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Help Making wifi calls should be easy...

A

Allan Ramsay

Lurker
Samsung Galaxy Centura, my first Android phone, so I'm a newbie to Android. I bought this phone from Tracfone and expected that when I make calls from my home, which has a private wifi network, the calls would go out over Wifi. That's apparently not happening because any calls I make, even from home, are being billed against my 180 minutes per month. That makes me think the calls are going out over 3G.

Is there any way to force the phone to call over Wifi? Sure would be nice to get some free calls, because 180 minutes/month isn't much.

Thanks for any advice.
 
You're confusing web access with phone calling...

If you have wifi available, your web surfing will (hopefully) use the wifi for web access, vs. going via 3G.

Your phone calls will all go via 3G (or 1X, whatever) unless you install something that will expressly give you VOIP...similar to Vonage, for home phones.

I'm not familiar with VOIP for cells--hopefully someone else can jump in here.
 
Get the friends you call most to download WhatsApp from the Google Play Store and download it yourself. Gives you completely free wifi calls and texting, so long as both parties have the app; no muss, no fuss. While there, you will no doubt see other options. That's the only one I've used. Hangouts is another possibility, as is Google Voice.
 
Thank you both. I downloaded TalkaTone and use it for all my calls when I'm in a wifi zone. It works great and now 180 minutes for just $20 of 3G lasts me many months. This is as close to free calling as you can get.
 
Okay, then you can answer a question for me. I just downloaded Talkatone. What's with the call-out credits? How do you make calls? How do you get call credits?
 
Now this is why these forums are so good.

I still have my 1st smartphone, a Galaxy S Fascinate and it is still a good working phone.
Just been superseded by greater and better devices.

but, wouldn't it be great to be able to use it as a backup phone w/o having to pay for another line?

Just talked to Verizon and they are emailing me a procedure to avoid the phone going thru the Registration process. I told them what I wanted, just "WiFi" only capability.... the nice lady said "sure, I can help you with that"

awesome

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.talkatone.android
____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, 1 ea. HTC One M9, 1 ea. VZW MiFi
 
gentlemanjim said:
Okay, then you can answer a question for me. I just downloaded Talkatone. What's with the call-out credits? How do you make calls? How do you get call credits?
Click to expand...
That's a very good question, and a mystery to me! I have been using TalkaTone on this Samsung phone for almost 4 months and have never spent a penny or been asked to buy credits. Before that I used it for over a year on an iPod Touch and never paid for that either. I'd say go for it and hope you get the same results. You will get a new phone number from TalkaTone when you setup the app.
 
Hmmm. Maybe I'll give it a shot and see. According to the docs, Talkatone charges for calling out (incoming calls are free) but their rates are much lower than Tracfone, etc.
 
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