Wi-Fi calling toggle disabled in aeroplane mode (?)

Xenicus

One of my concerns is that smartphones in general are a 'location privacy' nightmare, in the sense that they tend to reveal one's physical location 24/7. To mitigate this in relation to cellular networks, I use GrapheneOS in aeroplane mode almost exclusively, while I primarily rely on Signal over Wi-Fi (behind a VPN) for calls and messages. However, though Signal has become more mainstream over time, I occasionally still need to make/receive legacy phonecalls, for which I would like to rely on Wi-Fi calling, but only at, say, "non-sensitive" locations. E.g. since my carrier already knows my home address, there seems little point in trying to hide my home-tied fixed IP from them; so I consider Wi-Fi calling from home acceptable. This means that, at home, I have GrapheneOS's Wi-Fi calling option turned on for my SIM. When I leave the house, Wi-Fi on the phone is automatically disabled to prevent tracking while I'm on the go.

A problem that I ran into is that I might visit a "sensitive location" at which I would like to use public Wi-Fi. When I would connect to that Wi-Fi network (using a VPN), my phone would instantly connect to my carrier's wi-fi calling servers (bypassing the VPN), and so effectively reveal my location to my carrier. To avoid this, I would like to turn off Wi-Fi calling before connecting to Wi-Fi. Yet, it seems this is only possible after first disabling aeroplane mode, because as long as I am in aeroplane mode, the Wi-Fi calling setting in GrapheneOS is inaccessible. But disabling aeroplane mode (to disable Wi-Fi calling) would also put me on the map due to the instant connection to the cellular network.

The question is, therefore: would it not make sense to leave the Wi-Fi calling toggle accessible when in aeroplane mode? Or is there an underlying technical issue that prevents this?

userofgos

Xenicus are you using a physical SIM card? If so, you could just insert it when ever you are at home, and then remove it when you leave home.

prompter

Xenicus

while in airplane mode, open the phone app, go to settings, tap on calling accounts and choose the sim, there you'll find all the sim settings including those for WiFi calling.

Xenicus

userofgos I'm using an eSIM. But it would also be a bit an ongoing hassle...making me feel - and look - rather paranoid.

I think the functionality I'm looking for should be easy to achieve; it's basically a Wi-Fi only device (no cellular), and Wi-Fi calling enabled on selected Wi-Fi networks only. I don't really mind having to manually toggle a software switch every now and then, so Fay's suggestion is totally fine for me. Yet it would seem that, in an ideal world, even manual toggling might largely be avoided by having a per-Wi-Fi-network Wi-Fi calling setting/toggle.

Fay_Wilmont

The greater issue here is the lack of a dedicated cellular radio toggle on smartphones, which probably stems from the fact our multifunctional pocket computers evolved from dedicated cellular phones, which you simply powered down when you wanted to disconnect them.

You're using airplane mode to toggle your cellular radio (as am I) because that is the only way to disconnect from the cellular network, but it's essentially a workaround. I'm not even sure why we still have airplane mode in 2025, I don't think it's a requirement on airplanes these days?

I found an issue on the topic on GrapheneOS' issue tracker proposing what I've wanted for mobile OSes for a long time:

Remove Airplane mode and add a toggle for cellular communication

Wherein thestinger (GrapheneOS dev) says:

It's designed in a stupid way for historical reasons. There should really be a separate toggle for cellular and then airplane mode could be a way to force off every radio or just not exist because it's not really a thing that's needed on airplanes and if it was they'd be screwed since people don't turn it on.

But they're not willing to change the design of Android:

No, we aren't going to do that, I'm just saying that's how we would have designed it. We aren't changing the design.

I'm not sure if there are good reasons for making SIM and thus Wi-Fi calling settings inaccessible while in airplane mode. It has annoyed me in the past. Want to know how much data you have used before turning off airplane mode and possibly using more data? You can't! *screams in frustation*

Anyway, actually you can. You need to have a way to launch a specific activity. Some launchers, like Nova Launcher, offer this functionality through a widget or custom shortcut setting. Some package managers can do it too, and there's dedicated activity launcher apps. Once you've found the method you want to use, open com.android.settings.Settings$WifiCallingSettingsActivity with it, and you'll be able to toggle Wi-Fi calling regardless of the airplane mode setting.

Xenicus

Fay_Wilmont Thanks a lot for your response! I'm gonna try this. It likely solves my issue, despite it being a workaound.

MineralWater

You could use a small (or normal sized one) tablet without sim functionality and use a VoIP service provider for calls (maybe together with a Bluetooth headset).

Using your mobile network provider WiFi call feature will only work together with a SIM, but there should be providers for VoIP telephony, depending on the country you live in.

You could transfer your mobile connection number to this voip provider, at least in my country you can transfer numbers you own to other Providers easily within a week.

So anyone who has your number could still reach you there if that was needed in your case.
I mean if you take a 7 inch tablet, it's not so far away from the average 6 inch phones of today and should be lightweight enough to be carried around in a bag or something.

Xenicus

prompter Awesome! Thank you. - I'm new to Android/GrapheneOS, and I imagine it would have taken me years to discover this, if ever.

Since the setting is rather buried, I'll explore @Fay_Wilmont's solution too, to see if I can lift te toggle to the homescreen. But until I have that figured out, this is a working solution.

Fay_Wilmont

prompter O, that's awesome, I didn't know about this, thanks!