8x8: Call Quality on Laptops & Mobile Devices

    Imagine you're in the middle of a crucial call with a client using the 8x8 mobile app on your phone, but the connection keeps cutting in and out, and dropping. Frustrating, right? Unlike traditional office phones with dedicated lines, the 8x8 mobile app relies on your phone's internet connection for smooth calls.

MOBILE/SMART DEVICES/PHONES

Here's how a stable network connection is key to a great experience:

    Think of your phone like a radio: Just like a radio needs a clear signal to play music without static, your 8x8 call needs a strong and steady internet connection.

    When your phone constantly switches between WiFi and cellular data (like when entering an elevator or walking through a building with spotty WiFi), it's like trying to listen to the radio while driving through a tunnel – the signal keeps dropping in and out.

Strong Signal, Strong Call: A stable WiFi connection or a good cellular data signal provides a clear path for your voice to travel during the call. This ensures smooth conversation and avoids those annoying interruptions.

Top Tip:  For the best call quality, try to avoid making calls in areas with weak or fluctuating signals. This includes elevators, stairwells, buildings with spotty WiFi, or areas with known cellular data limitations.

    If possible, make calls from locations with strong and reliable internet connections. Even walking down the street, passing several buildings in which you've previously used WiFi might disconnect from cellular data, connect to WiFi, only to be flipped back to cellular data after passing the building, and then it reconnects to the next building's WiFi, disconnecting after you pass the building, reconnecting to cellular data, over and over. The top tip for this one would be to just turn off WiFi so it's forced to stay on Cellular data as you travel, enabling WiFi again after you're done traveling at a place with stable WiFi.

Final Tip: A network's performance/quality can also negatively impact the performance of VOIP telephony. If you've a super-fast internet connection, but your child, spouse, parent, and puppy are all streaming a TV show at 1080p on separate TVs in their own rooms, one can expect their performance on that network to give a poor phone call experience.

USING A LAPTOP

    Make sure the lid/screen of your laptop is open if you're using the microphone built into your laptop. This way your voice will not be muffled as it tries to penetrate your laptop's lid/screen in effort to be heard by your caller.

    In 8x8's Settings (the cog/gear ⚙️ icon) -> Audio & Video section, be sure you're choosing the best Microphone for 8x8, and the best Speakers as well. If callers still cannot hear you too well, lower the Noise suppression level to low or none. This feature is primarily used when handling a call where there's a lot of background noise coming from your side because you're maybe in a loud office, in a construction zone, etc.

Need Help?  If you're still having trouble with call quality, IT can help troubleshoot issues on Robinson Park's network to help provide a fix, or understanding. We can also do some high-level troubleshooting on another network (like your home network) by remoting into your computer and performing some simple tests.

    What we gain from this is a little information we can share with you so that you can contact your ISP with what was learned, and schedule a technical visit if appropriate. However, Robinson Park IT cannot issue fixes or any other additional troubleshooting on systems and networks that do not directly belong to our company, including a personal cell phone.

For personal systems fixes, please see: Personal Device Troubleshooting: Employee Responsibilities