As the name suggests, VoLTE (also known as '4G Calling') happens when your carrier allows you to place a phone call over your LTE connection instead of the older legacy voice networks. Thanks to VoLTE, both network types are now able to use more bandwidth to make phone calls with higher quality audio travelling both ways. When you’re on a call with someone else who’s using VoLTE, you’ll immediately notice the difference in call quality on both ends. You'll also notice calls connect faster if you’re calling someone near you, and while that's not a feature worth bragging about, it's a cool thing to test for yourself.
Who can use VoLTE
Every major carrier supports VoLTE, and pretty much any new phone you buy today should support it, so long as it is 4G and 5G enabled. A few things need to go right for VoLTE to take effect, including having a good enough LTE connection on a tower that supports VoLTE. You'll also need a device that supports VoLTE. This is something that will need to be confirmed on each device on each carrier, but most phones released in the past couple of years should be onboard.
On an iPhone, the setting is a toggle in the main settings under Cellular, then Cellular Data Options. You might notice that when you change this selection, the network indicator on the phone resets. On most newer Android phones, the option will be in the Connections category in the phone's settings.
How to enable VoLTE on iOS
How to enable VoLTE on Android
The benefits of VoLTE
Unlike traditional voice calls using 2G or 3G connections that are circuit based, VoLTE uses an LTE (4G) connection and an IP packet-switching technology. This allows higher quality voice calls and low latency, resulting in faster call setup times. VoLTE also doesn’t form part of your data bundle so it won’t come out of your monthly data allocation. Rather, this service is part of your voice minutes.
