Q: iOS 9: Wi-Fi Assist
Hello all,
The new "Wi-Fi Assist" on iOS 9 (About Wi-Fi Assist - Apple Support) has been a hot topic lately so I decided to take a closer look at it.
On the above article Apple says that:
"With Wi-Fi Assist, you can stay connected to the Internet even if you have a poor Wi-Fi connection. For example, if you're using Safari with a poor Wi-Fi connection and a webpage doesn't load, Wi-Fi Assist will activate and automatically switch to cellular so that the webpage continues to load. You can use Wi-Fi Assist with most apps like Safari, Apple Music, Mail, Maps, and more."
By reading that you would conclude, by using regular logic, that if such function is "Off" then Data won't kick-in even if the Wi-Fi connection is poor/weak, however, it isn't the case, at least on my testing it wasn't:
- Running iOS 9.1 on an iPhone 5s.
- Currently Roaming internationally so "Data Roaming" is "On".
- Safari was used to load different pages.
- Since I own an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) I could see on my system exactly when a Data session was being activated and actual Bytes were being transfered.
Result: Whether the "Wi-Fi Assist" is On or Off was totally irrelevant, it always switched to Data if the Wi-Fi signal was extremely low or was lost.
Also, on Apple's article they also state:
"Wi-Fi Assist will not automatically switch to cellular if you're data roaming."
This wasn't true on my testing as Data Roaming was "On" and it did automatically switch to Data when the Wi-Fi signal was extremely low or was lost.
The purpose of this post is to see if a Senior Apple developer in the iOS reads it and can comment on this.
Best,
iPhone 5s, iOS 9.1
Posted on Nov 3, 2015 7:16 PM
Senior Developers do not read Apple Support Communities. Actually, no one from Apple reads these forums; they are user-to-user support forums.
When WiFi is extremely low the connection will be lost entirely or intermittently, and will iOS will switch to cellular, as it always has, regardless of the setting of WiFi Assist. WiFi Assist is different; if the WiFi connection is solid but the data rate is slower than cellular it will switch to cellular if WiFi Assist is on, and will not if it is off. These are two different situations.
Posted on Nov 4, 2015 10:33 AM