Video: How to Disable WiFi Assist on the iPhone

An iOS 9 feature under a lot of flak lately is WiFi assist. Essentially what it does is automatically switch your phone from being connected to WiFi to your phone’s data plan whenever the WiFi you are using is weak. The idea being that your phone will give you the best data signal it can automatically without you needing to tell it.
But, according to news, it seems to be backfiring.

In addition to a 5 million dollar class action lawsuit filed sometime ago against Apple in regards to the feature, CBS has just reported that a teenager racked up a $2000 phone bill and blames WiFi assist for it.

The story goes that he doesn’t have great WiFi signal in his bedroom and the phone automatically switched him over to data where I’m sure he proceeded to ignore the automated text message warnings that told him he was going over his data and racked up said bill.

Regardless of the story and who is responsible, it does bring a good point and that is that I’m not sure how much good comes from this feature, or at least it’s automatic nature and the fact people don’t know it’s enabled, so I figured I’d do a quick tip and show you how to easily disable it.

How to Disable WiFi Assist

  1. On the phone head to Settings.
    Settings
  2. Tap on Cellular.
    Cellular
  3. Turn off WiFi Assist.
    Wifi Assist

And if you have kids with iPhones, I’d recommend disabling it on their phones to stop them from using the same excuse…

What do you guys think? Is there a good use for this feature?

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