airplane mode and enable wifi calling (when connected to the hotel wifi), it thinks for a period of time then will allow a wifi call, but only if the cellular network is enabled...never in airplane mode with just wifi enabled. Is there something that is wrong with the N6 in regards to wifi calling? On my LG G4, if I put my phone in airplane mode and turn on the wifi, it will enable wifi calling if I connect to a wireless network. Overseas it's imperative that I'm using a wifi call since TMO charges 20 cents/min on the cell network, but having to enable the cellular network forces me to initiate a call before I see that it's making a wifi call. I am not happy about the wifi calling implementation on the N6 and wish it was more like every other TMO phone I have used in the past...
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I had the same issue using GoGo on the first flight.
At home, make a few calls when connected to WiFi. In settings/More, Switch from WiFi preferred to Cellular preferred, and go back to home (clicking ok as needed). Then, switch back to Wi-Fi preferred, (toggle the on/off slider at the top as well). Make a call again while connected to WiFi (make sure it shows WiFi calling).
Now, on your next flight, (in airplane mode, enable WiFi) connect to the gogo internet (use the initial splash page to select T-Mo texting/WiFi, captcha etc). Then, try texting - it should work. (it did for me)
I haven't tried WiFi calling from overseas, so can't comment - but I know I'd just use hangouts (or skype) to call.
I'll give that a try when I get home from my trip...I did try making a few wifi calls at home, but I didn't cycle the wifi calling feature...I will roll back the update to the stock TMO 5.1.1 and see how it works...
Quick question, is there a way to not install the 6.0 OTA from tmo? I'm guessing that I can just ignore it...N
Ever since I updated my Note 9 (Tmobile, stock OS) to Pie, I get the "wi-fi calling preferences updated" message numerous times throughout the day. There is no longer an icon in the status bar when Wifi calling is connected. The network switches even when I am on a call (and the call drops).
Are there others here having this issue? T Mobile staff appear to be surprised at this happening (though on their forum there are several threads about this with no solution). Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks!
I am having exactly the same issue, I really hope there is a solution to this because it's causing me tremendous connection issues when I am on my call.
would that be normal if on the go the location changes? just spitballin
using a system that has been updated versus starting from scratch on that new OS version is bound to cause issues. forum is riddled with users having weird issues post pie upgrade.
do your selves a favour and factory wipe and be done with it.
Your device is supposed to switch during a call to help keep the call going. You'll hear a beep which signifies your wifi signal is getting too weak to maintain the call. If you have a network connection, the device will switch to it, but if you're in a building where the is none, it will drop the call unless you stay within range of the wifi.
I went ahead and just adjusted the notification settings so that it doesn't even bother popping up. I think the wifi calling icon thing might be a Android Pie issue with Google knocking out certain permission allowances. I will have to do some digging into that.
I have, and have had for a long time, this very issue. I have had it over a few phones and Android versions. T-mobile is pushing down a change to 'WiFi Calling Preference' setting changing it to Cellular preferred. T-Mobile denies it but I have screen shots of the notification when they do it.
This is a problem for me since I rely heavily on WiFi calling with marginal cell signal strength. I am about to leave TMobile because of it.
First off, I can make outgoing calls 100% of the time, and never have any problem except a split-second delay (as expected with VOIP)
Receiving calls though......
First, wifi calling randomly turns off, with a note I find later about "wifi calling is not available at this location" ---- yes, I have poor reception, and I know wifi calling requires an always-active GPS signal so rain or clouds can kill it --- but it never turns back on once the storm/cloud/whatever is gone, it stays turned off until I manually turn it back on.
Second, even when it is turned on, I will randomly get no notification - no ring, no vibrate, the screen stays black, and no "miss call" notification, I just get told later that someone tried to call me and it went straight to voicemail.
Third, when it does register an incoming call, I will swipe to answer and the phone app will... kinda half-freeze... it acts like it's trying to answer the call, where the red end button appears, but all the other buttons are greyed out except message. It's in a strange limbo-like state of being answered and not... when this happens usually the other party will connect and can hear me, but whatever they say never reaches me.
Fourth, I answer the call, everything seems fine, I say hello and just hear my own voice echoing, and even though I answered the call, they never connect and end up on voicemail.
I know that WiFi calling is a "new technology" (even if we've been using VOIP for years....) and Sprint hasn't "ironed out the bugs" yet, but is there anything I can do to improve it?
I have tried doing a hard reset on the phone, updating PRL/settings/OS, changing the phone data mode from LTE to CDMA, sprint tech changed out my SIM card for a new one, airplane mode (which doesn't work because it turns off GPS)... none of it works and I still miss a good 60%+ of my calls... any other suggestions?
Ashton_Durkhun said:
First off, I can make outgoing calls 100% of the time, and never have any problem except a split-second delay (as expected with VOIP)
Receiving calls though......
First, wifi calling randomly turns off, with a note I find later about "wifi calling is not available at this location" ---- yes, I have poor reception, and I know wifi calling requires an always-active GPS signal so rain or clouds can kill it --- but it never turns back on once the storm/cloud/whatever is gone, it stays turned off until I manually turn it back on.
Second, even when it is turned on, I will randomly get no notification - no ring, no vibrate, the screen stays black, and no "miss call" notification, I just get told later that someone tried to call me and it went straight to voicemail.
Third, when it does register an incoming call, I will swipe to answer and the phone app will... kinda half-freeze... it acts like it's trying to answer the call, where the red end button appears, but all the other buttons are greyed out except message. It's in a strange limbo-like state of being answered and not... when this happens usually the other party will connect and can hear me, but whatever they say never reaches me.
