There is virtually no cell service here of any kind so we use wifi calling on our iPhones. It works well.

My wife and I are tending to her slightly mentally handicapped and illiterate sister here while she recoups form a fall. She has an Obama phone she uses to keep in touch with her 3 kids, some other relatives and friends. I no nothing about Android. I did find it is running Version 8.1 and I did manage to get it connected to my Wifi.

We can manage without it but if wifi calling an option in 8.1... and IF her cell provider provides the service we would like to activate it. I haven't found the option in the menus anywhere yet.

Thanks

Go into settings, then network & internet and the Wi-Fi option is there. Click on the button to the right and it should light up. After you do that click the line to get the Wi-Fi options.

Jim

I think you will have to call her carrier. With android, the carriers have their special touches to the OS which may or may not allow all of a phone's capabilities.

I have Verizon, my android phone supports WiFi calling, but because I didn't get my phone from Verizon, Verizon doesn't support WiFi calling with my phone. My wife's iPhone from Verizon does WiFi calling just fine though.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimbo54:
Go into settings, then network & internet and the Wi-Fi option is there. Click on the button to the right and it should light up. After you do that click the line to get the Wi-Fi options.

Jim

I'll look there... thanks

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
I think you will have to call her carrier.

Yea, she got the phone in the mail and I had never even heard of the provider. Guess I'll have to research some... thanks

So-called "Wi-Fi calling" is nothing more or less than VoIP (Voice over IP) (IP == Internet Protocol AKA TCP/IP) using the cell phone service provider's SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) server. There are at least dozens of VoIP clients for Android (I like Grandstream's soft phone) that will allow calling over an IP network connection (e.g. WiFi) with the SIP provider of your choice. There are hundreds or maybe even thousands of SIP providers with man many service plans. I like VoIP.ms as a provider, but a simple web search for "SIP provider" will reveal more options than you want to deal with.

Now I will be the first to admit that calling and receiving calls via VoIP is not the same user experience that you will see with native mobile service, but it is simple and straightforward enough that only the truly imbecilic cannot manage it.

Sorry for the acronym-heavy post, but a few minutes with a browser looking up the basic terms will go a long way in clearing up any ignorance.

You can skip all the WiFi calling stuff by just having her and those with whom she wishes to keep in contact all install Signal Private Messenger. With it you can text, do voice calls, and video calls, over WiFi or cellular connections. It's free, advert-free, tracking-free, and runs on just about everything.

Thanks guys but I think I'll give up on it for now. Decided she might just use Facebook Messenger but there seems to be an issue with her phone. Battery was at 5% when she got here so I plugged it up to charge and hours later it said 98%... OK, so I unplugged it and within a minute or so it dropped to 3%. There is another relative who has helped her with her phone in the past and I will enlist his help when he visits. Thanks again...

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
Thanks guys but I think I'll give up on it for now. Decided she might just use Facebook Messenger ...

Warning: In addition to the other ills of running them, Facebook and Facebook Messenger have often been terrible battery hogs.

quote:

Originally posted by cparktd:
... but there seems to be an issue with her phone. Battery ...

Hmmm... How old is this phone and how badly-abused has the battery been? ("Badly abused" = regularly running it way down and full-charging it.)

It sounds like the battery is toast, but, before making that assumption I'd at least reboot the phone. I'd also whack every program that's running in background beforehand.

I'll suggest again Signal Private Messenger. Among its other attributes (noted previously), I've never known it to be a battery hog.

WhatsApp. It’s an app. It uses wifi calling. It works well. I communicate with many friends all over the globe with it. Its free.

https://www.whatsapp.com/

quote:

Originally posted by Beancooker:
WhatsApp. It’s an app.

Owned by Facebook.