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Change When Android Switches from Wi-Fi to 4G

When I leave the house or office with my Note 4, and I'm trying to find music for my ride, I frequently have connectivity problems. I might still have one or bars of wi-fi, but a perfectly great 4G signal. Sitting in the car outside the office, however, the only way I can get my phone to work may be to temporarily disable wi-fi, until I get far enough away from the office. It's a really bad experience.

What I want is a way to adjust how quickly my phone will switch from wifi to 4G. In my case, most of the time, I'd like that to happen a lot sooner than my phone does. This would be a good thing for Verizon too, which is why I'm posting my thoughts here, rather than in a general Android forum. Verizon's 4G is often a lot better than the free WiFi I can get, and I would rather use 4G whenever it offers better connectivity, even if it costs more!

Is there a way tell my phone that if my wifi is less than 2 bars and if 4g is better than 2 bars then switch to 4G?

How does Android decide when to go from one data connection to another?

I want to be able to choose whether I want a more reliable data connection (4G) or cheaper data (wi-fi)!

Thanks in advance!

-Donald

Comments

Snn5

Other than going into Settings of the WiFi and setting it to avoid weak connections, you can always turn the wifi off from the quick settings or create a shortcut/widget on the home screen. First method would be more automatic, second would mean you'd have to remember to turn WiFi back on.

nc3d

Thanks! I didn't see an "avoid weak connections" switch, but I did find a "smart network switch" setting under Advanced in the Wi-fi settings which might do the trick. It's supposed to come on when the system detects an unstable Wifi-connection. (Althtough I'm not sure it applies to weak connections...)

-Donald

Snn5

Yes sir. That's the setting I was looking for. That should help you be able to drop that weaker WiFi sooner allowing you to get to where you're going and use the faster Mobile Data.

Jakeman1

I believe there are some apps you can get (like Tasker) that you can set up rules with. So you could set a rule based on GPS Location that when you arrive at X Location it turns WiFi on or off depending. There is a downside to these though and that is the Battery life will be diminished as it is now using more resources to determine when to start the function as well as GPS usage. My phone came with something similar to this and I shut it off for better battery life

GalaxyClass

It is a power user because of the app itself running and GPS. I gave it a try but it was killing my battery, I shut down also.

Jakeman1

Absolutely correct. It is something the user will need to decide on. Ease of changing at the cost of more charges, or manually changing and better battery life

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