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3CX phone for Android problems

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Rémy Faure-Vincent

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We recently deployed around 20 Samsung Galaxy Xcover for use with our new 3CX phone system, and they have been randomly unable to receive calls even after re-doing the entire Firebase configuration and checking twice that everything should be running fine.
  • "no network" issue (while phone is running over reliable 4G mobile access)
  • phone that doesn't ring at all, or does so a minute later (probably when finally acknowledging the firebase push)
  • touchscreen accepting input from users' ear while on a call (what is the proximity sensor option for, really ?)
  • application not restarting properly when asked to quit or quit without push
  • application not coming to front when call is received on some phones (only the notification appears)
  • calls take one to several seconds to be connected when touching the accept button
  • bluetooth headsets have audio and microphone routing issues, not working at all in most cases
we tried a variety of solutions including switching from wifi to 4G, removing the lockscreen pattern, automating an application restart every minute but none worked reliably.

all the phones are running the same official Samsung Android build, with all Samsung system apps disabled via Gsuite admin (ensuring a nearly pure Android OS), with the same lack of restrictions.

Please take a look at Zoiper for something that works and take example.

We are extremely disappointed in this system, given that we switched to those smartphones because our old Aastra DECTs "have not been tested" by 3CX and thus are "incompatible".

We would also appreciate the application to be allowed for install on Chromebooks, since it is still locked out on the Play Store.

I am available for any inquiry and/or test on our deployment, before we switch back to the reliable SIP/DECT solution we had before.
 
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"no network" issue (while phone is running over reliable 4G mobile access)

This is one of the more difficult bugs we've had trouble debugging. We're actively working on this and hope to eventually release a fix for it.


phone that doesn't ring at all, or does so a minute later (probably when finally acknowledging the firebase push)

May i suggest you do the following 2 things?:
-Go to Google Play > Top left settings > Update your Google Play services.
-Android Settings > Time > Use Network Provided Time
-Give your device a reboot and try to receive a push call

Give it a go again and re-check on whether the calls have a big delay.


touchscreen accepting input from users' ear while on a call (what is the proximity sensor option for, really ?)

This is something we've only very recently found as well and may have been like this for a long time unfortunately. We're working on a fix for this. This is an easy one, it'l be out on the next release.


application not restarting properly when asked to quit or quit without push

Can you provide a bit more info on this one?


application not coming to front when call is received on some phones (only the notification appears)

Good catch as well. We've figured this one as well internally. We'll be checking into why this happens and have a fix sometime soon for this.


calls take one to several seconds to be connected when touching the accept button

We'll check into this. Could be true. Could also just be delay?


bluetooth headsets have audio and microphone routing issues, not working at all in most cases

This is somehwat true. It's not as bad as you're describing it though. In any case we're aware of this as well and we are planning to fix it. This one's gonna take a while however since we're forced to redesign our audio subsystem from scratch.
 
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May i suggest you do the following 2 things?:
-Go to Google Play > Top left settings > Update your Google Play services.
-Android Settings > Time > Use Network Provided Time
-Give your device a reboot and try to receive a push call
All our Xcovers are running the latest production version : 11.7.46 (that is forcefully updated by Device Policy), and have the Network Provided Time on by default.
Can you provide a bit more info on this one?
easily reproduceable : quit or quit (ignores push), click on app, it reopens on the quit / quit (ignore push) page and crashes. click again, it opens normally.
We'll check into this. Could be true. Could also just be delay?
a sizeable part of our calls are cancelled by the receiving user after not being able to hear the other side for several seconds.
This is somehwat true. It's not as bad as you're describing it though.
I don't really see how it could be better when I haven't been able to make it work with any of our headsets (except the roaming vendors cars' bluetooth systems, for some reason).

add to that :
  • The 3CX presence list isn't handled the usual Android way (ie in a standard shared system contacts list), which means the contacts are not accessible when connected to a bluetooth handsfree system, and show up as your phone number when you make or receive a call (??) - in all our cars (in which the sound and microphone surprisingly work, for some reason)
  • There isn't any admin option to disable anything on the system for groups of users (queue login button, chat...)
I suggest you look to the requirement for Android apps to either have a running notification or be device administrator if they want to stay active and not be killed by the system, that's how all persistent apps are working lately (Tasker, Automate, Zoiper to name a few...)

