I’m looking for recommendations. I’d like to automatically turn off my cellular modem whenever I’m attached to a good Wi-Fi signal. Airplane mode on demand.
My rationale is multiple: I’d like to save battery life when I don’t need it. I don’t need phone calls or SMS. Everything goes over the internet for me anyway.
I would like to reduce my exposure to cellular security problems, and location tracking.
Ideally whatever implements this would be open source.
— edit ---- Using the word modem was probably wrong in the post. I want to turn the cellular features off. No mobile data, no mobile phone calls, no mobile text, I would like the cellular part of the phone to be powered off.
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I remember this feature being removed around Android 9 or 10ish. Possibly. However, you could always use Tasker. Someone even built a convenient profile you can import.
Normally it’s an option hidden inside androids developer options that you can just flip. The cellular tile will still show being on but data will be off.
Oh yeah this is premium jank. Thank you! I’ll give it a shot
Sadly it’s not able to turn on airplane mode without rooting the device. And that’s not currently an option for me
But I was able to set up some rules to turn off Bluetooth automatically. Which is nice. So thank you for the link!
Wooo that is old Droid 2.x style adorable
Really throws you back in time
For just the data. There is a developer settings “keep mobile data always active” something like that.
But i think it made little difference for me in terms of battery drain so I leave it on.
At the end, in my case after trying dozens of settings, battery drain for me is just handled by whatsapp and how crazily the app decides to start spamming the phone with wakelocks at certain times. Android/Google barely do something to cripple this app wakelocks.
I think it made little difference for me in terms of battery drain
If you have a Pixel 6/7 or any phone that uses Exynos modem in general, it will make a noticeable difference in battery life. Simply because the modems are not as as efficient as the Qualcomm modems.
Source: I found the tip under r/GooglePixel and I noticed the battery life difference on my P7pro
Unless you completely power off the radio you will still receive calls and messages. Some custom roms come with this option, but I don’t know if it’s possible to automate.
If you want to save more power, then enabling airplane mode and then turning wifi and / or bluetooth (depending on your needs) back on should save more power.
I’m confused by the comment. Are you saying that airplane mode still receives phone calls and messages?
No, sorry. Airplane mode should stop all data exchange with mobile radio, but you should still be able to enable wifi and bluetooth while airplane mode is on.
I’m pretty sure all communication with carrier is disabled when airplane mode is on, which should save more power than disabling only mobile data transfer (in this case calls and messages still get transfered and connection with carrier is active).
This is exactly what I want Yes
