Google blocks hack that allow Pixel customers allow VoLTE wherever

Pixel telephones are beloved for his or her many distinctive software program options, however their restricted availability prevents many individuals from shopping for them. Whereas Google has made strides in increasing entry, Pixels nonetheless aren’t offered in almost as many international locations as iPhones or Samsung Galaxy gadgets. This leads many followers to import Pixel telephones from different markets, a transfer that may sadly break essential calling options like VoLTE and VoWiFi.

VoLTE (Voice over LTE) is the characteristic that routes voice calls over a 4G LTE connection, a vital perform now that carriers worldwide are phasing out their 2G and 3G networks. With out it, you may not be capable of make cellphone calls in any respect on many fashionable networks. Equally, VoWiFi (Voice over WiFi) handles Wi-Fi calling, routing calls over a Wi-Fi community as a substitute of mobile — a useful characteristic whenever you’re in a constructing with poor sign.

In idea, any cellphone with the precise {hardware} for a provider’s mobile frequencies ought to be capable of use VoLTE, and any succesful cellphone with a supporting plan ought to get VoWiFi. The truth, nonetheless, is extra advanced. Many carriers solely allow VoLTE and VoWiFi on gadgets they promote or have formally examined. Which means that even when your imported Pixel has the required {hardware}, the provider can nonetheless block these options, probably stopping you from making voice calls fully.

This problem plagued Pixel cellphone importers till Korean developer Kyujin Cho launched a workaround in 2023. The developer’s app, “Pixel IMS,” allows VoLTE and VoWiFi on unsupported carriers by overriding the provider examine that Android usually performs. Usually, Android makes use of a sign from the provider to determine whether or not to allow VoLTE for the gadget; the Pixel IMS app overrides this sign and forces it to all the time be enabled.

Overriding this examine isn’t one thing simply any app can do, because it’s a part of Android’s privileged telephony framework. That’s why Pixel IMS cleverly leverages a loophole supposed for testing functions. Android permits the “shell” consumer — the identical consumer that runs ADB instructions — to override provider configurations. To achieve these elevated privileges, Pixel IMS makes use of Shizuku, an open supply Android app that lets different apps run processes because the shell consumer.

However loopholes don’t final eternally, and after greater than two and a half years, Google has seemingly closed this one. Following the latest October 2025 Pixel replace, many customers found the “Pixel IMS” app was now not practical, crashing when making an attempt to toggle VoLTE or VoWiFi. The crash log provides a transparent motive: “overrideConfig can’t be invoked by shell.”

Whereas not documented within the official changelog, Google seems to have quietly patched this specific exploit. In line with a supply, the corporate has designated this loophole as CVE-2025-48617, a high-severity privilege escalation vulnerability. Its absence from the October 2025 Android Safety Bulletin is probably going as a result of it didn’t meet the “excessive threat” threshold for instant inclusion beneath Google’s new Danger-Primarily based Replace System (RBUS). Google will most likely embrace it within the subsequent quarterly safety bulletin, scheduled for December.

Happily for Pixel customers, one other developer has allegedly discovered a brand new workaround. Whereas the brand new technique isn’t as accessible — with the directions being in Chinese language and the APK distributed on the developer’s Telegram channel — it a minimum of appears to work.

Sadly, the brand new technique solely allows VoLTE and never VoWiFi, so Pixel customers in unsupported areas who want the latter characteristic should root their telephones for now. Rooting requires unlocking the bootloader, which breaks some Gemini-powered options and complicates utilizing Google Pockets. The one different different is to attend for Google to formally allow VoLTE in additional markets — one thing the corporate not too long ago signaled it’s engaged on.