I am available if you need anything more including logs.
 
easily reproduceable : quit or quit (ignores push), click on app, it reopens on the quit / quit (ignore push) page and crashes. click again, it opens normally.

Thanks for this one, we'll look into it and get it fixed for the next couple of versions.


a sizeable part of our calls are cancelled by the receiving user after not being able to hear the other side for several seconds.

We'l look into this and see if this is something on our side though this does sound like something else network related on your side. Regardless we'll check it.


I don't really see how it could be better when I haven't been able to make it work with any of our headsets (except the roaming vendors cars' bluetooth systems, for some reason).

We've tested this internally multiple times before releasing. We confirm on our side that this works and it's possible to use a bluetooth dongle.

What doesn't work is the answer/drop call buttons. This is unfortunately expected. It's a limitation on the Android OS. If you try Skype, Hangouts, Viber, What'sApp for Android, non have support for this as it's not currently possible to do on Android. Only the native Android OS dialer has access to using bluetooth devices.



We'l be looking into an option to possibly run the application as always registered. This will take quite some time however since this has the side-effect of having to also use the least possible amount of battery, so i wouldn't expect this to be a thing any time soon.
 
Just so that you're aware, we're working hard on the Android client internally. We're hoping that over the next few releases of the Android client that we'l be able to address the majority of these issues and more.

Just give us a bit of time on this.
 
The problem is that in the meantime our users are pissed off =)

one more for the road : when a call isn't answered AND the application came to front AND the phone uses a simple "slide" unlock, the phone doesn't relock itself and instead stays on the application screen.
 
The problem is that in the meantime our users are pissed off =)

one more for the road : when a call isn't answered AND the application came to front AND the phone uses a simple "slide" unlock, the phone doesn't relock itself and instead stays on the application screen.

Just tried this one, doesn't reproduce as you say.
Can you provide a more accurate/detailed scenario on this one?

e.g:
1) Lock your Android Phone
2) Call your Android phone from another extension
3) Drop the call from the caller's side
4) Unlock phone

Phone doesn't go back to sleep.
 
  • phone with slide to unlock lockscreen security
  • call the extension
  • drop the call while phone is ringing and 3CX is in front with "accept" and "reject" buttons
  • phone doesn't relock itself, instead stays opened on 3CX app
not always, but it happens often enough.
 
I have to agree with Remy on most of these points. I have just deployed 3CX in our environment and every android client that I deploy has some of these issues. I have installed and deployed one android client and simply had it work without issue. We don't have the luxury of one device for everyone since all users are BYOD.

The biggest nuisance is the phone not ringing when the screen is off. This issue is two fold with the client not staying connected when traversing across networks, and the client just not ringing when called unless, the app is opened and is in focus. I put in some notes at the end of this closed post (I guess I should have created a new post)

https://www.3cx.com/community/threa...-no-option-to-answer-becomes-the-focus.51700/

An example is, I came into the office today and my phone automatically connects to a dedicated VOIP WIFI. I call my self from another extension and my android client does not ring (but my windows soft phone and desk phone ring). I unlock my phone, open 3CX, it registers quickly and shows on hook. I lock the phone, call my self again and it rings and the answer screen becomes the focus as it should. I don't do anything, and 30 minutes later, I call myself and the android client does not ring. I am using 15.5.146 but see the same behavior on 15.5.166 on an up to date galaxy s8. Unlock the phone and since the client is the last thing that was on my screen, it registers and shows on hook and starts to work again.

I realize development is difficult and takes time and it's even more difficult to troubleshoot given today's vast number of devices and versions on the market, but from an end users point of view, if you're going to provide this tool with your software, then it simply needs to work, otherwise it does not need to be GA'd because then you get dinged by the likes of Remy and I because your tool is not ready to be used in an enterprise environment.

The ringing screen focus issue was fixed in .146 where we signed up to be beta testers. Looking forward to the next beta release to fix this unreliable ring issue.

Shawn
 
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The ringing screen focus issue was fixed in .146 where we signed up to be beta testers. Looking forward to the next beta release to fix this unreliable ring issue.

