ReplacableDomino i am wondering if graphene removes that software lock
No, if you use your Pixel in an unsupported country, your Pixel does not support VoLTE with or without Graphene out-of-the-box. However, there is a root-less Pixel VoLTE Patch that enables VoLTE by overriding a configuration flag that also works great on GrapheneOS:
enabling VoLTE support on select Google Pixel devices by using Android's internal telephony.ICarrierConfigLoader.overrideConfig()
. This patch can be considered as a rootless method of voenabler
You may also have to go back-and-forth with your carrier to get them to update their back-end settings on how they should treat and route the connections to and from your phone before everything works. I had to get my Pixel8's OMD type set as PTA-VOLTE_EPS
on my network provider's servers before my IMS status got updated, but I'm not sure if this is a required step for all unsupported countries.
One thing to note is that you have to run this patch after every software update. So, after today's update to build 2024052100
, I need to run the patch again. But once you get used to it, the patching process takes less than 3 minutes, and the major time comes from waiting for the phone to restart after the patch. The patch itself takes less than 30 seconds if you know what you're doing.
I can't speak to 5G as I don't have a 5G plan and am in no rush to get one due to increased privacy risks of 5G networks (source), but I heard it's possible from others in my country's Pixel community.
ReplacableDomino s the lack of VoLTE a big deal breaker during your daily usage?
Not having VoLTE is quite inconvenient for me in my country, as voice calls are practically unusable without it. During voice calls, the network drops from LTE to 3G, the call quality is absolutely horrendous, and reception is almost non-existent when underground. Also, even with VoLTE enabled via the patch, I have to worry about call compatibility, as the patched VoLTE sometimes doesn't work depending on the network carrier of the person on the other side of the voice call. Different network providers have different VoLTE compatibility levels, and the standby drain also gets impacted depending on the network provider.
Despite all this, I still love my Pixel because it allows me to use Graphene, which has quickly become my favorite toolkit in my privacy setup.