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Why not just have a pop up on the phone when it switches over to data, with an explanation of how to turn the feature off, so that users know it's happening and can stop it if they don't want it?

I get the usefulness of it, especially for people with large data plans, but some of us don't have that luxury. In Canada unlimited data is beyond ridiculously expensive so most people have 1GB or less and would t want this feature on (at least not all the time) but they don't know about it.

A simple pop up, similar to the low battery warning, would suffice if you ask me. Then people know when it's happening and can decide if they want it to or not.

The problem with this method is, most users are not tech-kosher. They simply panic whenever any unexpected dialog comes up. Because of the panic, they get nothing from the dialog even if the language is plain enough for them to fully understand under a different circumstance.
 
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I think the easiest way to combat this, is to make it a setting when one sets up a new iPhone:

"Would you like to use WiFi Assist?" (Note: disclaimer blah blah blah regarding potential data overages)
 
I don't understand what's the big deal with this. If you don't want to use your phone data, then disable it all together, but of course if your mobile data is better than wi-fi, you should use it to improve your experience. In fact, before this feature existed I just disabled Wi-fi all together (I still do) when I went to the city because trying to login to those 'free' hotspots from cafes is a nightmare, never mind the speed they offer.
There are people who didn't know about this wi-fi assist. There are people with limited data. Therefore...they probably overused their data with excessive fee. Back in 9.0, it was AUTOMATICALLY ON. It wouldn't have been a problem if it was off in the first place.
 
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.
They already do have an indicator. It's the three big letters that say "LTE" in place of the wifi icon.

(Sorry for the snark, but I just can't believe how big an issue people are making of this.)
 
Sometimes the brass at Apple are so scatterbrained.

So I can have Wifi assist on that might unknowing eat up my data but I can’t purposely choose to download an app because of that unbelievably stupid 100MB limit.
 
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.

I guess. If you're like me & take 3 hour road trips with 4 devices going in the car, 30gb (ATT double deal) Family Plan it is then...
 
There are people who didn't know about this wi-fi assist. There are people with limited data. Therefore...they probably overused their data with excessive fee. Back in 9.0, it was AUTOMATICALLY ON. It wouldn't have been a problem if it was off in the first place.
Has it really been a problem specifically though? Has it been conclusively shown that those who had more data usage had it because of that in particular and not something else?
 
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.
Probably because they want it to be more a default way of how WiFi/cellular interchange works, as it has already been like that on Android and other platforms for some time--basically they are enhancing the way it all works by default while providing the ability for someone to disable that enhancement if they really don't want it for some reason. I mean it could be thought of them simply tweaking how the existing handoff works to have it be more sensitive and change over to cellular earlier than it has before, all without even providing any user options related to it. That's not to say it's good or bad or right or wrong, but basically to provide potential reasoning that might have been applied to the approach they took.
 
Thats great if you stare at your screen all day.
How is that different than the already existing WiFi or cellular indicators? Are those also not useful then because they are in the status bar?
 
This is extremely reckless of Apple. They make it on by default and if you turn it off and later do "Reset All Settings", it will be set back on. It should be off by default.

And I'll also tell my parents that they should have read the release notes when they go over their cap just like many of you practical people seem to do.
 
They already do have an indicator. It's the three big letters that say "LTE" in place of the wifi icon.

(Sorry for the snark, but I just can't believe how big an issue people are making of this.)

My wifi-assist is on but I have never had it activate, to my knowledge, so I don't know what the icons do. I know what it looks like when wifi is off or not connected.
 
Has it really been a problem specifically though? Has it been conclusively shown that those who had more data usage had it because of that in particular and not something else?
You don't need data for this. This is common sense. It's a problem for those who don't know much about iOS 9 stuff. It happened to me 10 gb over as an example. Just because it's not a problem for YOU, doesn't mean there aren't people out there with this problem...and not know about it till later.
 
You don't need data for this. This is common sense. It's a problem for those who don't know much about iOS 9 stuff. It happened to me 10 gb over as an example. Just because it's not a problem for YOU, doesn't mean there aren't people out there with this problem...and not know about it till later.
Clearly that's not what I was talking about at all. I'm saying has it been shown that that particular functionality is what is responsible for data overages that some people are having. Just saying that it could be doesn't really mean that it is.

There are almost always (at least for the past few years) threads and articles of people running into more data usage after upgrading to a new iOS and/or getting a new device, yet this option didn't exist in previous years, so it couldn't have been responsible in those cases. What does common sense say about that? Thus the question, has it actually been shown that that's what's behind it all in these cases, or just simply theorized that it could be.
 
They already do have an indicator. It's the three big letters that say "LTE" in place of the wifi icon.

