The Android Wi-Fi framework helps users connect to a good Wi-Fi network when
networks are available and needed. Android does that in two ways:
- Turn on Wi-Fi automatically
: Re-enabling Wi-Fi when the user is near a
previously saved network
- Notify for public networks
: Informing users about available
good
open
Wi-Fi networks
The features described are implemented by AOSP code and you do not have to
explicitly enable or configure them.
Turn on Wi-Fi automatically
Users may disable Wi-Fi for a variety of reasons (e.g. a connection to a bad
network) and can then forget to re-enable it when arriving back home, resulting
in a bad experience (e.g. not being able to control home automation devices).
The
Turn on Wi-Fi automatically
feature, introduced in
Android 9,
solves this issue by automatically
re-enabling Wi-Fi whenever the device is near a Wi-Fi network that is both a
saved
network (i.e. one which the user explicitly connected to in the past)
and has a
sufficiently
high RSSI.
The feature can be enabled or disabled by the user using the Settings app at:
Settings
>
Network & internet
>
Wi-Fi
>
Wi-Fi preferences
>
Turn on Wi-Fi automatically
Wi-Fi Scanning (for Location) must be enabled for this feature to function. If
Wi-Fi Scanning is not enabled the user is prompted for permission to enable it.
Wi-Fi Scanning is required because scan results are used to determine whether
the device is in the vicinity of a Wi-Fi network that meets the criteria to
re-enable Wi-Fi connectivity.
The feature avoids re-enabling Wi-Fi immediately after a user disables it, even
if the device observes a saved Wi-Fi network of sufficient quality. For
example, if the user is in the office and is connected to the office Wi-Fi (a
saved
network) and then disables Wi-Fi, the feature will not re-enable Wi-Fi
until the user arrives at a different environment with a different saved
network that meets the re-enabling criteria.
Notify for public networks
The
Open network notification
feature raises a notification to the user
whenever:
- Wi-Fi is enabled
- The device is not connected to a Wi-Fi network
- A Wi-Fi network that is both
open
and has a
sufficiently
high RSSI
(the same RSSI threshold as used by the internal Wi-Fi
selection algorithm) is available
The feature can be enabled or disabled by the user using the Settings app at:
Settings
>
Network & internet
>
Internet
>
Network preferences
>
Notify for public networks