Have you noticed your Safaricom mobile calls sounding unusually clear lately — almost like the other person is standing right next to you in the room?

Over the last few weeks, I noticed that. Calls from my Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 to a family member’s Samsung Galaxy S25, as well as to several other contacts, have been almost shockingly crystal clear. Sharp, rich, and completely without of what can sometimes be quite erratic and very unclear audio quality. However, when I looked closely at my screen during a call and saw it: the Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) icon was active.

Therefore, being the kind of technology obsessed person that I am, I couldn’t just leave it at that, and I called a senior Safaricom representative today to get the insights that I needed to better understand exactly what is going on. 

Here is what is happening behind the scenes:

Safaricom has been quietly testing and piloting VoWiFi technology since last year, gradually expanding it to more users. They are gearing up for an official launch in the near future.

What Exactly Is VoWiFi & How Does It Work?

Traditionally, when you make a mobile call, your phone communicates directly with the nearest physical mobile tower. If you are indoors, in a basement, or in a congested area, that signal degrades, leading to dropped calls or muffled audio. 

Using Voice over Wi-Fi, your smartphone bypasses the cell tower entirely. It securely encrypts your voice, turns it into data packets, and routes it over whatever standard Wi-Fi network you are connected to (like your home or office fibre). Here are some of the interesting nuances in this regard. 

• Native Experience: It requires zero third-party apps. You use your regular phone dialer and your normal Safaricom number.
• Smart Handoff: If you walk out of your Wi-Fi zone mid-conversation, the call seamlessly transitions to the standard 4G/LTE mobile network without dropping. 

A Hidden Benefit: Better Battery Life (We Can Never Have Enough of That!) 

Beyond crystal clear audio quality, VoWiFi offers a massive underlying benefit: it preserves your smartphone’s battery life. 

When you are indoors or in an area with a weak cellular signal, your phone’s internal modem goes into overdrive. It expends massive amounts of energy constantly “chasing” a weak cell tower signal, just to keep you connected. By offloading that heavy lifting to your local Wi-Fi router — which requires far less power to communicate with — your phone stops draining its battery unnecessarily. 

A Strategic Play For Safaricom

Historically, when standard mobile networks struggled, many of us instinctively switched to WhatsApp or Telegram calls because the audio quality over data was significantly better. Safaricom has clearly recognized this user behavior and actually done something about it. 

According to the representative I spoke to, this move is fundamentally about network optimization. By routing voice calls through fixed Wi-Fi networks, Safaricom can automatically offload massive amounts of traffic from their main cellular network during peak hours or in heavily congested or poor coverage zones. It’s a brilliant win-win: users get pristine HD voice quality, and the telco mitigates network constraints without immediately needing to build more physical towers.

The Catch? It’s Less About Your Smartphone & More About A Mobile Network’s Approval

Safaricom’s initial rollout might seem to target premium customer tiers, VoWiFi actually isn’t exclusive to high-end flagship phones. The technology is natively supported by large range of modern budget and mid-range Android devices too so the potential for a major uptake by its subscribers is obvious for Safaricom. 

However, the real caveat here is Mobile Network Support. For VoWiFi to work, Safaricom must officially provision and approve the feature for your specific device model on their network. Flagship smartphones tend to get this out of the box, which is why my Z Fold 6 seems to have activated it automatically but many budget Android brands presumably simply require Safaricom to push a carrier software update to unlock the feature.

Ultimately, it’s a massive leap forward for indoor coverage and call quality in Kenya. Kudos to Safaricom for executing this transition smoothly in the background. Have you spotted the Wi-Fi calling icon on your phone yet? Open your Settings, search for “Wi-Fi Calling,”and see if you can toggle it on and enjoy crystal clear phone calls!