If you are a Sprint or T-Mobile user and have checked the apps on your mobile device, chances are you have seen the “Carrier Hub” app. Have you ever wondered what it is? Have you ever thought about its usefulness on your phone? Is it malware or not? Do not worry, as we have the answers to all your questions. Read on to know what the “Carrier Hub” app truly is.

What is Carrier Hub?

Carrier Hub and Carrier Hub Magenta(Sprint offers Carrier Hub, whereas T-Mobile offers Carrier Hub Magenta) are apps that these network operators provide to enhance your phone’s ability to call by using the internet to your advantage.

Carrier Hub is an app that enables your phone to use the “voice over WiFi” or VoWiFi feature to enhance your calling experience. It is a handy feature for users who regularly suffer from network drops or poor call quality.

Either app normally comes preinstalled by the network operator. If it was not preinstalled, it will be available to install from the Play Store. The app allows you to use features that are generally not available by default. It also helps you to communicate with your network provider directly.

You don’t have to fret over the fact that there are two versions of this app, as they are the same, just provided by two different carriers. The same name comes from the two companies merging back in 2020. So there are no differences in the feature set between the apps.

If you have not installed it, you may want to do so soon, since the notifications to install will get annoying quickly.

Now let us understand what Voice over WiFi(VoWiFi) is.

What Is Voice Over WiFi?

Voice over WiFi (VoWiFi) is a better and improved version of the Voice over Internet Protocol(VoIP) that allows you to make voice calls using your WiFi connection. This is especially useful for people whose network drops frequently or if your network is down and you need to make emergency calls.

Voice over WiFi generally gives you better call quality than any other voice protocol, such as Voice over LTE(VoLTE), which can only give you reliable and fast communication. If you have a good WiFi connection and are within the range, you can communicate with anyone with clear quality and without any drops.

Are The Carrier Hub and Carrier Hub Magenta Apps Safe?

Yes, Carrier Hub and Carrier Hub Magenta are completely safe apps and are not malware. If anything, they might be borderline bloatware if it comes preinstalled. But since they are mostly useful for the user, they can be considered essential apps.

Issues With The Carrier Hub Apps

As with all apps, even the useful Carrier Hub apps also have a few pros and cons. Some are minor issues but others might cause hindrances to your daily usage. Let us look at a few of them.

Pros

  • The first good thing about the app is undoubtedly its VoWiFi feature that allows you to make calls directly over WiFi. This can help a lot if you have poor network coverage in your area or your mobile device’s connection drops frequently.
  • This one might be a pro or a con, depending on where you stand on how important privacy is to you. Data usage tracking is a feature by which the carrier can diagnose issues with the connection by looking at your device’s usage. This helps the carrier’s support team assist you better in case of any problems with the network. If you don’t want this feature to be turned on, you can disable this in Settings -> Apps -> Carrier Hub -> Turn off Data Usage.

Cons

There are a couple of issues with this app that most users do not face. These issues may be due to some incompatibility with the device since there are many Android devices released every year. Making an app that supports all Androids can generally cause issues like this. Let us see the main issues that arise with the usage of the Carrier Hub apps.

  • High battery usage: Many users reported that the Carrier Hub app was draining their phone’s battery more when it was in use. Since this app runs in the background, most users will not even know what was causing their phone to die out quickly. It is only resolved when the app is disabled or forcefully uninstalled(more on that later). This was the most commonly reported issue.
  • Issues with calls: Some users reported that their call was suddenly dropped, usually after a few minutes into the call. This occurred mostly on calls that were received. Another issue was that some text messages were not received or delivered.
  • Higher data usage: Remember the “pro” that was Data Usage Tracking? Well, that has come to bite back some users as they reported a higher data consumption by the app while monitoring their data usage.
  • Performance drops: Since this app monitors usage in the background, along with higher battery and data usage, the app also causes performance drops. It utilizes the CPU a lot to work even while being a background task. Some users reported their device to be stuttery and laggy, and we can deduce that it was due to Carrier Hub by looking at the CPU usage in the settings.
  • App crashes and bugs: Users have reported that their devices freeze or hang when the app crashes in the background. Although crashes do not occur frequently, the phone almost always freezes or hangs when the app does, disrupting the user’s daily usage. Some have also reported that their alarms ring after installing the app, even if there are no alarms set for the day.

