I’ve done several factory resets. I even tried 2 FP4’s. These issues are easily reproducible. They are also acknowledged by Fairphone and plenty of users. Meaning the issue of this topic. The problem @FPWulf describes is I think a different problem.
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I don’t think that’s necessarily true at all. It could just as well be an app configuration problem or another software issue. In fact given that my phone worked in the past in this respect, it think that is quite likely.
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@UPPERCASE - yes. In fact I posted it as a separate issue and it was moved under here ‘as it’s the same issue’. I don’t think it is either.
Hmm! that’s what I said. It’s not a simple hardware issue, an app conflic or config or network related issue is what I thought I’d implied.
I’m a big bit dyslexic and spell poorly and miss words frequently 
Hi community,
I have just purchased a FairPhone4 for my girlfriend. The problem is that the sound quality coming from her is very bad. Not only when calling me, but anybody else.
What is strange is that, using a Bluetooth device, I can hear her very well.
Bad sound quality = bits and pieces of what she says are missing and each time when I talk I can hear all ‘S’, ‘Sh’ and ‘Ch’ sounds as an echo 1 or 2 seconds later.
I upgraded it to the latest software.
I contacted the helpdesk and performed the microphone and speaker tests and they were OK.
I replaced the SIM card (because helpdesk advised me to do that) but the problem did not dissapear.
Am I the only person with this issue?
Kind regards, Vincent
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Hello and welcome to the forum. This issue has already been discussed:
As a workaround, you might try disabling microphone permission for the Google app:
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I do have the same bad call quality issues with the fairphone 4. Disabling the microphone permission or deactivating the google app is not changing the behavior.
I will report this to fairphone and keep you updated if they find something.
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I have this problem too, but with a Bluetooth headset it works perfectly fine.
@FPWulf did you already find a solution to this problem? I have exactly the same issue, did all the tests technical support from Fairphone asked me to do and they recently told me it is probably the SIM card. I had to replace that one, which I did but as expected I still have the same problem.
In your case does the receiver also hear an echo if you talk via the speaker? Mainly the ‘s’, ‘sh’ and ‘ch’ sounds seem to reflect after 1 second or so.
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I know this question wasn’t directed to me, but what you described is exactly what this topic is about. Yesterday someone even asked if I was on speaker phone because the quality was so poor. And I laughed at the Pixel 3 for having poor call quality. It can always get worse 
Hi there,
I also own FP4 and suffer from the low call quality problem.
I used to put the middle of my ear on the top speaker while talking and my phone partners complain a lot.
Now I put my ear as low as possible on the phone on a position where I can still hear loud and clear and I have the impression that the complaints reduce a lot.
This could fit to the theory with the noice cancellation. Just by getting closer to the microphone …
For me this didn’t solve the problem but it makes it a bit better.
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@Vince_Ma I recently had a reply from Fairphone Support and they are currently running me through their standard script: ‘send us screenshots of your OS build, battery history(?), SIM info screen’. They mentioned a lot about the SIM card being faulty (if it is ‘old’ get a new one, maybe even two(!??)) - which I can make no sense of. What has the age of the SIM card got to do with it? Are they like milk that goes off or something? (I know they are not). Fortunately my SIM card is brand new, so I will refuse that test.
I’m waiting for the inevitable and dreaded ‘we suggest you try a factory reset’ which will show they actually have no idea what the issue is.
In my situation all that happens is the receiver of whatever call I make simply cannot hear me at all, which makes it impossible to use the device as a phone to make phone calls with.
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Did you also link to this topic on the forum? Because I noticed that sometimes not all support staff is up2date on widespread issues. So then this playbook of checks they do makes sense to rule out local causes. By pointing to this forum topic you may have a shortcut to an update in the main issue in their support desk, which I hope they link related issues to. Hopefully some progress is made regarding this issue and some more information is available in the parent issue in their support desk.
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I will see how the issue with Support develops and if it heads in an unhelpful direction I will link them to this. For now, I will give them a chance to do their thing and not muddy the water.
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Seems like this issue finally got some more attention! Signal voice messages have improved in the latest update. What do you think?
Will test the other mic related issues when I have another video call.
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I really hope they have fixed the problem with this update, I’ll install it later to night. I bought a FP4 to my father but it’s nearly impossible to hear what he says when I call him. I have the same issue with my FP4. And when I make calls the 4G/5G symbol disappear and instead I get an X. If they don’t fix this I have to buy another phone to him as this is his lifeline, he must be able to make calls in an emergency. I have been using my FP4 since the launch and in the begining the call quality was ok but a couple of month ago it has been very bad. I even tried using a third brand new FP4 with the same result. I’m using standard Fairphone/Google installation with all system and app updates.
The update solved EVERYTHING for me! Signal, SnapChat and Instagram voice messages working perfectly and are even louder than on other phones I think 
I really hope that you guys have the same improvement than me.
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I talked to my operator, Telia, here in Sweden and I got this answer:
- Fairphone has not had Telia in mind when they developed their software and this means that the quality of our network will not be 100%.
- The problem is that Fairphone has not activated VoLTE with Telia. This causes customers to have poorer quality of calls, both in coverage and speech quality.
- After we turn off our 2G/3G networks, the Fairphone will stop working completely. This will take place in 2025.
I do have VoLTE support from my operator, as well as calling over WiFi. But the quality is still quite poor. So not sure if this is really to blame.
I haven’t tested the voice/video call quality with this latest update though.
I would def #contactsupport to ask if they can add your provider. I assume there are many out there and FP might not think about all of them from beginning. Sweden is the first country in the EU I’m aware of that will shut down both 2G and 3G, most countries keep one as a fallback for calls when VoLTE is not available/possible. Shutting down both, means all older Smartphones will become useless…