Calls don’t ring on Android

If incoming Dixl calls only ring for a few seconds before the screen turns off and the call is lost, the cause is almost always your phone’s vendor-specific power management killing the app in the background.

Quick checklist

Run through these in order — most users are fixed after the Xiaomi block.

1. Test notifications first. Open Dixl › Settings › Notifications › Test notification. If the test does not arrive, fix Notifications before you continue.
2. Battery optimization is disabled. See Battery optimization for the exclude-from-optimization step. The default Android Unrestricted setting alone is not enough on Xiaomi, Huawei, OnePlus and OPPO devices.
3. The phone has a working internet connection — open a browser and load a page.
4. Do Not Disturb is off, or Dixl is on the exception list (system Settings › Sounds › Do Not Disturb).

Why calls drop after about five seconds (Xiaomi / MIUI)

This is the single most common report. The bug pattern:

• Phone screen is off and locked.
• Incoming call rings for roughly five seconds.
• Screen does not fully wake up.
• Ringing stops, the missed-call notification appears.

What happens under the hood: MIUI’s task killer evicts Dixl from memory the moment the screen locks. When the next call arrives, Google FCM has to cold-start the whole app from disk, which on a typical phone takes about a second. The OS gives the app a 10-second window to wake the screen and launch the call activity. MIUI then refuses the call activity permission to appear on top of the lock screen — that permission is off by default — so the activity times out and the call dies before the screen even fully wakes up.

The fix is four Xiaomi-specific settings, all under Settings › Apps › Manage apps › Dixl:

1. Battery saver › No restrictions.
2. Autostart › On.
3. Other permissions › enable all three:
   • Display pop-up windows while running in background
   • Show on Lock screen
   • Display pop-up windows
4. Recent apps › swipe down on the Dixl card → tap the lock icon (pin app in memory).

After all four are applied, the bug disappears completely. The first three are MIUI-specific permissions that are not part of standard Android, so Dixl cannot grant them at install time — only you can, manually, once.

Other vendors with similar restrictions

If you are not on Xiaomi but calls still drop, check the vendor-specific block in Battery optimization. The shape of the fix is the same:

• Mark Dixl as protected from background killing.
• Allow the call activity to launch on top of the lock screen.
• Pin or whitelist the app in the device’s task manager.

iPhone / iOS

iOS uses Apple Push Notification Service for calls, which is delivered with much higher reliability than Android FCM. If iOS calls do not ring:

• Settings › Notifications › Dixl — Allow Notifications must be on, and Sounds must be enabled.
• Settings › Focus — make sure the active Focus mode (Do Not Disturb, Sleep, Work, etc.) is not silencing Dixl.
• Settings › General › Background App Refresh — must be on for Dixl.
• If the phone is on CarPlay, ringing may follow the car’s call routing, not the phone speaker.

Still doesn’t work

• Restart the phone — many Android vendors only fully apply background-killing changes after a reboot.
• Reinstall Dixl — some vendors silently revoke MIUI-style permissions when the app is updated.
• If the test notification works but real calls still drop, contact support with the model of your phone and the OS version (Settings › About phone).