As others have said, I think this feature should be off by default, or at least present users with the choice.
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Apple Attempts to Ease Concerns Over Wi-Fi Assist Data Usage
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The same way that Wi-Fi Calling is opt-in (because of the cons, like "911 limitations" [which I really don't find that limiting, anyhow]), Wi-Fi Assist should also be opt-in.
I see Wi-Fi Calling as the converse to Wi-Fi Assist: Wi-Fi Calling jumps in to help out when your cell signal is poor. In like fashion, Wi-Fi Assist jumps in to help out when your Wi-Fi is faltering.
It would only be logical to have both features be opt-in.
I see Wi-Fi Calling as the converse to Wi-Fi Assist: Wi-Fi Calling jumps in to help out when your cell signal is poor. In like fashion, Wi-Fi Assist jumps in to help out when your Wi-Fi is faltering.
It would only be logical to have both features be opt-in.
My experience with this feature, marginal. In the city, auto connected to a weak wifi, switched to 4LTE, wifi got a bit stronger, switched back, then back to 4LTE, repeat often. Net results slow network. Turned off wifi and all well. Your suggestions are a much better approach then Apples at this time.
There are a few apps that do exactly that. My Data Manager is one; you can enter your data cap, bill start date, and custom alarms for when you get close to it. It also has a Today widget that keeps you updated with cellular and wi-fi usage.
What irks me is not that it's on automatically. I'm tech savvy enough to have learned about the feature and turn it off if I need to.
What I wanna know is why it's placed in such an unaccessible location. It's like Apple put it as an afterthought, making it completely undiscoverable to anyone who didn't know such a feature existed.
What I wanna know is why it's placed in such an unaccessible location. It's like Apple put it as an afterthought, making it completely undiscoverable to anyone who didn't know such a feature existed.
Are there still bums out there with 2gb data plans? That's like the equivalent of "I'm out of texts", or "Call me after 9".
I have a 2GB plan and will likely switch to a 1GB before too long, I have wifi almost everywhere I need internet access so why would I want to pay more for data I don't need. I turned off data assist, but my wifi was good enough that it hadn't really hurt me too much as far as data usage goes.
We’re not thinking about this logically. Users can still decide which apps are allowed to use cellular data and which can’t (Settings > Cellular > Use Cellular Data For:). If you've granted an app permission to use cellular data then you shouldn't mind when it does. You did so for convenience. Granted, you might spend most of your day in the vicinity of WiFi networks but if their signals are weak, or they are congested, or their data connection is slow, then you’ll complain that your Internet performance is slow or intermittent. Wifi Assist to the rescue. Turning it off will preserve some of your data but turning off an app’s cellular access altogether will preserve much more.
Check out My Data Manager. Does exactly what you want. I use this when I'm overseas and using a local SIM for data. That doesn't happen often since I have T-Mobile and simply use their free international data, but the app is pretty nice.
You’re right. It’s hypocritical. Fortunately for me, I’m a T-mobile customer. T-mobile doesn’t deduct data when you use music streaming services like Apple Music.
Part of me wonders if much of the bump in data usage people are seeing with iOS9 isn't more related to the increased size of photos being uploaded to iCloud over cellular. I recently got a 6s and gave my daughter my 6 (upgraded from a 5). So, not only did the size of my photos increase, the size of hers increased as well. If I'm not off base with this thought process, it further makes me wish for the ability to set a lower default resolution for photos. I don't print my photos out, I just like to look at them on my phone or computer or TV, so I honestly wouldn't mind storing them at a lower resolution.
I have said since the beginning that this is probably what it is. New phones were released about the same time, new OS were lots of people were restoring from backups, etc. Whenever I do that I use a TON of data as everything syncs up in the background. I'm fairly sure this is generally the cause of 'OMG I used so much more data this month' than wifi assist which is limited to basically Safari, Mail, and Apple Music.
Does anyone know if the WiFi icon switches to the Cell icon on the top banner of the phone when wifi assist activates? Or does the WiFi icon stay even though you are using cell data?
Downloaded. But really, this info should be available out of the box from Apple.
All they need to do is create a status bar indicator when wifi assist is active. It could just be a + symbol next to the wifi icon.
The 3 months I had the beta and didn't know about this I went way over my data usage each month. Since turning it off, i haven't gone over. Not a coincidence. And yeah, I read the release notes, it didn't say that data use would skyrocket.