T-Mobile Leverages VoLTE To Launch Native Video Calling For Samsung Galaxy Note 5 And Galaxy S6 Edge+

When T-Mobile CEO John Legere isn’t unloading profanity-laced tirades or needling the competition at every turn, his company actually more often than not actually introduces compelling promotions for customers and new technology features that take full advantage of today’s high-end smartphones. Such is the case today; T-Mobile has announced a follow-up to its Advanced Messaging initiative that kicked off in July.

T-Mobile Video Calling takes full advantage of the third-place wireless carrier’s Voice over LTE (VoLTE) network to provide native video calling from person-to-person. T-Mobile Video Calling doesn’t even require a separate app to function; instead, it works straight from your smartphone’s dialer.

“Place and receive calls as you normally would—simply choose either the video call button or voice call button,” said T-Mobile Chief Technology Officer Neville Ray. “Really. It’s that easy.”

T-Mobile Video Calling works anywhere you have an LTE connection, but be forewarned; video calling will unfortunately eat into your monthly high-speed data pool. While T-Mobile seems to be content with excluding certain streaming music services when it comes to tapping into you data pool, it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t extend the same courtesy to video calling. With that being said, T-Mobile Video calling will also work via Wi-Fi to alleviate any strain on your monthly data allotment and T-Mobile promises seamless transitions from LTE to Wi-Fi and back again.

“If you move off LTE or Wi-Fi to a slower connection, your video call seamlessly switches over to a voice call,” Ray adds. “If you move back to LTE or Wi-Fi, switch it back to video with a single tap.”

T-Mobile Video Calling works right now with the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ and Samsung Galaxy Note 5 — all you have to do is download a small software update to enable the functionality. The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge will gain the ability to use T-Mobile Video Calling next week.

Ray says that three more VoLTE-capable smartphones will gain the functionality before year’s end, but declined to name elaborate on which ones have been “chosen.”