How to Make Calls and Texts From Your Smartphone Without Cell Service

Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives, and carriers know it—so they charge a lot of money for something they know you’re going to pay. But what if I told you that you could use your phone, including calls and texts, with nothing but Wi-Fi?

It’s true—it definitely comes with some caveats, but if you’re looking to ditch your cellphone bill altogether (or you never had one to begin with), you can still make calls and texts on your smartphone.

(Note: If you’re just struggling with poor reception in your house or office, this solution may be overkill—first, give Wi-Fi calling a try on your iPhone or Android device, if your carrier supports it. Between that and services like iMessage, which can send text messages over Wi-Fi, you may be pretty well covered. If not, you can come back here and try this setup.)

How This Works

By using this guide, you’ll be able to make and receive calls, as well as send and receive text messages—all without a SIM card or cellular service. And of course you’ll be able to do all the same stuff you already use your smartphone for, too.

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Basically, we’re going to set up your phone with Google Voice and Google Hangouts, which allow you to do all these things over Wi-Fi. That means, of course, that in order for everything to work, you’ll need to be connected to Wi-Fi any time you want to use your phone. That’s definitely a downside, but if Wi-Fi is ubiquitous where you live, you might be able to make it work. Android’s Wi-Fi Assistant feature can make this easier by automatically connecting to trusted networks, and if you have internet at home, you may also have free access to Wi-Fi hotspots around town from the same provider. Comcast and AT&T, for example, have Wi-Fi hotspots everywhere.

In addition, all calls in/to the US and Canada are free using the following methods, but you’ll have to pay extra for international calling.

Lastly, let’s talk about 911 emergency services. As long as you’re doing this from a phone (not a tablet or iPod touch-like device), 911 services will always work, but you have to use the stock dialer (not the apps we’re going to use in this guide). All phones are required to support 911 services—even without a SIM card—so you’ll never have to worry during an emergency. Your phone will still have your back.

With that, let’s get started.

What You’ll Need

This should work on both Android phones and iPhones, both with the same tools. I’ll be primarily using Android in this guide, but will also try to mention if something is different on iOS. Here are the tools you’ll need:

• A Google Account
• A Google Voice number and the Google Voice app for Android or iOS
• The Google Hangouts app for Android or iOS
• Hangouts Dialer for Android (this is integrated into the Hangouts app on iOS)

These are going to be the backbone of our carrier-free setup.

Step One: Set Up Your Google Voice Account

The first thing you’ll need is a Google Voice account and number. If you already have that, skip this step!

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If you’re not familiar with Google Voice, here’s the quick and dirty explanation of what it is: Google Voice is a completely free phone number provided to you by Google. It can make calls in the US over the internet and send and receive text messages,