[kingweb]

I have an Apple Watch cellular but not hooked up to a cellular plan. So essentially it is working as a non-cellular model.

If I am at home, but I leave my phone in my house and go out in my backyard with my watch, I can't really take calls on the watch, since it is far from the phone and the bluetooth signal is weak. Still connected, but weak. However, my wifi is strong in my yard. But the only way to get my watch to actually connect and use the wifi is to shut off bluetooth on the watch forcing it to disconnect from the phone.
This way I can make good quality phone calls with the watch using wifi calling. However, this doesn't seem to me to be the way Apple intended. It just seems like too much of a manual process and hassle to do this all the time if I get near the edge of the bluetooth signal from my phone.
Is there a better way to manage this?

Then there is this:
In cellular settings on my iphone (AT&T), under wifi calling, I have wifi calling on. But below that setting is another setting labled "Allow wifi calling for other devices even when Iphone is NOT nearby." This is off, and even when I turn it on, it just turns itself back off if I leave this menu and come right back. I'm not sure why it keeps turning itself off, but since it is off, shouldn't that theoretically prevent my apple watch from making/receiving calls? It doesn't. I can still make calls with the watch even though this setting is off. My phone wifi is off. So the watch and phone are not on the same wifi network. The phone and watch are not connected via bluetooth either.
So how can I still make calls? Why does this setting keep turning itself off after I turn it on, and behave like its on? My Macbook also offers me to make and receive calls even though it is off.

The other setting called "calls on other devices when near iphone and on wifi" is switched off, yet when I am one menu level up from it, it shows on.

The whole calls on other devices has always seemed to me to big one big sloppy mess that apple made. Very unclear and has never seemed to work as intended.

Am I missing something?

[imwjl]

The whole calls on other devices has always seemed to me to big one big sloppy mess that apple made. Very unclear and has never seemed to work as intended.

Am I missing something?

It reads like you are missing a cellular plan and possibly missing the network quality needed. At work we use around 200 Apple mobile devices and Internet telephony with a group of staff having the continuity/handoff with their iPhones, MacBooks and Apple Watches. No problems with Cisco Meraki WiFi. At home my Ubiquiti meshed WiFi is strong and works well outside of the house and the yard. The Ubiquiti Amplifi SOHO brand they have is clearly better than the craptacular WiFi most people get with thier ISPs and other department/discount store brands.

Still, nothing will be as good as having a cellular plan if you want to count on your watch.

There can be some imperfect moments moving around outside of my house likely from bluetooth distance and WiFi meshing for some apps that are usually fixed by toggling airplane mode or turning cellular on or on/off or off/on. Nothing in that to have me dissatisfied with how it works or unreliable. I still do a lot of phone calls and am the person on call most of the time to have this overall confidence.

[Trees]

Based upon https://support.apple.com/guide/watc...d7a95e/watchos and the "Make calls over Wi-Fi" section, it appears that you should be able to make a WiFi call with Apple Watch. Maybe try turning off the iPhone and see if the problem occurs, as this test would remove the Apple Watch to iPhone Bluetooth connection variable. If that test reveals the same problem, then perhaps contacting Apple Support could help.

[kingweb]

Based upon https://support.apple.com/guide/watc...d7a95e/watchos and the "Make calls over Wi-Fi" section, it appears that you should be able to make a WiFi call with Apple Watch. Maybe try turning off the iPhone and see if the problem occurs, as this test would remove the Apple Watch to iPhone Bluetooth connection variable. If that test reveals the same problem, then perhaps contacting Apple Support could help.

You missed my entire point. I don’t have any issue with signal or call quality.
My issue is 2 things.
1. Settings in the iPhone don’t match reality of what is happening and are very unclear.

2. I don’t have a cellular plan on my watch. Don’t use it enough to justify the cost. But it would be nice if there was an easy way of forcing it to use Wi-Fi and not Bluetooth to make calls.

[Lee_Bo]

2. I don’t have a cellular plan on my watch. Don’t use it enough to justify the cost. But it would be nice if there was an easy way of forcing it to use Wi-Fi and not Bluetooth to make calls.

If it’s $10/mo, then it’s worth it and you’ll discover very quickly just how much you’ll use it. It’s very nice to be able to go on a walk or bike ride or even take my kayak out and leave my phone behind and still stay connected.

[kingweb]

If it’s $10/mo, then it’s worth it and you’ll discover very quickly just how much you’ll use it. It’s very nice to be able to go on a walk or bike ride or even take my kayak out and leave my phone behind and still stay connected.

But that won’t solve what I wrote.
If I am in range of the phone, the watch wil prefer the phone over the cellular too just like it prefers the phone over the Wi-Fi.

[Lee_Bo]

But that won’t solve what I wrote.
If I am in range of the phone, the watch wil prefer the phone over the cellular too just like it prefers the phone over the Wi-Fi.

Actually it is ONE solution to your dilemma. It’ll just cost you money.