Category: Project Fi

For subscribers to Project Fi, there is a new version of the app for Android available.  The update is version G.1.7.12 for those keeping score at home and while it brings some bug fixes and stability improvements, it also adds a key feature:  Notifications of service outages.

I have been using Project Fi on my Nexus 6 for a couple of months now and while I have not been impacted by an outage, there have been issues in the past like any other carrier (especially a new one like Fi).  To this point, in order to find out about an issue, you can to email, call or chat with the Fi team which can be a bit more time consuming.  Now that requirement is gone as you will get notifications of any outages right within the app.

If you are curious about Project Fi, you can read my review of the service to see what my experience has been like with it.

One of the big misconceptions about Project Fi is that you are absolutely required to use Google Hangouts for your SMS/MMS and Instant Messaging app.  Here is a quote from a post I made a couple of weeks ago on the subject:  If you are a new Project Fi users, chances are you are a bit confused.  That confusion surrounds SMS and which app you can use for getting your text messages on your Nexus phone using Fi.  On the surface, it looks like you are required to use Google Hangouts, the voice, video and yes, text messaging integrated app.  But that not necessarily true and in fact, even Google suggests that you use Google Messenger, the default SMS app on Nexus devices, for texting.

That said, for those of us on Project Fi, there are some benefits to having everything in one app like Hangouts.  Not only does it give you one app to go to for your communications, the information synchronizes with Hangouts on your PC.  That means you can get your messages and your texts on your desktop, read them and reply to them.  If you haven’t considered moving your SMS/MMS communication to Hangouts, read this article and see if it is right for you.  A lot of it will depend on how you communicate and with whom.  But after being an avid Messenger user for most of 2015, when I switched to Project Fi, I embraced Hangouts and haven’t looked back.

Last week I posted my review of Project Fi, Google’s MVNO service that I have been using with my Nexus 6 the past two months.  If you haven’t had a chance to read the review yet, you can do so here.  The bottom line is I’m quite pleased with the service and don’t see myself switching to a traditional carrier any time soon.

One aspect of my review mentioned but didn’t cover in detail the Open Wi-Fi concept.  For those of you who read my Project Fi review, this seems to be one of the question marks still in the air based on your emails and comments so I thought I would address it in a separate post.  Ultimately this Open Wi-Fi solution is a key part of Fi and to get the full advantages of the service, you need to be able to leverage it when it is available to you.

What is Open Wi-Fi in Project Fi

By definition, Open Wi-Fi is exactly how what it sounds like when you read it.  It is open wireless networks that your Project Fi enabled phone can access automatically through the use of the Wi-Fi Assistant that is built into Nexus devices running Android Lollipop or Android Marshmallow.  Google has certified that these networks are open, fast and reliable so you should have no problem performing calls on Wi-Fi and of course can easily consume data for surfing, email and the like.

To get this to work, you have to have to have enabled Wi-FI Assistant on your device.  Without it, the game stops right here.   To enable it, you need to go to your Google Settings.  You can either access this via the Google Settings app or, if you are running Android Marshmallow, you can access it by going to Settings>Google>Networking.  From there, make sure that you have enabled “Use open Wi-Fi automatically”.

I have been an AT&T customer since 1997.  The only time I wasn’t actively using a mobile device on AT&T was when I lived in England and even then I kept my account so when I did move back I would be able to get a SIM and up and going within minutes.  When the opportunity came up to review Project Fi, I was unsure because after such a long time with one carrier, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to bother with the messiness of switching.  So I met the review halfway.  I kept my old number on AT&T and when I set up Project Fi on my Nexus 6, I requested a new number.  The thought was, if things went pear shaped, I could simply shut off the Fi service and nobody would be the wiser (as I had just forwarded my old AT&T number to my new Fi number).

I will be cancelling my AT&T service at the end of this month.

After using Project Fi for the past month, in multiple locations throughout the United States, I have been so overwhelmingly pleased with the service and quality of data throughput that I will not be looking back.  Indeed in some locations, I have had virtually no signal on AT&T while I have had 3G coverage with Fi.  Add to that a powerful and informative dedicated app along with a pricing model that just makes sense, you have what I think is the model that should be scaring the poop out of the major carriers.

What Is Project Fi?

I’ll start by giving everyone a little bit of background on Project Fi, a side project that Google started last year.  It is what is known as a Mobile Network Virtual Operator, or MNVO. Google doesn’t actually own the cell towers or physical equipment. Instead, they purchase service from an established carrier and rebrand it.  In the case of Google, the bought service from both T-Mobile and Sprint, assuring that they would have coverage for their customers.  This is not a new concept here in the United States or in Europe but what makes Project Fi unique is how Google has gone about doing this with the Nexus 6, Nexus 5X and Nexus 6P.

In those three devices, Google has built in the ability to switch between the T-Mobile GSM network and the Sprint Spark (CDMA) network on-the-fly.  Which ever has the stronger signal in the area you are in at the time wins.  Doing this is nothing short of engineering gymnastics. To get a device to switch antennas and carrier modes actively is extremely difficult.  Then Google went one step further.  In the Nexus devices it will switch between these two carriers and Wi-Fi.  So now if you have strong, good quality Wi-Fi it will leverage that for your calls and if that signal starts to drop, it will seamlessly hand the call of to one of the carriers so you don’t lose the call.  You, as a user, don’t have to do anything to make this happen.

This monumental engineering effort is why you don’t see a generic Project Fi SIM for every device.  To really take advantage of the service, you have to have the multiple array of antennas in the device and the software engineered for the handoffs between the carriers and Wi-Fi.  That is no small feat.  You can also see where there is a lot that could go wrong with this process and user experience and call quality would suffer.  That has not been the case at all since I have moved to Fi and in fact I would contend that data throughput and voice call quality has been superior to my other carrier everywhere I have been with the service.

If you are a new Project Fi users, chances are you are a bit confused.  That confusion surrounds SMS and which app you can use for getting your text messages on your Nexus phone using Fi.  On the surface, it looks like you are required to use Google Hangouts, the voice, video and yes, text messaging integrated app.  But that not necessarily true and in fact, even Google suggests that you use Google Messenger, the default SMS app on Nexus devices, for texting.

So what gives?  What’s the truth and what is the plus or minus of using Google Hangouts or Google Messenger?  Essentially it comes down to where you want messages to appear and on which devices and how you plan to communicate to friends and family.

Project Fi, Google’s MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) service is starting to come into is own. With a line up of three devices that fully take advantage of the service (Nexus 6, Nexus 6P and Nexus 5X), more users of the service are coming on board daily with Google significantly cutting the time from when you request an invite to when you receive it (it is a matter of a week or two versus 6-8 weeks earlier this year). As I posted shortly after the Nexus event where we saw the 6P and 5X launched, Google is serious about Project Fi and based on my experience so far, the service is exceptional.  The service uses a combination of Wi-Fi, T-Mobile and Sprint to provide you low cost data and voice on your device.  I’ll have a full review of Project Fi in a few weeks but today I want to focus on the activation process when you receive your Google Fi SIM.

To be clear, I’m assuming in this How To that you already have ordered and receive your SIM. If you haven’t, you can continue to read but I’d recommend bookmarking this post until you get your SIM. If you have your SIM then after the break I’ll show you step-by-step how to activate your new Project Fi service.  If you have not ordered your Project Fi SIM, go to http://fi.google.com to order it.