SMS over Wifi Calling

[Chris_K]

Hey everyone. I have some fantastic news to share on a network functionality customers have been asking about for a while. We’re excited to confirm that we’re now expanding the Wifi Calling capability to also work with SMS. This means customers who are using Wifi Calling will also be able to send and receive text messages over a wifi network if they are using a compatible device.

What devices and when?
The service launched on select handsets on 10th January 2022 and we’ve been monitoring the stability first before announcing it here on the Community. Right now the service is only available on the Samsung Galaxy S20 family – the regular S20, S20 Plus and S20 Ultra.

We will be rolling out capability to more handsets but cannot confirm exact dates at this time.

How do I activate the feature?
Customers with a compatible device will need to have the Wifi and 4G Calling service provisioned on their account and will need to update their device to the latest software version.

Note that the update for the S20 family of devices will come in the form of a ‘System configuration update’. Your device will notify you when the update is available, and you will be asked to apply the update. The device will then restart, and the update will be applied. At this point, SMS over Wifi Calling should now work as expected.

Why can’t all current Wifi Calling handsets support SMS over Wifi Calling?
Each device that supports Wifi Calling today will need to receive a software update in order for SMS over Wifi Calling to work. There are some handsets we support today that are now too old to receive software updates and therefor will not become compatible with SMS over Wifi Calling. Newer devices will receive updates, but it will take time for the manufacturers to develop and release the software, for which we have no further details or ETA – but we’ll continue to work closely with manufacturers to help implement this.

I’ll update this thread as and when new devices become compatible with SMS over Wifi Calling.

[pgn]

I don't see that model on the O2 Voice over WiFi support pages yet, @DrJase 

https://www.o2.co.uk/help/network-coverage-and-international/wifi-and-4g-calling

Bear in mind this service is also only available to Pay Monthly or Business Customers of O2.

If you ask O2 via Social Media, links below this post, they may be able to tell you how far away that model is from appearing on the O2 Supported Models list.

SMS over WiFi is still in its infancy on O2, not sure if it is widely available, by phone or by reach of O2's network, just yet.

Good luck, @DrJase.

[DrJase]

Hi @pgn, 

I've been an O2 customer (contract) for over 25 years, back in the days of analogue mobiles and when O2 was Cellnet.

I find it somewhat silly that O2 should release a new phone without the"latest" technology like VoWiFi and SMSoWiFi only to add these retrospectively.

It's ironic that Sky Mobile - who use the O2 network as a virtual mobile service - offer the S22 Ultra *with* VoWiFi....

I think that O2 have been a little lax with VoWiFi & SMSoWiFi compared to the rwo other major networks. They should have kept TuGo running until they were able to roll out VoWiFi & SMSoWiFi properly... 

[madasaf1sh]

I think it does support VoWifi, have you tried setting it up on the device, as my Xperia Pro-I and Cosmo Communicator are both not on the list, but both work. 

To be honest the S22 like the Pixel 6 is a bug ridden cesspit of a handset

SMSoWiFi, I will say is again is a lemon, it is as flakey as hell, having tested it on various UK and Global networks

[RogerW]

Is the Iphone 13 mini supported for SMS or not?

O2 live chat advisors insist that it is.

Austin (17:41:06)
Apple iPhone 13 mini is compatible to make/receive calls, send/receive SMS and also with WIFI Calling. If you don't have
network you can send/receive SMS on WIFI.
Roger (17:43:35)
why is there contradicting information on your website?
Austin (17:45:32)
I am sorry but even if you check the features of Apple iPhone 13 mini on the Apple website you'll see it does support WIFI
Calling. And just to inform on the website (the link which you've shared) they have just mentioned about Samsung
Devices, as most Android users only ask about WIFI Calling.

[MI5]

wifi calling but not sms via wifi yet. Only iMessage.

[DrJase]

It has been over 2 months since the first 3 handsets were given SMSoWiFi access - have anymore been added? 

Is there any further news regarding the rollout of SMSoWiFi? 

[BrianMattey]

iPhone 8 Plus user here - was enabled for me via carrier update last week - and confirmed as working.

[Dave-O]

I am the user of an iPhone SE (Mk 1). Thanks to the post by BrianMattey, I was prompted to check if SMSoWiFi was working for me and was surprised to find that it is!

Unlike BrianMattey, I did not receive any notification of a Carrier Settings update on the phone – most of the info I could find suggests that you should get a pop-up asking your permission to install an update – so I am guessing that any Carrier Settings update may have been installed as part of the recent iOS update to version 15.4.1.

If I navigate to Settings > General > About and scroll down to “Network Provider”, it shows the information “O2 50.0”.  If I then tap on “Network Provider”, it toggles to show “IMS Status      Voice & SMS”.  Unfortunately, I have no record of what these entries may have shown before finding SMSoWiFi to be working.

[Ken7]

Chris, 

When will iphones be able to send and receive SMS text by wi-fi calling.

When I changed to O2 I wasn't informed that it was the only provider who doesn't support SMS on wi-fi calling. To be honest I probably would not have changed to O2 if I had known this. It feels a bit like mis-selling. 

Thanks

Ken 

[mundge]

Works as of this morning, iPhone 12 Pro 

network O2 Wi-Fi calling

 network provider 02 50.0