I’ve got a business VOIP phone number through a service that uses an app called Corporate Phone, and lately I’ve noticed I’m missing calls. The app simply does not cause the phone to ring, does not show any notification about a missed call, or anything. I may have to make a switch if they can’t fix this.

Does anyone have a recommendation for an affordable VOIP phone service that’s reliable? And does anyone know if it’s possible to keep your number if you switch to a different VOIP provider?

@thomasareed
check you phone app settings. on my Samsung android apps are "optimized" by default, and if you don't use an app much the os puts it to sleep to save battery. not sure if that's a Samsung thing or general android. some of my communication apps I've had to explicitly set to unoptimized or "never sleeping" or I would miss notifications

I don't know if there's an equivalent problem on iPhones.

@dveditz There is an equivalent issue on iPhones, where if the app isn’t used for a while it gets shut down and stops getting any processing time. That was a real PITA when I was working on a security app that needed to update web blocking databases. Push notifications should get around that, though.

In my case, the problem has happened less than 30 minutes after I was using the app, when the app should have been fully functional and running in the background, yet still didn’t notify me in any way.

@thomasareed
the app killer on my Samsung is more aggressive than the old "havent used it in a while" one. they learn your usage patterns, and if you don't use an app much they will shut it down, even background notifications, relatively soon after you switch to another app. I had this problem with Signal, for instance, because most of my friends don't use it so I didn't get messages often.
@dveditz That’s wild! iOS is far less vigorous than that, and makes exceptions for push notifications, so I’ve never missed a message in apps like Signal even if I go for a month or more without opening it.