this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2024
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The article is crap, but it is correct in that you don't need to use airplane mode. I would, however, advise to still use it purely to preserve battery life of your device as otherwise it will very aggressively keep scanning for networks and drain it.
It is Gizmodo after all
Yep. I do wish there was a toggle for the cellular radio by itself (rather than just mobile data). It's annoying to have to go airplane mode then turn WiFi and BT back on.
On Android you do have that toggle
And if you turn wifi back on once, it'll tell you that it can remember and always leave Wi-Fi on if you want.
Don't even have to find the setting
iOS has it as well.
There is? I know the control center button for turning on/off mobile data, but I wasn’t aware there was a way other than airplane mode to prevent it from continuously scanning for networks.
The cell data button only disables data, but the airplane button disables the cellular radio entirely and doesn’t disable WiFi or Bluetooth. If you want WiFi and BT disabled, you need to tap them separately.
However… the airplane button remembers your last preference. If you tapped airplane and then disabled WiFi and BT, it will disable them next time you turn on airplane mode. If you last used airplane mode with WiFi and/or BT enabled, it will only disable the cell antenna.
That’s what airplane mode is. Try it out in the control center. It doesn't disable my WiFi unless I had WiFi disabled when I last turned airplane mode off. Similar with Bluetooth except turning airplane off turns my Bluetooth on even if I had it off before.
Of course, an OS update or a reboot might reset the value of the previous WiFi state. 🤷♂️
Right, but the person I was replying to appears to be saying there is a toggle button that isn’t airplane mode to turn off the antenna, unless I’m misunderstanding.
There’s a separate cellular toggle yes.
On iPhone the airplane toggle is the cellular toggle. It leaves all your other radios active.
It also disables GPS but only because that doesn't work anyway in a fast moving faraday cage without cell tower triangulation.
If you want to disable wifi or bluetooth, those are separate toggles... and by default they just disconnect from your current wifi network and some of your bluetooth devices (your smart watch for example, will stay connected over bluetooth). The buttons are there to use if your wifi or bluetooth aren't working properly, which can always be fixed by just disconnecting rather than disabling the radio entirely.
Airplane mode is one button. Cellular is another button.
Just pull up your control center and you should see.
In iOS, the cell-tower-looking button is for data, it doesn’t disable all of your cellular radios. If you hold down the button in Control Center so it pops up the larger version with descriptions, you’ll see that it says “Cellular Data.”
The Airplane Mode button disables your cellular radios but leaves WiFi and Bluetooth enabled. This is what you want for airplanes. Hence the name “Airplane Mode.”
It’s been a couple years since I had an Android phone (rest in peace, OnePlus 7T Pro 5G, you were too good for this world) but I think to accomplish the same I had to enable airplane mode and then re-enable WiFi and Bluetooth, but I could be mistaken.
Yes but the cellular toggle is for mobile data only. Turning it off won’t stop your phone from trying to connect to a network when there isn’t any (which drains the battery unnecessarily). Airplane mode turns off the antenna completely. The person I was replying to appears to say there is a button to do the latter without using airplane mode.
Perhaps this is what they meant:
Probably, but that’s android right? I’m not sure there is a similar control for IOS that isn’t airplane mode.
I don't but I'm running an older Lineage OS. Is it in the quick actions on the notifications pulldown?
Yes. It's a simple toggle that can be added to the qyickbar: "airplane mode on/off". And while it's on, you can override it with individual settings, such as turning on bluetooth while everything remains off. Hazzle free and fast.
I use this feature a lot, as I fly very often, and I use bluetooth buds. I have filled my phone to the brim with various media to binge until touchdown. It helps conserve battery, as the radio doesn't have to TX at full power while looking for a signal at FL500 in the middle of the Atlantic
Weird. On iPhone it remembers if turned BT and WiFi on while Airplane mode is on and will only turn off the Cell antenna. Do that every time I travel.
Android does that too. At least the latest versions
Meh - flights have USB ports now if your battery is low.
But that’s just a waste of electricity then? And battery health?
Unless you're really into flying the effect is minimal
It also costs you nothing to disable it. And if everyone keeps it disabled for all their flights, it’s not minimal anymore. So I don’t really see the problem here.
Imagine the savings if all of those people just didn't fly! lol
That doesn’t change that disabling cellular makes a difference, so I don’t see your point. Just because something’s not perfect, doesn’t mean it can’t make a difference.
It just makes such a tiny, insignificant difference that it really doesn't matter one way or the other.
USB ports and outlets lol I haven't been concerned about preserving my phone's battery life while flying in a long time now lmao
How old are your phones? I don't notice any "aggressive scanning" when I don't have airplane mode on. The other user is not able to switch WiFi on in airplane mode, my last two phones did that no problem and they go like 4-5 years back.
Cell towers, without mountains/buildings blocking them, reach 10+ miles and airplanes don't fly that high... so you are within range of towers while flying unless you're over the ocean.
However, connecting to a tower that far away requires running the radio at maximum transmission power which absolutely kills your battery. Also the towers reject your phone's attempt to connect because they are programmed to ignore distant connections when they know a dozen other towers are within a few miles of that tower. If you're flying over remote areas where towers will accept any connection you might occasionally get enough signal to call 911 but i likely won't be a usable data connection due to how far away you are.
Wether it shows a connection or not, your phone is still reaching out trying to connect and doing handshakes with towers on the ground.
Being inside a metal tube doesn't help reception either.