(Sorry for the snark, but I just can't believe how big an issue people are making of this.)
I don't think that's even how the feature works. Have you seen for a fact that it shows the LTE icon when WiFi assist is active rather than just showing the WiFi icon?

Maybe the fact that we don't know is one of the huge problems with this feature being on by default.
 
I don't think that's even how the feature works. Have you seen for a fact that it shows the LTE icon when WiFi assist is active rather than just showing the WiFi icon?

Maybe the fact that we don't know is one of the huge problems with this feature being on by default.

From Apple's help website (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205296)

"When Wi-Fi Assist is activated, you'll see the cellular data icon in the status bar on your device."

But if that is the case, then how is it really different from before and why are all these people going over data usage? Especially those of us who are tech savvy. We all notice when that icon switches over or more often doesn't when the wifi signal is low. My phone has always held onto the wifi in my house and other locations way too long as I'm driving away, so my maps and other things won't update as I'm planning my route for the day. Is this just apple trying to kill the wifi earlier than the phone naturally wants to?
 
From Apple's help website (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT205296)

"When Wi-Fi Assist is activated, you'll see the cellular data icon in the status bar on your device."

But if that is the case, then how is it really different from before and why are all these people going over data usage? Especially those of us who are tech savvy. We all notice when that icon switches over or more often doesn't when the wifi signal is low. My phone has always held onto the wifi in my house and other locations way too long as I'm driving away, so my maps and other things won't update as I'm planning my route for the day. Is this just apple trying to kill the wifi earlier than the phone naturally wants to?
And that's exactly it. All they did is made things somewhat more sensitive as to when to switch over to cellular vs. staying on non-functional WiFi--basically it can be seen as an improvement in an already existing algorithm that deals with that. There's nothing really nefarious or misleading going on there, and in fact they even offered an option to disable that improvement instead of just making it part of the existing one that no one ever had any control over anyway.
 
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And that's exactly it. All they did is made things somewhat more sensitive as to when to switch over to cellular vs. staying on non-functional WiFi--basically it can be seen as an improvement in an already existing algorithm that deals with that. There's nothing really nefarious or misleading going on there, and in fact they even offered an option to disable that improvement instead of just making it part of the existing one that no one ever had any control over anyway.
Who would want to have the less cautious option on by default? I really don't see an argument for this being the standard option. If it wasn't that way before, it shouldn't change without a reasonable notification, especially when it's dealing with something as important as the phone bill. My family was having data overages before this feature even came around, so why would we say "Hey, let's enable this feature than can potentially use more data"?

I'm getting tired of people on MacRumors who have this attitude of "I don't have a problem, therefore the problem doesn't exist". We get it, it doesn't affect you. You are one iPhone user out of hundreds of millions. And have you ever even had a data overage of your own?
 
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Who would want to have the less cautious option on by default? I really don't see an argument for this being the standard option. If it wasn't that way before, it shouldn't change without a reasonable notification, especially when it's dealing with something as important as the phone bill. My family was having data overages before this feature even came around, so why would we say "Hey, let's enable this feature than can potentially use more data"?

I'm getting tired of people on MacRumors who have this attitude of "I don't have a problem, therefore the problem doesn't exist". We get it, it doesn't affect you. You are one iPhone user out of hundreds of millions. And have you ever even had a data overage of your own?
What I'm saying is that they had an algorithm that they defined the tolerance in before without any control of it that anyone aside from them. They likely tweaked that algorithm to make it better in different releases without it creating some sort of an issue or much of a discussion. This is basically pretty much a similar thing where they tweaked some more it but provided a control to disable that tweak if someone wants to. They feel that the tweaks they made are an improvement and in past releases were just there under the hood by default without anyone even knowing, this time they just gave it a user setting instead of just doing it like they have more than likely done many times before.

I never said anything about not having a problem or that others are not having a problem, so I'm not sure why any of that is even coming up in relation to what I'm talking about. I'm simply talking about what was changed and what the likely approach was to it. And also wondering what issues any of this has actually caused vs. what people think it might have caused (given that there have almost always been reports of some users seeing higher data usage after getting new major iOS updates and/or new iOS devices).
 
Wi-Fi Assist doesn't even work, in my experience. I have a decent data plan so I would LIKE it to work, but I'm still getting hung up on weak Wi-Fi signals as I walk around the city. Starbucks here, campus Wi-Fi there, etc. It's incredibly annoying.
 
I got this notification just as I was arguing over this. Do you think WiFi Assist looks appetizing to me right now?

(There is actually a 6GB allowance on the account, too. 3GB plan with an additional 3GB bonus for the 3 iPhone 6 devices purchased last year. Once the 3GB promotional is used, it starts using the 3GB plan allowance.)
 

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