Category: Project Fi

The Project Fi app for Android has been updated with a new but important diagnostics tool for the Fi team.  When you update the app and go to the Privacy settings, you will note a new Network Diagnostics toggle which will send information about your cell tower connectivity and location to Google.  The idea is for Google to collect information so they can improve the service and network quality.

When you go to Privacy settings at the bottom of the app, you will see this new feature with a description of what it is doing exactly.  “Automatically send cell tower info and approximate location history to Project Fi from your phone to help improve network quality”

As readers of this site, you know I am a big fan of Project Fi.  The mobile service Google rolled out a year-and-a-half ago has provided me a great experience and I’m at the point now where I don’t know if I could return to one of the big carriers here in the United States.  I posted a ton of things about Project Fi over the past six months but one thing I have not covered is not necessarily the service itself on my Nexus device.  Rather, it is the customer service that the Fi team has provided me in times of need.  Admittedly, those times have been rare but each time I have contacted them, the attention to detail and the earnest effort to sort out my issue has been nothing short of exceptional.  This is in stark contrast to what many of us experience with other providers.

Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve read a lot of comments here and on Google+ with regards to Project Fi and the criteria it uses to select the carrier to use at any given time.  It is an interesting subject and one that I have a fair amount of experience with not only as a Fi subscriber, but in my day job in the communications industry.  The confusion, I think, rests with a user having what appears to be full signal strength in their area on say T-Mobile yet their phone is continually connecting to Sprint which has less signal in that location.  As a general rule, you won’t know which network you are on unless you are using a tool like Signal Spy to check it out.  But the bottom line is that a stronger signal isn’t the only thing that Google is looking for when it comes to selecting the network in Project Fi.

March 16th marked the six month anniversary of my move from AT&T to Project Fi as my main carrier service.  It is a move that I admit I approached with some trepidation.  I had been with AT&T since 1998 (seriously) and the thought of moving from the albeit expensive known to the inexpensive unknown was a concern.  It was a big change and one I hoped would work out.  It has, in spades.

For those interesting, you can read my original review of the service here on the site.

Not only have I seen a massive reduction in my mobile bill each month, I have also found that Project Fi works well in just about every area I have traveled here in the United States and abroad.  I regularly find that I have a solid, fast data connection when I need it but with Wi-Fi assistant on my side getting me connected up to fast, secure wireless networks, I have found my data consumption has dramatically gone down with no real changes in my usage behavior.  It’s not perfect this Project Fi thing but it is improving constantly and clearly Google feels confident in it given they just eliminated the invite system to get started on it.  I’ve put together some thoughts around the service to help those of you who are considering it.

After 10 months of being invite driven, Google announced this morning that they are killing the Project Fi invite system across the US effectively immediately.  To this point, in order to join and use the MVNO service from Google, you had to ask for an invite (ask for a SIM basically) to join up and use it.  That system is gone and anyone with a compatible phone can now simply go to the Fi website and join up, getting a SIM shipped to them in a few days.

The Project Fi app for users of the Google’s MVNO has been updated and it brings a great new feature:  Multiple voicemail messages.  Now you can record multiple greeting for your voicemail on the service and select which one you want to use for a particular day or event.  The update comes as version is G.1.7.16 for those keeping score at home and it is in the Google Play Store now.  You likely have already received an OTA update for it but if not, it will be there in a day or two.

You will know that you have the update when you go into the app, scroll down to Voicemail then tap on Manage greeting.  You will see a blue microphone icon at the bottom of the screen which you can tap (and my be prompted for microphone permissions) to record a new greeting.  Once you do, you can name it and it will be saved to your account.

Project Fi – Free – Download Now