PSA for AT&T Pixel 2 Owners

tpero

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I just received confirmation that HD Voice and Wifi Calling have been added to my line. I reached out to the AT&T social media team on twitter via DM and asked them why they were blocking these features for Pixel users, and that I was thinking of switching me and my wife to Verizon to take advantage of them.

They actually called me and explained that the Pixel 2 is approved for advanced calling features, but that the original Pixel is not. So they filed a system override request to add advanced LTE features to my line. My wife is on the original pixel, and the agent requested the override for her line too, but he said it probably won't work. So far, the confirmation I received is for my line only, not hers. The agent said it could take up to 15 days to take effect, but I'm not clear if that's for getting the approval or for me actually seeing the change. So far, I don't see any new settings or changes to the network status bar indicator, so fingers crossed.

Anyway, thought there may be some interest in this bit of news.
 

Lilybell2

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It will be interesting to see if your line will actually be permitted to use these features. Either way, please update this topic.
 

tpero

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The way it was explained to me was that the system override would basically tell the network that my phone can use those features. I believe the 15 day timeline refers to the time it will take the network to recognize that override, hence why it doesn't look like they have appeared yet. Will update in two weeks...
 

Im Broken

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Whoa. This would be huge for me. my place of work has 0.0% cell signal and I rely on wifi calling. I was even jerking around with my old GV number getting it in hangouts just in case I do pull the trigger on a pixel 2 but but maybe I won't have to bother.
 

shafty023

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I just called at&t and the customer service rep updated my IMEI for advanced features and enabled WiFi calling, volte, etc. All I have to do is power down and I'm good to go on my pixel 2 xl
 

schulzjt

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I did the same, however there is no setting for wifi calling on the phone that I can find, even after power cycling twice.
 

Almeuit

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I did the same, however there is no setting for wifi calling on the phone that I can find, even after power cycling twice.
I'm on Verizon and I can find it in the phone app. See if it's the same for you.

Open the phone app, tap the 3 dots at the top right, settings, calls, and the option should be there.
b8a42242e909057effc4eaa54d8f4f1b.jpg
 

schulzjt

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I'm on Verizon and I can find it in the phone app. See if it's the same for you.

Open the phone app, tap the 3 dots at the top right, settings, calls, and the option should be there. //uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171026/b8a42242e909057effc4eaa54d8f4f1b.jpg

I did check in that spot, also called google, they are investigating. HOWEVER, to my surprise, the AT&T rep that I spoke to earlier just called me back and gave me the bad news that she did some research and found that without an AT&T branded phone, wifi calling will NOT work. UGH!
 

Almeuit

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I did check in that spot, also called google, they are investigating. HOWEVER, to my surprise, the AT&T rep that I spoke to earlier just called me back and gave me the bad news that she did some research and found that without an AT&T branded phone, wifi calling will NOT work. UGH!

Yeah that is what I thought. That is why I don't trust what reps say. Normally AT&T won't give it without an AT&T branded phone. No HD Voice, VoLTE, or WiFi calling. They could do it .. they just don't for some reason.
 

Lilybell2

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Yeah that is what I thought. That is why I don't trust what reps say. Normally AT&T won't give it without an AT&T branded phone. No HD Voice, VoLTE, or WiFi calling. They could do it .. they just don't for some reason.

Exactly. It has been AT&T's long-term policy to reserve such "advanced" features for AT&T branded devices only, with the lone exception being iPhones, no doubt due to Apple's considerable market clout. There have been instances where someone has managed to get these services turned on temporarily due to a mistake by someone on AT&T's end, but the mistake has always been discovered and reversed.
 

Almeuit

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Exactly. It has been AT&T's long-term policy to reserve such "advanced" features for AT&T branded devices only, with the lone exception being iPhones, no doubt due to Apple's considerable market clout. There have been instances where someone has managed to get these services turned on temporarily due to a mistake by someone on AT&T's end, but the mistake has always been discovered and reversed.

Yeah that is one thing I don't like about AT&T. They have some good things about them but then some bad things such as this. T-Mobile allows all unlocked without an issue so no excuse for AT&T to sit and act as if their stuff is special :(.
 

tpero

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I did check in that spot, also called google, they are investigating. HOWEVER, to my surprise, the AT&T rep that I spoke to earlier just called me back and gave me the bad news that she did some research and found that without an AT&T branded phone, wifi calling will NOT work. UGH!

Well that's disheartening. Exact opposite of what my rep said. Go figure. I'll give it the full two weeks he said it might take to see if I get it. If not, might have to double-down on the threat. I have the extension of the rep I spoke with so he will be getting a call if this doesn't work and he'll get one more chance to make it work before I walk.
 

Almeuit

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Well that's disheartening. Exact opposite of what my rep said. Go figure. I'll give it the full two weeks he said it might take to see if I get it. If not, might have to double-down on the threat. I have the extension of the rep I spoke with so he will be getting a call if this doesn't work and he'll get one more chance to make it work before I walk.

Good luck. I doubt he is going to be able to pull it off though. AT&T wants people buying their devices.
 

Law2138

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Like another mentioned, my place of work also lacks too much signal to go without WiFi calling. Cost of the device, combined with lack of features on AT&T are holding me back. I can't even rock the OG Pixel on AT&T.

This makes me want to switch to Net10, TMobile, or Project Fi.
 

davidnc

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The fact I did not have HD Voice and Wifi Calling were a couple of the reasons I recently( Oct 23,2017) moved my second line off of AT&T.
I use to have two lines on AT&T until I got tired of the fact they treat unbranded phones differently.

The last time I chatted in their forums about it this past summer . They showed no interest in changing their outdated ways.
They actually said if I dont like it to leave ..... So I did

I dont trust the Reps,, oh well Im 100% on T-mobile now.

They dont discriminate , if its a branded phone or not :)
 

rickms80

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It's because of this that I've been seriously considering leaving AT&T. The only reason I'm hooked is because of corporate discounts through my employer. I would like to say that AT&T has given some enhanced features to unlocked phones in the past. This would be the unlocked variants of the HTC A9, 10, and the Essential phone. They were given VoLTE but nothing else. Even with VoLTE, I wonder what HTC and Essential did to get AT&T to allow their phones to use it and why google is unwilling to go there with the Pixel.
 

Almeuit

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Even with VoLTE, I wonder what HTC and Essential did to get AT&T to allow their phones to use it and why google is unwilling to go there with the Pixel.

Well if we assume it is Google not pushing the matter I would say they probably didn't want to push it for two reasons. One -- Verizon is their carrier partner.

Two -- Android has all the features built into it & the network just has to allow it like T-Mobile does. They probably feel they shouldn't have to go through hoops since AT&T wants to be difficult.