Texts work really well - notifications consistently pop up on lock screen.
Calls - don't always show up on lock screen.
For the iPhone that account is under, it seems to work well. It is not used frequently but does the job. Incoming calls may be a bit or miss. If that's super important, maybe consider other options. I have kept it that way, since I can swap SIMS under that phone to any provider as long as they don't tie the SIM to the phone.
Hello Chosen! Short answer is no, the problem has not been fixed and I've tried everything. Allowed the app to run in background, disabled battery optimization, tried on wi-fi, tried on data, shut off other apps, and nothing works. It will get a text and it will beep to tell you that you just missed a call and it will beep to tell you that you have a voicemail, but it will NOT ring for an incoming call. You could set the screen to 'stay awake' but the max on my Moto 5e play is only 30 min. (not to mention that runs the battery down) If you miss a call and it beeps to tell you so, if the person calls right back it will ring because it just woke up to give you the beep. However this is not practical. I know they use 2g data for voice (like Freedompop) so I don't know if this is related to the failure to "wake-up". At this point i can't recommend it even though I wish I could.
A big Thank You to Frasier1/ tech-stitch/ Ribbit for your help! Very much appreciate the updates!
No problem! One las thing I forgot to mention is that the iPhone (6S) on wifi practically always receives the calls since the most recent updates (regardless of time the phone has been a sleep).
On data, well that is another matter since I dont get good Sprint signal here. I suppose as long as the data does not go to slumber when the phone is a sleep, then it should work as well without issues. Cant test this effectively though unless I travel for a while out of town.
Personally I'd just go with the redpocket $30 annual plans.
So this thread promted me to check that line again and to my surprise, I found the coverage got better in my area. The only explanation I can think is that the iPhone is now using T-Mobile as well (doubt Sprint added towers here).
Anyway, I ran a test over the past few days and found that calls always came in / rang as long as the phone was plugged in and in WiFi. When plugged in and on data only, many tests passed but some failed. Lastly, unplugged, most calls failed to ring the first time, but most did post that initial missed call notification. Calls made using that data only configuration were clear except calling someone with a magic Jack (audio sounds distorted in this end). Hope that helps.
Thanks everyone! We tried our own experiment with TextNow. We had one iPhone and a newer android. The iPhone performed better, all incoming calls rang. The android would only ring on incoming calls if the owner performed a system update just before the call came in. Will keep tinkering around with the settings to see if we can make this a viable option for some. Thanks again everyone for the updates!
Can someone plz post a link to the $30 annual plan? Thx.
Here:
It's also available as a by-the-month plan, at a slightly higher cost of $3/mo. (Instead of the $2.50/mo averaged cost of the annual plan.)
The last line I helped set up (perhaps 4 months ago) on the by-the-month plan took several attempts, which seemed to be related to email addresses I either had, or had not, used previously on Red Pocket. (Sorry, I don't remember the exact details of what worked and what didn't.....)
Both of the plans are legacy-Sprint network.
A footnote: on either plan, the default is auto-renew. Porting out a number does not immediately close the account as it does with most providers, and the auto-renew will go merrily on it's way renewing a non-existent plan if you don't manually close the account online. This seems to be a Red Pocket "feature".