I changed from RW 5.0 to US Mobile in August, and after the initial set up stuff, things seemed to be working fine. (phone is Moto g Power 2022 purchased 11/2022 from RW).
I don’t get many voicemails so I never noticed this until yesterday. I don’t recall if this was an issue on RW.
I received a call and declined it (I was in a meeting).
I was sure the person would leave a VM, but there was no notification.
I went into my regular Phone app (it was on the phone, nothing I installed), and under the Voicemail tab, there was an error message that it couldn’t connect of my VM to call Verizon and give an error code. I didn’t think Verizon would recognize a US Mobile customer. (that error message is now gone after going through USMobile customer service/changes).
So I talked to USMobile customer service. After some settings changes and tests, etc., the resultting findings are that:
If I have WiFi on, I will not get a VM notification. And voicemails won’t show up in the regular Phone app if Wifi is on.
If I let the call go to VM without declining it, I’ll at least see the “missed call” notification, and I can check for VM.
If I turn the Wifi off, wait a bit, then back on, the notifications pop up!
There’s also a Phone/settings/notifications setting I have “on” – pop up when phone is unlocked, notifications will show up, so that works – when I restart, the notifications all pop up!
My phone can do Wifi calling – it is set to use Wifi Calling when cellular is not available.
Maybe this has been an ongoing problem that I never noticed because I don’t get tons of voicemails? ( I also found a VM that I never knew was there, from August!)
I don’t recall having this issue with RW.
The Visual Voicemail app on Android devices doesn’t work on Wi-Fi. It requires the mobile data network. Make sure Cellular Data is turned on in your device settings, and that you have a network connection. If you can’t access the Verizon network, you can still play and manage your (audio only) voicemail messages by phone:
From your mobile phone, call *86 to reach your voicemail.
From any other phone, call your own mobile number. When you hear your greeting, press # and follow the prompts.
Focusing on:
The Visual Voicemail app on Android devices doesn’t work on Wi-Fi. It requires the mobile data network.
My experience with Mobi (also Verizon network) service is merely being connected to WiFi does not cause visual voicemail to fail on my Google Pixel 6a. I don’t know which visual voicemail app Verizon is talking about but I’m using visual voicemail within Google’s Phone app (not a separate app).
What I’ve discovered is Verizon network visual voicemail on Android does seem to require a cellular data connection to Verizon’s network, however, that cellular data connection co-exists with WiFi being turned on and being connected to a WiFi network.
Thank you cbwahlstrom and rolandh – it makes sense. I wish US Mobile had told me this at the start of troubleshooting.
Anyway, I turned off the Visual Voicemail on the phone app (the one that came with the phone is the one I use). Now I get regular VM notifications and I can call in to hear the VM.
I can live with that – I don’t get tons of VM anyway.
The next time you’re in the market for a phone you might consider one of the big three brands. Apple, Google, and Samsung all do a good job of staying on top of the features implemented by the carriers and the phone operating system. The others seem to lack focus at staying up to date and fully implementing the features that make owning a phone as convenient as it could be.
I’m too frugal for Apple or Samsung. My first smartphone was a Google Nexus 5. I looked at Pixels back in 2018 and they seemed to be gigantic in size. But next time, I’ll look at their offerings. Thanks!