Chris Mills, writing for Gizmodo:
Amongst its big bag of tricks, iOS 9 has one seemingly innocuous feature: Wi-Fi Assist, enabled by default, which will switch to cellular data when your Wi-Fi sucks. This would be great, if I had an unlimited data plan. I don’t, but now I do have a very expensive cellphone bill.
This is shocking to me. While this may be a truly useful feature, why would Wi-Fi Assist be enabled by default? Any setting that automatically consumes my cellular data (and therefore spends my hard earned cash) should be OFF by default.
To check your Wi-Fi Assist setting, go to Settings > Cellular (Settings > Mobile Data in the UK), then scroll all the way to the bottom.
Please pass this along, especially if you know someone at Apple who might be able to get this setting turned off as a default. And if I have this wrong, please let me know.
Looks like mine is turned on by default too. I wouldn’t have known without your post. Thanks. Big oops for Apple.
Apple has made a few decisions lately that assume 1) user has fast internet and 2) user has unlimited data-plan. This really bugs me, because I have neither and some things can’t even be fixed.
-> AppleMusic: unless you want to download all music every time you listen to it, you cannot activate iCloud library and thus can’t add music to your library on your phone. If you want iCloud library and have your music on your device, you have to re-download everything, because it does not synchronize with iTunes.
-> Photos: Fotostream no longer just uploads what you add to your library on your mac, it automatically imports everything from all devices by default and uploads it – no questions asked.
Just two examples that seriously piss me off. I don’t live in silicon valley, my internet is max 5Mbit/s on a good day.
I don’t see it as quite such a big issue. Mainly because anyone with a limited data plan would surely have inspected their Mobile Data settings… And those settings WiFi Assist would still respect.
I am glad that this feature has finally come to iOS. (It made no sense why it wasn’t there from the beginning.) If there is an app that you don’t want using your cell data, be sure to disable that app in the settings.
But what if you never went into those settings because you just assumed you’d be safe as you never use a data hungry app except at home.
Then one day you are using one such app from a weak spot in your home wi-fi, and BOOM there goes your cell phone bill.
Users assume a consistent default behavior, and this introduces something else. This should have been an opt-in option at the upgrade to iOS 9 to introduce the feature, and prevent against an unhappy surprise.
One problem with iOS is no easy way of monitoring how much cellular data that you are using. There is a spot in the settings app to provide the data, but it’s not convenient, and you have to remember to reset it with your plan’s calendar.
Carrier apps are mostly a pain to work with.
I’m currently trying out an app that seems to do the job conveniently and simply… “DataMan”
It even has an Apple Watch complication to notify you of how likely your usage is to being more than your plan
Well, considering it has mostly stalled out when the WIFI sucks until now when cellular is available, but hasn’t, it seems odd to do this now. That proces has been annoying form me at work where the WIFI is really badly implemented on campus.
But then I had an unlimited AT&T data plan, so it wouldn’t bother me. Now that I’m switching to T-Mobile, I have to wonder. But then T-Mobile has the free calls over WIFI feature. So going the other way makes sense. But this is a head-scratcher that it wasn’t opt in.
Why would it be on by default? Because shitty connectivity is a huge problem. I had to turn off WiFi on a regular basis to evade sometimes shitty networks. And I always forgot to turn it back on after, which also leads to high bills.
Of course, if the network is always shitty, there’s a simple answer: Leave it. But not all WiFi connections are so easy to judge.
Watch your data usage. Turn on whatever warnings are available to you. Be fucking responsible.
I rarely have anything nice to say about AT&T, but I get text updates when I hit 50%, 75%, and 90% of my monthly data.
Seems like that should be an industry standard, and if it isn’t, I’m sure everyone can turn it on somehow
The data usage info that Apple provides through the settings panel hasn’t been updated since the very first iPhone. If you never touch it, it tells you how much data you’ve used since the day you bought the phone. who thought that was a good idea?? Seems like you should be able to reset it to automatically start over on a particular day of the month, correspondence to your carriers billing cycle
You make assumptions not based on facts. The vast majority of average users would never go into these settings.
When this was first announced, I said this was a bad idea. Having it turned on by default is an even worse one.
First of all, I totally agree. But I will throw out there, just finished helping a couple of elderly family members activate their first iPhone, and the amount of stuff that you need to monitor that they’ve never monitored before can be a bit overwhelming for some.
I think it was on the accidental tech podcast two weeks ago, discussion was of features that are automatically turned on that need to be defaulted to off. Two of the three were furious about Apple tips defaulting to on, when they thought it was annoying and should be off. The third guy (I don’t know them by voice) then pointed out that if you need it turned on, you probably don’t know how to turn it on, while if you want it turned off, you do probably know how to turn it off. That seems to be the basic Apple algorithm: make it initially a little bit more annoying for the tech savvy, because they know how to fix it, and at the same time make it a little more helpful out of the box for those who don’t know
In this particular case, however, which setting is more helpful to whom seems to be in this particular case, however, which setting is more helpful to whom seems to be up for debate
Quick survey: what carrier does everyone have and do you get notifications that you’re hitting certain percentages of your data consumption?
Me: AT&T and yes
Basic smart phone maintenance should include inspecting the cellular settings and turning it off for any app that doesn’t really need it.
If I’m sitting in the dentist waiting room working on a pages document ( totally pulled that example out of my fourth point of contact ), do I really need the document to update to the cloud with every key stroke? I have cell off for maybe 90% of the apps.
Absolutely agree. I think this is one place where it’s likely that Apple letting us know what’s going on would be a good thing, and my hope is that 9.1 (or 9.2) will offer some sort of warning when this happens regularly. We may even need more finely grained controls, though I’m not sure about that yet.
In the meantime, though, Apple has solved the most persistent pain of myself and my wife, and by a nice side effect I should hear a lot fewer complaints from my mom about their WiFi (they complain to me, but not to Telus).
I think I remember you and I exchanged messages and maybe tweets about this before it was announced.
It’s solved my problems with iOS (and stopped my mom from calling me about WiFi problems) but I think it probably needs more refinement. Like it would be nice to know if it’s happening frequently on a particular network, to not have App Updates ever use it (and, ideally still work if the update fails due to a connection failure), etc, etc.
We did. I think it’s an good/interesting idea but a bad implementation of it.
We’ve got really crappy wi-fi out here in the boondocks but we’ve also got data limits on our cell service. I’d rather have the former than to have the latter connect without me realizing it.
I sure agree with the idea that the Apple folks can’t relate to slow internet. I also doubt many use dual monitors.
Basic smart phone maintenance should include inspecting the cellular
settings and turning it off for any app that doesn’t really need it.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, that’s never gonna happen.
seems like a feature, not a bug — if connected to a bogus wifi network (many public wifis suck), or moving out of range of a valid network, switch to cellular.
not sure why i wouldnt want to do this. i want connectivity. i dont want stalled failures. my data consumption doesnt change, i use what i had planned on using. im not going to even attempt to stream video (netflix) unless im on a good, reliable wifi network.
Verizon does the same thing with text updates
But those text updates may not come in real time if you’re travelling, (especially with minor carries like my current one, US Cellular). Which is why I’m trying out “DataMan”
I’d be surprised to hear of any dev who doesn’t use dual monitors.
i just assumed everyone at Apple used a MacBook Pro…but I guess they still could have dual monitors.
Multi-monitor support on OS X is seriously great, you jut diluted the discussion about internet. Good job…
You’re welcome. Anything to please!