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.
The article is crap,
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.
"You have a reminder set for 5pm today," my phone said.
"A reminder? What is it?" I asked.
"It's a notification to ensure you don't forget something, but that's not important right now," the phone replied.
Then I remembered I'd left it in Airplane! mode.
😆 It might be nice to have a phone that tells me "Remember, we're all counting on you. Good luck." Otoh it would probably keep calling me Shirley.
You can absolutely do that with a text to speech app and the app Tasker on Android.
It would have to be Leslie Neilson's voice though.
Just have it play an mp3 clip of that scene in the movie.
"5pm today" can also get ambiguous if you're flying across time zones.
I think it's still worth doing so your phone isn't rapidly trying to connect and disconnect from nearby cell towers as you ascend and descend. Maybe there's already protections in place for this case but it makes sense that it could add a lot of unnecessary strain on certain cell towers.
Not to mention the battery drain.
This is the primary reason I do it, although more for my battery life than the cell towers.
Uneducated writers thinking using phone during flight is the same thing as using phone on the ground. It's not.
Phones won't interfere with sensors and stuff on airplane. That much is true. However pilots need to communicate with all kinds of airport staff over FM radio and there, since it's an analogue signal, phones can cause that familiar disruption. It won't destroy equipment, but you will annoy pilots and might prolong departure time. Same thing when landing, you are coming from no signal zone and all of the sudden 100 phones starts talking at the same time when pilot is receiving instructions from the airport.
This is why you can talk during flight, but not takeoff.
I put my phone in airplane mode if for no other reason than if it's constantly trying to connect to a signal or Wi-Fi, it drains the battery way faster.
Or that. Whatever the reason is, if one is being asked to disable phone, then disable it. There's no reason to be an smartass and cause issues.
That disruption is from a 2G/GSM handset. Those networks were turned off a decade ago.
Pilot here. Still on the A320 series it's obligatory to turn off the electrical devices for low visibility approaches (ILS Cat2/3) as aircraft's navigational systems are not protected (at least certified) against RF interference.
Stupid article.
3G has been turned off in a lot of places, but 2G is still very much used globally. It's still the last fallback for phones to maintain basic texting and calling functionality. In many places emergency services also use it for e.g. emergency information via text message.
Can confirm. I own a pair of noise canceling earmuffs (meant for sport shooting; my dad was into guns). They're completely unshielded so I can pick up interference from all sorts of signals. It's fun to switch my phone between different networks to hear what 2G/3G/LTE/5G sounds like. I can even hear WiFi and find the dead spots in my house.
Point I'm making is that GSM is still sticking around here as a backup so when I drop my phone to 2G it sounds exactly the same as it does in this video.
I used to turn Airplane Mode on during my LSD trips many years ago, pretty useful.
I haven't heard drifting referred to as limited slip differential trips before, but that's good that you aren't texting and drifting.
More importantly, you don't need to be on an airplane to use airplane mode.
Airplane mode is a blessing. If the OS is trustworthy (i.e. FOSS Android) then it actually works, it turns off that crappy unprivate cell connection and you have anonymous Wifi only.
It saves battery and you can use your phone without anyone being able to track you easily.
Btw Google hides the GPS quicksettings toggle for a reason, edit the shortcuts and add it.
... What? You think WiFi is anonymous?
WiFi isn't as safe as they apparently think it is lol
If the SSID you connect to is unique enough, there's a site that can literally pinpoint your location. If you have any other SSIDs around you, it's basically guaranteed. That's why there's a bunch of apps that log the SSIDs around you, to get your location without having to ask.
That's not even considering the entire rest of WiFi that's not anonymous
It can sometimes triangulate you better than the cell towers.
All the comments about technical details and practical details...
Are we forgetting that when dealing with millions of people, plus bureaucracy, in a potential death risk, it's worth being slow and cautious about relaxing former safety rules.
That was my understanding, that once upon a time it was legitimately feared that mobile phones could caused accidents (and thought they had indeed caused one). So, besides the other issues people have highlighted in the comments, to walk back from the safety rule of turn-them-off is a slow process.
Commercial air travel is not known for going, "ah, it's probably fine, don't worry;" except in the case of emergency exit door bolts.
Also, I'd like to add:
You don't need to use airplane mode on airplanes
... Please do follow the rules, and do what the cabin crew ask you to do. Otherwise, even if you don't directly endanger the plane, you make it harder for them to do their jobs and keep everyone safe.
Why don't they just call it "avoiding people" mode instead
Ive always forgotten to set this anyway. No planes taken down so far (but it will drain your battery)
Then why flight attendant says "switch your devices to flight mode"? It was a week ago in domestic european flight.
Last time i forgot and the phone connected to “aeromobile”. Would have cost me a packet if i had left roaming data on
I feel like this has been common knowledge. Airplane mode is more about "we don't want some asshole talking to their client on the phone while we are trying to do the safety briefing and take off"
In my country, 2G phones could interfere with radios with that da-dada-da-dada sound. I know people who have personally had that happen to them while trying to land airliners and it made listening to ATC more difficult.
I don’t think it’s an issue anymore though.
That's because phones and airplanes were operating on the same frequency. They don't do that anymore... in part because there's a dozen phones on every flight that haven't been put in airplane mode.
Definitely not an issue in the US anymore. T-Mobile is the last carrier to support 2G and they're shutting that down in April this year. I think most Android phones explicitly disable 2G now too because it's not secure.
Thanks for rendering my little private rebellion worthless. It's all I had left.
That problem relates to landing an airplane with a 5G tower near the airport. Nothing to do with passenger phones.
And honestly it's a faulty radio in the airplane. They shouldn't be disrupted by 5G towers at all... but Boeing doesn't want to pay for replacement parts and neither do the airlines.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
