45min Free Call Preparation

If you were redirected here after you scheduled your call, it means that your request was sent, yet it still needs confirmation!


Please keep checking your Email for confirmation of your booking with all details.

Be sure to also check your Spam folder - especially for Proton Mail & Gmail.


If you don't see any Email from us until the meeting, please reach out to us directly. either via Email or via the đź’¬ chat support button bottom right on abovephone.com.


The following article is a guide on how you can prepare yourself and your phone to get the most out of a support call with our team - we recommend to take all topics covered here into consideration beforehand.

Feel free to bookmark this website to review it again later.

Please note:

Support calls are usually NOT regular phone calls. Instead we use the online platform Jitsi Meet.


0. Prepare your devices …and yourself

In order to get most out of the call, consider preparing a list of things to accomplish and migrate, and please try to get all the devices and login credentials ready for the call.

For more complex tasks and longer sessions, like migration sessions, we recommend to prepare more extensively. Think ahead of your strategy - more... Get all devices / credentials / data ready

Depending on what you want to achieve, please try to think ahead of all the devices, data and information you may need along the way for those specific goals. Examples:


1. Prepare your Above Phone

a. Connect to Internet

swipe down from top > tap Internet

swipe down from top > tap Internet

To have a proper starting point we recommend to already connect the phone to the internet before the call. You can do so either with WiFi, via an Ethernet adapter or with mobile data from the Above DataSIM (or any other active SIM card you may have).


Explore these options in the device settings section:

Settings (âš™ gear icon from home screen) > Network & Internet


Another quick way to activate and connect to WiFi through the quick settings (swipe down from the very top of the screen) as shown in the picture to the right.


Check on the top right of your screen to monitor your active connections.


b. (if purchased) Set up your VPN

If you have an active Above Suite subscription, you can already Register your account and set up Above VPN.

If you use any other VPN service, you can install their respective app via https://learn.above.im/s/12aef602-75ec-4367-b619-07ad051e2a6f/doc/aurora-store-2z46JqsrVu or https://learn.above.im/s/12aef602-75ec-4367-b619-07ad051e2a6f/doc/f-droid-basic-ZMmhqBgrdv and log in to get set up. (Note: Mullvad VPN is on F-Droid).

key icon refers to active VPN

key icon refers to active VPN


Once set up, check if you see a small key symbol towards the top right of the screen where the battery shows - this means that the VPN is active. Please try out to if the internet (still) works as expected. (ex. try using the search field from the home screen)


Additional VPN settings: Settings > Network & Internet > VPN

All active VPN apps will be listed in here.

By tapping on the gear icon to the right you can define a VPN to connect automatically: 'Always-on VPN'

In this menu you can also decide whether or not your device should Block connections without the VPN (VPN kill-switch).

With the VPN kill-switch enabled, it will block you from the internet if your VPN is not working!


c. Update the operating system (OS)

Once the phone is connected to the internet, it should automatically show you pending system updates in the notifications - pull down once from the very top of the screen to see them in detail in the notifications section. If there is an update, it will download automatically and ask you to restart the device.

Once your device is up-to-date, you will see the following in the notification section.


If you want to be sure whether the latest update is installed, to manually check for a new one or just to get more options, you can navigate to:

Settings > System > System Update

Installing an update may take 3-15 minutes in total. You may be prompted to reboot your device and it may take a while to start and set itself up.


After a complete reboot, It will still take some minutes to finish 'Optimizing apps'. Check the progress in the notifications section (swipe down from very top) and tap on App restart when finished.


d. Update installed Apps

Most of the apps are in constant development and may have major improvements in newer versions.

Please consider taking some time to update all the apps to their latest versions using F-Droid Basic. You'll need an active internet connection for this.

Open F-Droid Basic > go to Updates > swipe down in the middle of the screen to refresh
> wait while it's updating repositories > install all available updates

Here is a detailed guide: https://learn.above.im/s/12aef602-75ec-4367-b619-07ad051e2a6f/doc/updating-apps-PTWgV6rJuD


e. (if purchased) Register Above Suite account

This section is only relevant if you purchased the optional Above Suite

Video tutorial to register Above Suite. After making the purchase of the Above Privacy Suite (APS), you will get an Email to the address you provided with the subject line: “Above Privacy Suite” It will give you a link to the website where you can create your new account on our private servers:

register.above.im

On this site in the field for CUSTOMER EMAIL just put in the Email that you originally made the purchase with.


Then feel free to define the username & password for your new APS account.