We've released version 166 to production. This should have the fix inside it.


For the rest, we're working on them. Ringing issues, sound not being passed to the correct output device, etc etc, it's all under review and will be fixed for a future release. Keep an eye out on the beta release and we're gonna have something soon that at least addresses some of these as a start.
 
so I installed Zoiper as SIP client alongside the 3CX app on all our Xcovers, and all calls actually get to the phones through it.
our users answer the app that pops to front and so far have been appreciative of the solution since it works.

it'll tide us over until you fix that problem.
 
  1. "no network" issue (while phone is running over reliable 4G mobile access)
  2. phone that doesn't ring at all, or does so a minute later (probably when finally acknowledging the firebase push)
  3. touchscreen accepting input from users' ear while on a call (what is the proximity sensor option for, really ?)
  4. application not restarting properly when asked to quit or quit without push
  5. application not coming to front when call is received on some phones (only the notification appears)
  6. calls take one to several seconds to be connected when touching the accept button
  7. bluetooth headsets have audio and microphone routing issues, not working at all in most cases

3) We've fixed this internally.
4) We are fixing this now.
5) This should already be fixed for all phones in V166. We've found that this may be a problem on a very small percentage of phones that may run something like an 3'rd party screen locker application or 3'rd party management application. Are you still experiencing this issue?
7) This is being investigated and we'l be fixing it either this week or next.

We'll start from the easier ones and move up to the harder ones to fix.
We are additionally fixing other small quirks and issues at the same time that we're fixing these.

If you have any additional issues to mention, feel free and we'll check into them. This applies to anyone with any issues with the Android Client.
 
We'll start from the easier ones and move up to the harder ones to fix.
We are additionally fixing other small quirks and issues at the same time that we're fixing these.
1 & 2 are unfortunately a LOT more important for daily use.
"usually quiet and understanding department manager snapped and yelled at me in the IT office" important.

everything else absolutely does not matter if users can't be reached on their phone.

I'll update this thread if we encounter anything else, anyway.
 
#1 No network is being fixed now. Will be included in the upcoming beta.
 
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Leonidas, thank you for addressing the issues as fast as possible. I'm with Remy though. If the phone does not ring when called, then nothing else really matters. I am still on .146 and also experience the no ringing issue.

Regarding the 'no network' issue, I also experience the same thing, my fix is to kill the app through the android open app task list, re-open it which seems to work for a while.

Shawn
 
LeonidasG, thank you for trying to solve this problems. I'm with Remy and Shawn. If the phone doesn't ring when called than nothing else matter. Our customers are not able to recognise the difference between DECT phones to the app phone. For them it's just a phone and it has to ring like the DECT phone has done for years with no problems. I recognise that is very difficult to manage with an operating system like android. For shawn: "Kill the app is not a solution because no one is going to kill the app. The phone has to work in background with no problems and the customers doesn't want to watch at the phone every minute to see if the app is working or not".

i found problems (the same problem described by Shawn and Remy) with this kind of phones:
huawei P9 lite (huawei VNS-L31) / Android 7.0 / 3cx app 15.5.157 / 3cx pbx 15.5 SP1
samsung s6 / Android 7.0 / 3cx app 15.5.159 / 3cx 15.5 SP1
and many others...

I am testing the new version 15.5.166.

no problem with iPhone iOS 11

nitrox
 
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  1. "no network" issue (while phone is running over reliable 4G mobile access)
  2. phone that doesn't ring at all, or does so a minute later (probably when finally acknowledging the firebase push)
  3. touchscreen accepting input from users' ear while on a call (what is the proximity sensor option for, really ?)
  4. application not restarting properly when asked to quit or quit without push
  5. application not coming to front when call is received on some phones (only the notification appears)
  6. calls take one to several seconds to be connected when touching the accept button
  7. bluetooth headsets have audio and microphone routing issues, not working at all in most cases


