Bria Best Practices - for Reliability and Sound Quality

Getting Started

When setting up your softphones, some settings should be enabled to ensure they behave in a way that makes sense - particularly Bria Mobile.  Then, running some test calls is a good idea, so that you can become familiar with how to manipulate your network settings to get the best connectivity possible.

When you begin using your softphones, it is a good idea to place calls over Wifi, mobile data, and wired connections from common work locations. Upon implementation, we encourage you to simulate your usual workflow to ensure that you'll see good call quality at each location. There is no substitute for real-world testing, preferably under normal traffic load conditions. The results from taking these steps will help mitigate any surprises, and guarantee an accurate depiction of the call quality you can expect.

Enabling Notifications

First, it is important to allow notifications so that your Bria app will properly alert you to incoming calls.  Make sure you allowed the settings that Bria Enterprise requested upon first login.

If you are unsure which settings you allowed, you can always check and adjust them in your phone’s Settings app.

Simply scroll down the main settings page, until you see a list of your apps. They should be listed in alphabetical order, which makes it easier to find ‘Bria Enterprise’.

• Local Network - Allows access to WiFi
• Microphone - Needed to capture audio
• Notifications - Needed to receive calls when not using the app
• Cellular Data - Allows access to your mobile data plan

Some additional optional settings are: 

• Contacts - allows access to the contacts on your phone (both personal and business)
• Face ID / Touch ID - Remembers sign in information 

Call Quality and the Bria Desktop App

When using your home or office network, you will receive the best connection when wired in via ethernet cable.  Available bandwidth (the 'speed' of your connection) is not as important as minimizing latency and congestion over it. Consistency is key - and a wired connection reduces the variables that are present with Wifi and LTE networks.  Using a wired connection can help guarantee a clear connection for both SIP phones and Bria Desktop devices.

Prioritizing VoIP traffic at the router (using a feature called QoS) is also a great idea, to ensure consistent call quality at all hours of the day, no matter what else your Internet connection might be used for at that time.  Voice traffic is very sensitive to any kind of delay or interruption - you can’t resend parts of the conversation, or wait for parts to eventually show up.  That means that even if your network does a great job of web browsing and streaming YouTube, it still may not deliver HD Audio on VoIP calls.

Call Quality and the Bria Mobile App

While using Bria on your mobile device, it is useful to remember that you’ll often have access to 2 different networks: WiFi and mobile data.  Generally speaking, your cellphone should receive a stronger signal from LTE or 4G (data plan) compared to what it will get over WiFi.  Connection quality varies wildly from location to location, and we recommend trying both in order to determine which is best for you.  If you’re concerned about cell phone data usage, this may help: VoIP call data consumption ranges between 0.5MB and 1.3MB per call minute - about 1/8th of what watching a YouTube video uses.

Something we don’t often think about is that our mobile phones aren’t actually very good at using Wifi: their Wifi antennas aren’t nearly as powerful as those found on our laptops or desktop computers - or the cellular antenna that they also carry.  When using Wifi, you will benefit from using a powerful router (with a good antenna) located in a good place for connecting from multiple places within your home, and by avoiding spots that will interfere with the transmission: appliances, concrete walls, even some electrical wiring.

As a rule of thumb, here is the hierarchy of connectivity methods and the consistency of quality they can be expected to provide:

1. A wired connection and Bria desktop is the best: only a dedicated desktop IP phone will provide more consistently good quality.
2. Then, a WiFi connection and Bria desktop: laptops and desktop computers have better WiFi antennas than mobile phones do.  However, these calls can present trouble when the signal isn't great, there is interference present, or your Internet connection is busy with other traffic.
3. The Bria Mobile app running calls over your mobile data network comes a close 3rd, and can often outperform Wifi: these can be great calls, but if you try to use Bria mobile in places you have 'two bars' of connectivity or less, or in other 'dead zones', you can run into issues.
4. Using Bria Mobile over WiFi: this can work decently over very strong WiFi, but we've found that this type of connection is extremely sensitive as mobile phones do not have strong WiFi antennas.

Settings Preferences

Corvum establishes your default settings when provisioning your Softphones, but some settings should be reviewed or adjusted as we cannot control them.

Native Integration (available on iOS devices running iOS 10+)

Preferences - Call Handling

Native integration determines the way Bria interacts with the native phone. 

• When Settings > Preferences > Native Integration is on, Bria works with the native dialer and native contacts. 
• When Settings > Preferences > Native Integration is off, native calls take priority over Bria calls.

Benefits

• Easier to answer Bria Enterprise calls when a device is locked. No need to rely on a small notification or unlock the screen
• A native incoming call no longer takes over an ongoing Bria Enterprise call; it is presented as Call Waiting. You now have a chance to tell the person that you have to pick up another call. You can also switch between native call and Bria Enterprise call
• All Bria Enterprise calls are captured in the native dialer call history, with option to click on an entry to call back using Bria Enterprise