We recommend to use a strong password (and save it in a password manager like KeePassXC / KeePassDX or Bitwarden).

Once your account is created you will get another Email to your Customer Email with the subject:
"Your Above Privacy Suite Account Information"

You are now ready to use your accounts and services from your Above Privacy Suite!


2. Joining the call on Jitsi Meet

You can join the Jitsi call from any device. We recommend to join the call directly from a computer. It should work with any modern web browser, with the required permissions enabled.

Hint: We found that one of the most reliable ways to have everything working is to use the Jitsi Meet standalone app - it can be downloaded for Linux, macOS and Windows respectively from this link: https://github.com/jitsi/jitsi-meet-electron/releases


Link to join your Jitsi call

To join the call via the web browser, just click the link provided to you in the confirmation Email:

Note that the exact link for the call depends on whoever will be assisting you.

Example: Link for a 45min Free Call with luk:

https://jitsi.above.im/45-luk


Details for the time & call link were sent to your Email address as well.

Using Jitsi on different platforms

For computers, just click the link we provided via Email or open a web browser and put in the URL into the web address bar.

Be sure to provide the required permissions inside the browser, as well as in the system settings of your operating system.

You can check your setup inside a Jitsi call in the Settings menu, inside the â‹Ż three dots menu.

Full guide for using Jitsi on Computers: https://learn.above.im/s/12aef602-75ec-4367-b619-07ad051e2a6f/doc/jitsi-on-computers-laptops-desktop-zps9zdODuu


For iOS devices:
install the Jitsi App from Apple's App Store.


For Android devices:
We recommend getting the Jitsi app through F-Droid. Jitsi Meet is also available on Google Play Store.

On the Above Phone, you'll have the Jitsi Meet already installed.



Joining the call via the Jitsi Meet app on your phone

  1. Open the Jitsi Meet app on your device. It's a blue / white genie icon.

  2. You should see a text field saying Enter room name - it will generate a random string of words int there. Tap on it and enter the complete URL that was provided in the Email - ex. https://jitsi.above.im/45-gaius


    The room name refers to the duration of the call

    The room name refers to the duration of the call


  3. Then just tap on the blue button labeled CREATE / JOIN
    It will take you to the lobby of the meeting room where you can first test your microphone and camera. Be sure to accept the permissions here!

  4. Just tap on Join Meeting to jump on the call!


  1. Once in the call, you can activate the 🎤 microphone and the 📷 camera using the buttons of the navigation menu on the bottom side of the screen - be sure to allow the permissions when prompted!


Jitsi Meet is open source, decentralized and does not harvest any sensitive data.


Note: for 'Screen sharing' to work the camera permission is required.


Caution: When connecting to the same call with multiple devices that are near to each other!
Be sure that before you enter the call with a new device, stay ready to disconnect the first device from the call or turn off the microphone and mute the sound / speaker completely on one device! Otherwise it will create a very distracting audio noise loop with the nearby devices “hearing” each other.


General info on Jitsi

Jitsi Meet is a decentralized video conferencing platform that respects your privacy (unlike Zoom, Skype, Google Meet, Duo, etc.). It can be used on all the popular platforms and even through a web browser without requiring any account or personal data of any sort - this is why we use it for our calls. We are running our very own instance of Jitsi on our own servers, making all data traffic independent of Big Tech.

Feel free to check out our guides on https://learn.above.im/s/12aef602-75ec-4367-b619-07ad051e2a6f/doc/jitsi-meet-video-conferencing-WBfseR6tfd to learn more about all the features and ways to use it.


3. Showing up for the call

In order to get the most out of the call we encourage you to show up a few minutes early so that there’s time to check your audio & video and fix any issues you might face (usually by providing missing permissions).

When joining the Jitsi call be sure to double check the URL link of the chatroom, as explained further up.


In anticipation of the meeting, you may want to consider the time zone differences of your call request:

  • The 'Booking Submitted' Email will list the 'Invitee time zone' which is supposed to be your time zone.

  • The 'Event Invitation' Email will list the time zone of the support engineer that will be assisting you.

If you are not sure about the time zones: https://time.is/


Please note that the call will be canceled if you are not on the call room within 10 minutes after the scheduled time.

If you can not make it after all, please let us know as soon as possible. If you cancel at least 12 hours before the set appointment, we are happy to reschedule the call for you.

If we don’t get a cancellation notice from you, the call may be counted as completed.


Click here to see all our support options, like additional Support Calls or sign up for a support plan.


We look forward to supporting you in your efforts to achieve robust digital privacy!