“In Apple’s release of iOS 9 beta 5 this week, several new features were revealed,” Amit Chowdhry reports for Forbes. “The highlights in iOS 9 beta 5 includes Wi-Fi Assist and Wi-Fi calling for AT&T.”
“iPhones generally connect to a Wi-Fi connection whenever one is detected. Sometimes the Wi-Fi connection may stop working or slow down, but the iPhone device usually stays connected to it,” Chowdhry reports. “Wi-Fi Assist solves that problem by automatically disconnecting your iPhone from the bad connection and switching to cellular data. Without the Wi-Fi Assist feature, you would have to disable Wi-Fi on the iPhone or move far away from the signal to prevent your device from continuing to use a bad signal.”
“The Wi-Fi Assist feature can be toggled on and off under the ‘Cellular’ menu in the ‘Settings’ app in iOS 9,” Chowdhry reports. “To indicate when your iPhone switches from Wi-Fi to a cellular data connection, the Wi-Fi icon will turn gray as the device connects to cellular data.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Having iPhone and iPad automatically use cellular data when Wi-Fi connectivity is poor via Wi-Fi Assist is certainly a useful addition to iOS.
It is long past time when Apple should have worked out it’s many WiFi issues
I am using powerbeats2 wireless and Parrot Zik 2.0 with iPhone6 and MBP15… works almost perfect UNTIL…
Until WiFi is activated 🙁
#applebluetoothblackoutwhenwifi
Great addition.
Given that I have multiple access points in my home, with separate SSIDs, I’d love to see analogous WIFI behavior where the iPhone would switch to the closer access point when moving to a different room. (Where the first signal was very weak)
It’s really the same idea, and something I’ve wanted for a long time.
I have this same problem in my house, I just named all the SSIDs the same and used the same encryption.
By doing that my devices just choose the strongest signal
In my experience that’s not at all the case .
The iPhone always DOES use the stronger signal when first establishing a connection, whether there are multiple SSIDs or not.
However, when you’re device is already connected and maintaining a connection while changing rooms (such as when the device is kept on or the screen is off for a short time), it keeps the weaker connection while moving between rooms. And that’s been true for me with separate or common SSIDs.
Of course it’s much harder to tell what’s going on when you use the same SSIDs
What fixes it for me now, when that happens is: I have to turn wifi off in the control panel and then turn it on again, and then it uses the stronger of the access points. That works for single or multiple SSIDs
Pete
One more note Daniel
I’m definitely not saying you’re wrong in the description of your experience.
I think your former bad experience may likely occur when two SSIDs are both available at the same location, at some MINIMUM threshold signal strength, at the moment of first establishing a connection.
I think it’s possible that in those situations (when using multiple SSIDs) one of those SSIDs may have a higher priority independent of signal strength.
For those kinds of living/working situations (where the locations you’re likely to be using the net will be getting decently strong signals from multiple SSIDs), I believe there IS an advantage in using the same SSID for your multiple access points
Pete
Here on my ranch I have 5 indoor access points (ranch house, workshop, stables, barn and auxiliary barn) and 4 outdoor long range access points. I use Ubiquiti access points with “Zero-Handoff Roaming” enabled. APs cost from $60 each, and rival Cisco in their feature set. One SSID (I also have a guest SSID) and the iPhone moves seamlessly between APs, selecting the strongest one.
I’ll just put this out there now…
If Apple turns on Wi-Fi Assist by default, they can pay the bill the next time we go over on our data because my router at home died. Still connected all the time. But never passing any data, so it shows to be connected. Don’t tell me I should pay more attention to the Wi-Fi logo – I’m at home (or work) 90% of the time I use my phone, and it is simply expected to be on Wi-Fi at those times.
I understand the benefits in seamless operation. But I foresee a class action lawsuit for this one coming, too.
Man, you just can’t please everyone.
Feel free to pay SJB’s cellular bill. Wi-Fi Assist better be optional.