Fourth, I answer the call, everything seems fine, I say hello and just hear my own voice echoing, and even though I answered the call, they never connect and end up on voicemail.
I know that WiFi calling is a "new technology" (even if we've been using VOIP for years....) and Sprint hasn't "ironed out the bugs" yet, but is there anything I can do to improve it?
I have tried doing a hard reset on the phone, updating PRL/settings/OS, changing the phone data mode from LTE to CDMA, sprint tech changed out my SIM card for a new one, airplane mode (which doesn't work because it turns off GPS)... none of it works and I still miss a good 60%+ of my calls... any other suggestions?
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do u have a vpn active?
plus i dont think GPS has anything to do with "WIFI" calling.
as long as wifi is connected to a proper wifi network, that should be all you need.( other than if a VPN is activated or wifi network is congested/ to many AP ssids with overlapping channels, then it should work fine.)
I did before the hard reset (one-dot), I dont now. so it didn't seem to matter...
Ashton_Durkhun said:
First off, I can make outgoing calls 100% of the time, and never have any problem except a split-second delay (as expected with VOIP)
Receiving calls though......
First, wifi calling randomly turns off, with a note I find later about "wifi calling is not available at this location" ---- yes, I have poor reception, and I know wifi calling requires an always-active GPS signal so rain or clouds can kill it --- but it never turns back on once the storm/cloud/whatever is gone, it stays turned off until I manually turn it back on.
Second, even when it is turned on, I will randomly get no notification - no ring, no vibrate, the screen stays black, and no "miss call" notification, I just get told later that someone tried to call me and it went straight to voicemail.
Third, when it does register an incoming call, I will swipe to answer and the phone app will... kinda half-freeze... it acts like it's trying to answer the call, where the red end button appears, but all the other buttons are greyed out except message. It's in a strange limbo-like state of being answered and not... when this happens usually the other party will connect and can hear me, but whatever they say never reaches me.
Fourth, I answer the call, everything seems fine, I say hello and just hear my own voice echoing, and even though I answered the call, they never connect and end up on voicemail.
I know that WiFi calling is a "new technology" (even if we've been using VOIP for years....) and Sprint hasn't "ironed out the bugs" yet, but is there anything I can do to improve it?
I have tried doing a hard reset on the phone, updating PRL/settings/OS, changing the phone data mode from LTE to CDMA, sprint tech changed out my SIM card for a new one, airplane mode (which doesn't work because it turns off GPS)... none of it works and I still miss a good 60%+ of my calls... any other suggestions?
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Oh sprint. I always had network connectivity issues with them. I wouldn't be surprised if this is something that is wrong on sprints end
bober10113 said:
plus i dont think GPS has anything to do with "WIFI" calling.
as long as wifi is connected to a proper wifi network, that should be all you need.( other than if a VPN is activated or wifi network is congested/ to many AP ssids with overlapping channels, then it should work fine.)
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You have to have an active GPS signal for "e911 services" --- yes the app claims you can set your location manually, but doing so does nothing and as soon as my phone loses cell/GPS reception, wifi calling goes off and will NOT come back on till reception is restored (also I've used two of Sprints Femtocells and both of them required an active GPS for e911 so....)
Bober_is_a_troll said:
Oh sprint. I always had network connectivity issues with them. I wouldn't be surprised if this is something that is wrong on sprints end
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yeah.... since about the start of this year my LTE speeds have gone down (though only in actual use! --- run speedtest and magically I have like 50mbps, even though I can't watch youtube even at 144p without it buffering and asking my phone "Alexa Next Track" returns an error about connectivity) Also my reception in my home has gotten worse in the last couple months --- for the last 17.5 years I've been able to make/receive calls on sprint over normal cellular without issue as long as it wasn't raining (yes, I've been with Sprint for almost long enough to raise a child.... they started out as the best carrier in my area, believe it or not), but now even though my phone reports 2 bars (out of like 8 or 10), I recieve almost no calls, and drop outgoing ones very frequently unless I switch to WiFi Calling.
So... yeah... I figured it was actually bad implementation on either Samsung or Sprint's part, but I was hoping there was something I could do to improve it....
Ashton_Durkhun said:
You have to have an active GPS signal for "e911 services" --- yes the app claims you can set your location manually, but doing so does nothing and as soon as my phone loses cell/GPS reception, wifi calling goes off and will NOT come back on till reception is restored (also I've used two of Sprints Femtocells and both of them required an active GPS for e911 so....)
yeah.... since about the start of this year my LTE speeds have gone down (though only in actual use! --- run speedtest and magically I have like 50mbps, even though I can't watch youtube even at 144p without it buffering and asking my phone "Alexa Next Track" returns an error about connectivity) Also my reception in my home has gotten worse in the last couple months --- for the last 17.5 years I've been able to make/receive calls on sprint over normal cellular without issue as long as it wasn't raining (yes, I've been with Sprint for almost long enough to raise a child.... they started out as the best carrier in my area, believe it or not), but now even though my phone reports 2 bars (out of like 8 or 10), I recieve almost no calls, and drop outgoing ones very frequently unless I switch to WiFi Calling.
So... yeah... I figured it was actually bad implementation on either Samsung or Sprint's part, but I was hoping there was something I could do to improve it....
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Switch telco's... Sprint dropped the ball. They invested in. Winax , then LTE took off. They've been behind ever since