Permissions Needed By The Carrier Hub App

Like most apps, the Carrier Hub app needs some permissions to run either as an active or background process. Let us know about them.

  • Network: Since it is a network carrier app, it is quite understandable that the app requires network permission for it to run properly. Giving access to the network permission means giving access to the WiFi, Mobile Network, and Bluetooth logs.
  • Call Information and Device ID: This allows the app to view the call logs and monitor an ongoing call. It also allows the app to access the identity of your device.
  • Storage: This allows the app to access, read from, write onto, and modify the contents on your device.
  • Location: This gives the app the permission to monitor your GPS data to give you better connectivity based on your location.
  • Device History: This permission allows the app to access and read logs and provides access to the device’s usage statistics.

Should You Keep the Carrier Hub App On Your Phone?

Well, that depends. Do you want access to VoWiFi and better customer support? Then, definitely keep using the app. But are you worried about your privacy? Or are you suffering from the slew of issues this app has? Then, it may be beneficial for you to remove this app from your device.

What To Do If The App Crashes?

In the unfortunate instance that the app crashes, there are a few workarounds that may help you fix the issue.

1. Clearing the Cache Data: This is a common fix for most apps that should also work here.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Tap on Apps.
  3. Search for the Carrier Hub app and tap on it.
  4. Go to the app’s Storage.
  5. Tap on Clear Cache.

2. Force Stop the app: Bear in mind that this option could make your app not work as intended, but it could also fix what was wrong app in the first place. So be warned.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Tap on Apps.
  3. Search for the Carrier Hub app and tap on it.
  4. Tap on Force Stop and hit Confirm.

3. Restart your device: As a last-ditch effort, try restarting your device after you have completed the above fixes. Hopefully, that solved it.

How To Uninstall Carrier Hub?

While you cannot uninstall this app like other apps, you can disable the app or use Android Debug Bridge(ADB) to forcefully remove the app. This limitation is only there if the app was preinstalled when you bought the phone. If the app was installed after buying the device, then it can be uninstalled like any other app.

1. Disabling the app: While this does not remove the app from your device, you can still make the app effectively functionless. Here’s how to disable the Carrier Hub app.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Tap on Apps.
  3. Scroll to the Carrier Hub app and tap on it.
  4. Tap on Disable and hit Confirm.

2. Using ADB to remove the app: Android Debug Bridge(ADB) is an app that allows you to remove preinstalled apps from your phone without rooting. You will need a PC to continue with this method.

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Scroll to System.
  3. Look for and tap on About Phone.
  4. Tap on the Build Number option 7 times.
  5. You are now a developer and can access the developer options.
  6. Now, go back to the About Phone page. Under it should be a new menu: Developer Options. Tap on it. (If it is not there, it may be inside the System menu
  7. Search for USB Debugging and select it.

Now, you will have to use your PC to complete the final steps.

  1. Download the ADB app and extract the files.
  2. After extraction, open the folder the files were extracted to.
  3. Holding down on the Shift key, click on the screen.
  4. A pop-up window will open. Tap on Open PowerShell Window here.
  5. In the PowerShell, type in adb devices.
  6. Now, connect your phone to your PC.
  7. On your phone, input pm uninstall -k -user 0 and the app name after the 0, and run it. Wait till the app is uninstalled.

Conclusion

Carrier Hub is an app that could be beneficial for most while proving problematic to some. In the end, it is your wish if you want to keep the app for the wonderful feature that is VoWiFi.

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