Found a Pixel 9 PRO disappointment (lack of a feature)

[Hardhat Harry]

Wife and I occasionally are in a building that has no interior cell coverage but had guest wifi coverage. Our previous Android phones had a Wi-Fi calling toggle, which made it easy to turn on Wi-Fi calling so we could communicate inside. Pixel makes it difficult, using a 9 step process.

1 . Wi-Fi turned on
2. Settings
3. Navigate to Network & Internet
4. Select SIMS
5. Tap name of SIM
6. Select Wi-Fi Calling
7. Tap the Use Wi-Fi Calling switch to turn it on
8. Review and accept Terms and conditions
9. (Possibly) Enter valid E911 address.

If you have discovered an easier way, please post your way here, we would appreciate it.

 

[belodion]

Have you tried using Google Assistant?

 

[Ben_70]

Why do you turn off wi-fi calling? I just leave mine on all the time.
I went through those steps once and once only.

 

[BerryBubbles]

Wow , that is a lot of steps.

 

[SeeBeeEss]

9 steps? Sounds like a recovery program and I submit that step 1 should actually be admitting that you are powerless over Google.

 

[Hardhat Harry]

Have you tried using Google Assistant?

No, I have not.

 

[Hardhat Harry]

Holy Carp, I just used Gemini AI to turn on Wi-Fi calling and it worked. Also turned off Wi-Fi calling. Learn something new every day!

 

[Beachboy63]

Another method: open settings and search "wifi" and then scroll down and you will see the setting for Wi-Fi calling. Then just tap and hit the toggle on it off.

 

[Bkdodger1]

Yep you can just go to the top of the settings too and just voice say Wi-Fi calling

 

[PGrey]

Why do you turn off wi-fi calling? I just leave mine on all the time.
I went through those steps once and once only.

Exactly. I wonder too, is this a work/security issue, or ?
WiFi calling is not only a bailout these days, but a solid way to make calls, the roaming between APs or radios (to cell and/or back) is VERY stable.

 

[jbjtkbw007]

It's amazing what you can do with Google Assistant.

I will say there are times that I turn off Wi-Fi calling because while I don't know how it sounds on the other end, in my ear, it can get annoying and the sound can be sharp and piercing, so I end up shutting it off sometimes during a call.

 

[0078265317]

Wifi Calling - Apps on Google Play

To check and enable the hidden Wifi Calling (VoWifi) function

play.google.com

I installed this. Then just put app on my main display area page and then open it and hit settings.

 

[PGrey]

It's amazing what you can do with Google Assistant.

I will say there are times that I turn off Wi-Fi calling because while I don't know how it sounds on the other end, in my ear, it can get annoying and the sound can be sharp and piercing, so I end up shutting it off sometimes during a call.

It's ALL digital though, VoLTE is ALL the same bits. I'm not sure I quite get this, unless you're on a 2G/3G network somewhere and back on analog, for your cell-based calls?
I would bet on average VoWiFi is higher quality, given that mobile signal will vary, and occasionally it'll have to reduce the bitrate, for those low throughput periods.

No question on Google Assistant, it can do a LOT, handily, along with voice-to-text...

 

[jbjtkbw007]

It's ALL digital though, VoLTE is ALL the same bits. I'm not sure I quite get this, unless you're on a 2G/3G network somewhere and back on analog, for your cell-based calls?
I would bet on average VoWiFi is higher quality, given that mobile signal will vary, and occasionally it'll have to reduce the bitrate, for those low throughput periods.

No question on Google Assistant, it can do a LOT, handily, along with voice-to-text...

Oh I know it's digital, but I mean vs a call sounded staticy in quality, these calls have a digital corruption to them where it sounds like you're messing around with digital audio trying to get the levels right. Does that make sense? It constantly changes levels and is sometimes high pitched, squeaky, or goes low and muffled. It only happens in my house and I don't notice it anywhere else.

To make it worse, I use Spectrum Mobile, which runs on Verizon and my home ISP is......wait for it.......Spectrum.

 

[PGrey]

Oh I know it's digital, but I mean vs a call sounded staticy in quality, these calls have a digital corruption to them where it sounds like you're messing around with digital audio trying to get the levels right. Does that make sense? It constantly changes levels and is sometimes high pitched, squeaky, or goes low and muffled. It only happens in my house and I don't notice it anywhere else.

To make it worse, I use Spectrum Mobile, which runs on Verizon and my home ISP is......wait for it.......Spectrum.

Have you tried testing your jitter, under load, from BOTH a wired and wireless connection(s)?
I'd test both your ISP's perf, and your mobile provider's perf, separately (disable one, test, re-enable, disable the other, test again).
Then, I'd do it again, using something like the Waveform bufferbloat test, again testing each discretely.
If you've got a lot of bufferbloat you might want to connect directly to the modem (when you can take the router offline), or possibly your ONT, if fiber, and run the bufferbloat test again.
If it's good, you have your answer. If not, hmm, well, do you have another ISP around?

In the vast majority of cases, your jitter and bufferbloat should be a lot better via your ISP connection, assuming your routing equipment is solid.

 

[jbjtkbw007]

Have you tried testing your jitter, under load, from BOTH a wired and wireless connection(s)?
I'd test both your ISP's perf, and your mobile provider's perf, separately (disable one, test, re-enable, disable the other, test again).
Then, I'd do it again, using something like the Waveform bufferbloat test, again testing each discretely.
If you've got a lot of bufferbloat you might want to connect directly to the modem (when you can take the router offline), or possibly your ONT, if fiber, and run the bufferbloat test again.
If it's good, you have your answer. If not, hmm, well, do you have another ISP around?

In the vast majority of cases, your jitter and bufferbloat should be a lot better via your ISP connection, assuming your routing equipment is solid.

That's a lot. I guess I'm not that vested and turning it off is so much easier. Plus, I've had this happen on different phones and different ISP's over the years. If it was a deal breaker, then maybe I'd go down the rabbit hole, but I'm not rural and don't rely on it, so I can live.

 

[Grabber5.0]

Why do you turn off wi-fi calling? I just leave mine on all the time.
I went through those steps once and once only.

There was a time when Wi-Fi calling was not reliable or the best quality. After some problems years ago I turned it off and never turned it back on. It was automatically turned on when I got my last Pixel, and so far it's been fine. But I'm watching it..

 

[PGrey]

There was a time when Wi-Fi calling was not reliable or the best quality. After some problems years ago I turned it off and never turned it back on. It was automatically turned on when I got my last Pixel, and so far it's been fine. But I'm watching it..

This has to do with the data stream quality, typically jitter. If your jitter values are high, you get all kinds of cut-outs and such.
I wrote some audio tests for USB (before USB audio was quite so popular), years ago, and this was the biggest problem, if the chipset/drivers for the USB 1.x/2.x ports were not great at handling interrupts, there were all kinds of issues, for the same reason. Audio is VERY latency sensitive, when you're doing digital <-> audio <-> digital, all sorts of latency at ANY point in the data path will hose things. Most higher-end networking gear, that's known to have solid audio support, has dedicated modes (and h/w in some cases) that are VERY well tested, for this exact reason.
In terms of mobile vs. WiFi data streams though, these days I'd choose WiFi pretty much any day, given that the fiber backhaul (default low latency unless poorly implemented) is almost always at least 1 route/hop closer, than the mobile (backhaul).