1) Is being fixed.
2) I understand your need to have this fixed as soon as possible, however we'll still have to look into this later as there's still a lot to do from the above list + more + more beyond that. Lets not discuss development priority, just know this will be addressed on way or the other.
3) Fixed
4) This is known and we'l get to troubleshooting this soon.
5) This should have been fixed since a couple of releases ago. We're unable to reproduce this issue internally. If anyone can reproduce this, simply go to More > Settings > Advanced Settings > Enable Verbose logs, reproduce the issue one more time and go to More > Settings > Advanced Settings > Send Report. This will send us a short log snippet with some data we can use to debug.
6) We've been able to reproduce this internally during our investigation. We've found why this happens and we'l be looking into a fix soon.
7) We've done some initial tests vs various popular brands and haven't found anything of the kind unfortunately. Can you provide the name of the specific bluetooth devices you're using? It would also be helpful for us if you reproduced the mic/audio routing issue while the steps in #5 have been applied. Once reproduced, send us a debug log using the steps in #5 and quote this in your reply "52586".
 
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  1. [*]"no network" issue (while phone is running over reliable 4G mobile access)
    [*]phone that doesn't ring at all, or does so a minute later (probably when finally acknowledging the firebase push)
    [*]touchscreen accepting input from users' ear while on a call (what is the proximity sensor option for, really ?)
    [*]application not restarting properly when asked to quit or quit without push
    [*]application not coming to front when call is received on some phones (only the notification appears)
    [*]calls take one to several seconds to be connected when touching the accept button
    [*]bluetooth headsets have audio and microphone routing issues, not working at all in most cases

Just another update.

1) Being fixed.
2) We'll check next week.
3) Fixed
4) We'll check next week.
5) This is fixed and in production already in 166
6) Yes this is true. We'll check next week for fixing it.
7) Still need specific brand names


one more for the road : when a call isn't answered AND the application came to front AND the phone uses a simple "slide" unlock, the phone doesn't relock itself and instead stays on the application screen.

We found an issue that may occur only on some Android phones that is similar to this, but not exactly the same. We'll look into it next week and see whether fixing this also fixes your issue.
 
I'm glad I found this tread because I have a client who has Android mobile phones and it has been really frustrating trying to fix the PUSH issue In our case you can ring the 3CX App from another phone and it will ring the first time you call, however if you try to ring a few minutes later it does not ring at all. Then if you leave it for a while it might ring the next time. We have since tested the issue on our own 3CX system and we are having the same problem. I'm sure this was working in previous versions of 3CX.

Because one of the key selling points of the 3CX system is the ability to have the App on your mobile phone I think it is critical that the PUSH issue is resolved. I can't see how it's a network configuration issue if it works sometimes and not other times.

We also have two clients currently testing the 3CX system and I am just hoping they won't want to try out the App on their mobile phones.
 
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I'm glad I found this tread because I have a client who has Android mobile phones and it has been really frustrating trying to fix the PUSH issue In our case you can ring the 3CX App from another phone and it will ring the first time you call, however if you try to ring a few minutes later it does not ring at all. Then if you leave it for a while it might ring the next time. We have since tested the issue on our own 3CX system and we are having the same problem. I'm sure this was working in previous versions of 3CX.

Because one of the key selling points of the 3CX system is the ability to have the App on your mobile phone I think it is critical that the PUSH issue is resolved. I can't see how it's a network configuration issue if it works sometimes and not other times.

We also have two clients currently testing the 3CX system and I am just hoping they won't want to try out the App on their mobile phones.

The application is working "everytime" you open it because it open a tcp connection (5090 port tcp connection) to the pbx and so doesn't need the wake up via push because it is already "attached to it". After a number of seconds (which i think it is 120 seconds) is going to sleep and the only way to wake app it is to send push notifications. This features is quite cool but in the android world doesn't work very well in the "last version" of the app (at least 15.5.157, 15.5.159, 15.5.166, 15.5.170). Probably i am saying to you something that you already know but i am writing it just to be clear to the others which are reading the thread for the first time. :)
Anyway we are discussing here that the app at least for the version before of 15.5.170 is freezing very often. Sometimes it is/was not able to connect to the pbx because the app is saying there is no connection. Sometimes when it is/was in background freeze so no ringing when a call is coming.
if we want to be productive to everybody and we want to help us/them i suggest to say what you have tried exactly. What kind of version of the pbx are you using, type of mobile phones with the version of operating system and version of app that you tried, please.

thank you

--
nitrox
 
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