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.

[Cleoriff]

Great news @Chris_K . Hopefully more devices will have this feature enabled pretty quickly. 👍

[Luke30]

@Chris_K do you know if is available to use sms on WiFi calling as my device is Samsung galaxy A20e?

[MI5]

@Luke30 

Those marked with an asterix here. 

• Samsung Galaxy A12, Galaxy S20 FE, Galaxy A42, Galaxy S21 Ultra, Galaxy S21+, Galaxy S21, Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G, Galaxy Note20 5G, Galaxy Note20 4G, Galaxy Z Flip 5G, Galaxy Z Fold2 5G, Xcover Pro, A21s, A41, A51, A51 5G, A71, S10 Lite, Galaxy Fold 5G, Galaxy Z Flip, S20*, S20 Plus*, S20 Ultra*, S10 5G, Note10, Note10 Plus 5G, S10, S10e, S10 Plus, S9, S9 Plus, S8, S8 Plus, Note8, S7, S7 edge and J3 2017, A10, A20e, A50, A70, A8, A3 2017, A6, J6, J5 (2017), A5 (2017), Note9, A7, J6+, J4+, A9, A90 5G, A40, Xcover 4S,AO2, A52 5G, A42 5G, Xcover Pro

[madasaf1sh]

Seems a bit odd to just release on 3 handsets.... 

But good to see progress albeit very slow progress.... 

[Chris_K]

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@Luke30 wrote:

@Chris_K do you know if is available to use sms on WiFi calling as my device is Samsung galaxy A20e?

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Hi Luke, in terms of just Wifi Calling, the A20e is compatible, but it isn't currently compatible with the SMS over Wifi Calling functionality - as mentioned above this is launching initially on the S20 devices. The functionality will get rolled out to other devices in the future, but we've no further details just yet around which ones and when.

Keep an eye on this thread for any future updates RE: new devices being added.

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@madasaf1sh wrote:

Seems a bit odd to just release on 3 handsets.... 

But good to see progress albeit very slow progress.... 

---

This is just the initial launch and by focusing on a small selection to begin with, it's allowing us to test and monitor the performance to ensure it's all working as expected and providing an optimal experience. Because software changes are needed per device to make it compatible, this isn't an easy or quick task and as you can imagine, it's not something we can really affect since it's not us making the software.

We're working closely with our vendors to make this happen on additional devices but exactly which, and when, I'm unable to share just yet - but i'll update this thread as and when there's any changes.

[Spenny]

nice to see that this is coming. Does make me think about how much I use SMS vs WhatsApp type messaging apps when I only have wifi.  A good addition though.

[gmarkj]

Let's just hope it takes less time to get this rolled out to more devices than it did to arrive...

[Luke30]

Oh OK thanks for the help on what I asked @MI5

[MI5]

You're welcome @Luke30