The Samsung Galaxy Note 20 and Galaxy Note 20 Ultra are some of the most powerful smartphones you can buy right now. The culmination of the best flagship technologies, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 20 flagships feature premium hardware. You can find Samsung’s Exynos 990 chip on global units, while US models are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus SoC – although there is a caveat with US models.
Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Forums ||| Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra forums
The catch is that there is another line between the US carrier (model number ending in U) and variants unlocked by the US carrier (model number ended with U1). Some carrier baked features such as Video over LTE (ViLTE) and Rich Communication Services (RCS) are not accessible on the unlocked Galaxy Note 20 model even after inserting the carrier SIM card. Interestingly, there are no internal hardware differences between these two variants, which means that users who bought the phone at full retail are at a disadvantage compared to users who went for a carrier-based contract.
If you specifically purchased the Note 20 unlocked for a bloat-free experience, you would be happy to know that XDA-recognized developer Warriorvibhu has successfully enabled native video calling over LTE, RCS and other carrier features on this variant. The developer has also come up with an elaborate guide that uses the Google Phone app to access hidden IMS settings and then activate the required settings.
How to activate ViLTE and RCS on the unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note 20
- Download and install the Google Phone app.
- Open Google Phone and make it your default phone app.
- Dial
*#*#467#*#*
to open the IMS settings. - Press “IMS Service Switch”. Then make sure the “MMTEL switch” and “RCS switch” are turned on. Also activate all MMTEL sub-options.
- Go back to the main page, then tap on “RCS Configuration” settings. Make sure the underlying options are configured as “Always connect”.
- (Optional) You can now change the default phone app from Google Phone to Samsung’s stock dialer.
- Enjoy ViLTE and RCS on your unlocked Samsung Galaxy Note 20!
Note that the stock contacts app’s default video calling option always points to Google Duo. You must make a regular voice call to a contact and select the native video call icon to properly use ViLTE. Additionally, you may need to turn off the chat features of Google Messages for RCS to work on Samsung Messages.