“Unable to Switch Calls” on Android

On my Android phones, I seemed to have an issue when I would be on the phone and a second call would arrive triggering the call waiting notification. However, when I wanted to put my first call on hold and answer the second call I would get the following message on my phone:

“Unable to switch calls.”

Ultimately, this left me in a scramble to wrap up my current call, hang up and then answer the second call. Not the most ideal situation particularly when I found out that the second call wasn’t terribly important compared to the first call.

Now, I had already enabled call waiting both on the phone and also online in my mobile account and done the obligatory disable and re-enable of call waiting to make sure nothing was stuck in the various systems on the mobile network – no dice. So, I ended up calling Amaysim to see if they could help me out.

Anyway, the fellow who answered at Amaysim turned call waiting off and on again and asked me to wait five minutes before rebooting my phone and giving it a shot. However, during the course of the conversation, we discussed both “call waiting” and “call conferencing”. Call waiting was as I understood it: being able to receive a notification of a second phone call and being able to answer or switch between calls. Call conferencing allowed you to merge two or more calls into the same call.

Out of curiosity, I asked the representative on the phone to submit a request to enable call conferencing on my service which would take time to go through as it was a manual process. Anyway, after twenty four hours, I was able to use call waiting as intended presuming that my request for activating call conferencing went through.

At the end of the day, if you get the error message “Unable to switch calls” then give your carrier a call and, if they have the capability for call conferencing, ask them to enable it and it could fix this problem for you.

9 comments

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    • Andrew on February 25, 2013 at 01:05
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    Hi Boyd,

    I have had the same problem and I am on Amaysim too.
    However despite adjusting my call waiting setting I still receive the same error.

    Can you indicate whether you use a custom rom or the stock rom?
    I am on Samsung Galaxy S3 I9300..

    Just needed to know in order to solve this problem.

    Cheers

    Andrew

    1. Hey Andrew,

      I used the stock ROM on my Galaxy S III but did you get Amaysim to enable “call conferencing” on your service (which is different to call waiting)?

      If not, I am not sure if Amaysim still support such requests as I remember seeing them advise that they no longer support these requests on their Facebook page. The worst that could happen is that you give them a call and they say they cannot submit a request to Optus for you to enable it (which would be a great shame).

    • Dan on March 28, 2013 at 00:24
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    Hi Boyd,

    Great to find your article, I’ve been having the same problem. I’m with TPG, (also Optus network) thanks will ask them about the call conference setting tomorrow.

    Dan

    1. Please let us know how you go as I am sure there would be others interested in knowing the outcome 🙂

    • Ben on July 24, 2013 at 08:13
    • Reply

    Hi Boyd,

    Called amaysim today and no joy. Call conferencing has been restricted on the amaysim network. Does your phone still allow you to switch calls?

    1. Yes, my phone still allows me to do call conferencing. I believe it was simply a request that was sent through to Optus to enable this functionality but from a few reports it seems like this is no longer entertained.

    • Krishna on February 9, 2017 at 16:17
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    Hi

    I am with Amaysim and it is sad, that while you are on a call(if the caller does not respond it goes to the voice-message), when a new call comes in, my phone does not allow me to disconnect the existing call so that I can pick the new call, this is horrendous thing to be fixed by amalysim ASAP

    • Khyati on August 20, 2017 at 11:36
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    Yes, joined amysim few months ago. And whenever I tried to switch calls, error message showed “unable to switch calls”. I enabled call waiting and tried again but no luck. On top, when I received a call when already on call, I couldn’t pick up the second call this I had to ask the person to hang up that allowed me to pick up another call. Amysim needs to fix this issue. I tried to give them call. But they cannot fix it as their service doesn’t provide it. Alas!

    • Rena on July 19, 2022 at 01:00
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    I have 3 sims with Amaysim. 2 work ones and one private. One of my work phones allows call conferencing and the other 2 don’t.
    The 2 that don’t had call waiting switched off so I turned it on. Restarted the phone – no luck. Switched the sim to the phone that conferencing works in – no luck.
    Called amaysim today and was told that they don’t provide that service and told her it’s impossible as I’m receiving that service on at least one amaysim sim and have been for at least 8 years. Sent through an escalation request. Fingers crossed, they enable it on my other sim.
    I did all this before I read the blog so I am assuming i was one of the lucky ones who Optus switched on that feature when I joined all those years ago.

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