Methods and apparatus to manage communication sessions to handover between a direct connection at a secondary wireless device and a relayed connection to the secondary wireless device via a primary wireless device. A connection manager of a secondary wireless device can trigger transfer of a communication session based on measurements of performance metrics for the communication session. Upon detection of performance degradation in a local connection or a backhaul connection or both, the connection manager of the secondary wireless device can determine proximity of and/or capabilities for connections of the primary wireless device and instigate transfer of the communication session between different connection types, such as between a direct connection and a relayed connection. The transfer of the communication session can occur without user intervention or in response to input from the user without interrupting or reestablishing the communication session.