Wifi Assist: Yay or nay?

[alexnorwood]

Is there a way to make your wifi "appear" weak, so it will jump to Cellular, ive tried tons of public spots for weeks and cant get any cell jump!

 

[robertk328]

Personally I think it's all FUD. what do I do when I have weak wifi? Switch to data. This just saves me from cussing when I'm hung on one bar of wifi and my music or podcast stops streaming. People just need something to complain about and push an agenda

Mostly. But if someone is streaming videos (youtube, Netflix, etc.) because they're on wifi and won't do it on LTE due to limited data plans, finding out the system turned it off in the background without knowing it could be a problem.

Is the issue blown out of proportion? Could be. But until it shakes out, this feature is causing concern for a lot of people without unlimited data

 

[Chrisy]

Argh Apple! I just used half my data allowance in 6 days becaus of this feature! I have wifi at work and that's when my podcast automatically download as well as anything else that requires a lot of data. The wifi at my work goes down probably 5 times during the day. I guess the data assist took over and all my data continued to download using cellular network. I didn't realize this as I'm working and don't look at my phone often.

Now I see my usage is 1GB per day for 6 days! I have 12GB total. I chatted with Verizon becaus I couldn't believe the data use. They told me about wifi assist.

It's off now and I'm wiser but that's a dirty trick to set it on automatically AND to have it all the way at the bottom under all the apps!

I just updated my OS 2 weeks ago and I had no idea this feature was added and defaults to ON. I don't come to tech forums anymore because I don't have time. So I don't know how a lay person would have known.

 

[Ledsteplin]

Argh Apple! I just used half my data allowance in 6 days becaus of this feature! I have wifi at work and that's when my podcast automatically download as well as anything else that requires a lot of data. The wifi at my work goes down probably 5 times during the day. I guess the data assist took over and all my data continued to download using cellular network. I didn't realize this as I'm working and don't look at my phone often.

Now I see my usage is 1GB per day for 6 days! I have 12GB total. I chatted with Verizon becaus I couldn't believe the data use. They told me about wifi assist.

It's off now and I'm wiser but that's a dirty trick to set it on automatically AND to have it all the way at the bottom under all the apps!

I just updated my OS 2 weeks ago and I had no idea this feature was added and defaults to ON. I don't come to tech forums anymore because I don't have time. So I don't know how a lay person would have known.

When you update, do a quick Google search for the change log.

 

[Chrisy]

I'll do that next time for sure.

 

[scruffypig]

I have never thought to turn it off. Not really that paranoid about it.

 

[scruffypig]

I have never thought to turn it off. Not really that paranoid about it.

I have my cellular data settings turned off for apps I think could use up my data anyway.

 

[JML5150]

Turned it off. At&T gets enough money from me, dont need to risk overages.

 

[anon(5140585)]

After j first updated to iOS 9, I had no idea it was on. It's wasn't until I received a text AT&T that I reached 75% of my data usage. I was streaming NetFlix and it switch from wifi to cellular. I have cellular data turned off for the Netflix app itself, but somehow data remained on cellular. Luckily AT&T credited my account.

 

[Rob Phillips]

After j first updated to iOS 9, I had no idea it was on. It's wasn't until I received a text AT&T that I reached 75% of my data usage. I was streaming NetFlix and it switch from wifi to cellular. I have cellular data turned off for the Netflix app itself, but somehow data remained on cellular. Luckily AT&T credited my account.

Glad to hear AT&T was willing to work with you. I'm hoping Apple does something to better alert users when wifi assist kicks in. I like the feature but I'd like to know when I'm using it.

 

[Chrisy]

After j first updated to iOS 9, I had no idea it was on. It's wasn't until I received a text AT&T that I reached 75% of my data usage. I was streaming NetFlix and it switch from wifi to cellular. I have cellular data turned off for the Netflix app itself, but somehow data remained on cellular. Luckily AT&T credited my account.

That's cool of AT&T. Maybe I'll ask VZW for a credit this month. I'm about to go over with 2 weeks left because of wifi assist. The thing about it that's not right is, like you mentioned, it overrides your settings to stream or download ONLY on wifi. I have my podcast settings to download only when on wifi but wifi assist OVERRIDES that. So I used a gig a day for 7 days as my podcasts downloaded on cellular using wifi assist. I don't check my data until the last week of my cycle normally. I never go over, usually having 2-3 GBs left. But same as you I got a text alert. I thought it was a mistake.

 

[ipooed]

Nay, I only have 2GB data

 

[robertk328]

The new iOS 9.3 now tracks how much data wifi assist has used. This will help people see if it is affecting usage or not. You'll have to monitor it.