We all want androids.......

[medley]

My family and I all have iPhones but want to switch to android. There is only one thing stopping us, and I'm hoping you can help us out.

We try to monitor internet usage, and like to be able to lock it on the iPhones for our kids. Really nice because they can still play games and apps that use the internet, just not browsing freely.

As of a couple of years ago, I know that if you turned off the internet (via password) on an android, you could not play or use games or apps that used the internet.

We do not have wifi or any of that stuff. We'd just like to be able to lock the phones at night, go to bed and know the kids are not surfing all night but still able to play their games.

Did android fix this?

 

[Hadron]

You could use firewall app and selectively allow some apps to access the net but not others, but I think that the devices would need to be rooted for that to be effective.

Or there are apps which can be used to password lock access to other apps, so you could lock out browsers, social networking apps etc (and the Play Store so that alternatives cannot be installed). Never used one, but they exist.

But apart from a firewall then yes, if you turn the Internet off it is off. Many games will work without it, but obviously some won't.

 

[chanchan05]

It's entirely dependent on the game if it can run without internet. Android has nothing to do with this capability. If the author decided to implement an online license check for example, before allowing you to play the game, then you won't be able to play. If the developer set it to be able to run offline, then you can.

 

[medley]

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. If the internet is locked using a lock app, then MLB At Bat will not update anything, and many games are unplayable.

These work on an iPhone though, even with the internet shut off

 

[mikedt]

Here is an example of what I'm talking about. If the internet is locked using a lock app, then MLB At Bat will not update anything, and many games are unplayable.

MLB At Bat won't update if there's no internet. Same for the iPhone version isn't it? Many games for Android are usable without internet, any particular ones with don't for you? If a game needs to connect to a server to work, say for additional content or online play, then it needs internet.

 

[nickdalzell]

Angry Birds will work offline, that's how i got out of seeing adverts inside it while playing. the free version shows you ads every other level and during gameplay, solved by turning Airplane Mode on.

Gameloft and EA games will run for around five minutes then exit when they fail to phone home. My Little Pony for example will attempt to load, show you the game and allow interaction but won't save any progress and if you exit and return, it will just revert back to the last time it had a connection. most games use the internet for cloud saves and don't actually store much of their data on the device.

some games check for updates, and either won't load at all or just crash. Deer Hunter 2014 won't load if it cannot check Play Store for updates, and also because most of the game is online, not on the device.

on iOS the game is likely all on your device and will run anyway except for a handful of (now defunct) Zynga titles. ForestVille, once a favorite of mine, won't run anymore, offline or online.

 

[chanchan05]

on iOS the game is likely all on your device and will run anyway except for a handful of (now defunct) Zynga titles. ForestVille, once a favorite of mine, won't run anymore, offline or online.

Yeah I remember this issue. A friend was confused why a certain game (forgot which one, this was last year) was 1.2GB on his iphone but just 400mb on Android, but the graphics and game was the same. It turned out his was playable offline, and the Android version was not. It was an issue on the devs part, not the OS, I'd think. No idea why they didn't just put everything in Android.

 

[nickdalzell]

Probably because many Android devices (especially those commonly found on Straight Talk and the like) are low on internal storage and would count the majority of users out of playing such games. Apple iPhones tend to have the minimum of 16GB of storage, something that even to this day Android fails in. the Majority of Android users simply don't have flagships

 

[medley]

I don't understand a lot of the technical terms, but I know that AT Bat, Tapatalk, email, GPS, and lots of other things will work on an I phone even with the internet turned off in settings, and two years ago you could not do that on an android. I was hoping that would have changed

 

[chanchan05]

Tapatalk does not work without internet. Even on an iPhone. Sure it opens and allows you to read cached threads, but it's not going to update.

 

[mikedt]

I don't understand a lot of the technical terms, but I know that AT Bat, Tapatalk, email, GPS, and lots of other things will work on an I phone even with the internet turned off in settings, and two years ago you could not do that on an android. I was hoping that would have changed

To be frank, there's nothing really technical to understand, and it's actually quite simple. You can't receive or send emails with the internet turned off. At Bat has to be connected to get the latest news, results and live scores. GPS works off-line no problem, but whatever mapping app you're using might need to be on-line though to get the mapping data, e.g. Google. But there's plenty of satnav GPS apps that do work entirely without the internet. And it's the same on Android, iOS, Windows, etc. nothings really changed.

 

[medley]

You guys are incorrect. I am on my iPhone, with the internet off, using tapatalk to type this, and at bat just told me about the Cardinals big rally over the Dodgers.

Internet is off in the settings. I can't open it without a password, but I have full functionality of all my games and apps. Just got done deystroying some enemies on Boom Beach too

 

[medley]

Just checked my email too

 

[Dpadre]

I use to lock my kids out of Safari on their iPods and bought them a filtered web browser to try to keep porn and stuff away from their eyes. They eventually got a little older and smarter and installed a google browser app. But as far as you are asking to turn off internet and let them play games on Android, I don't know. We all switched over from Apple. I spent time teaching my kids the do's and don'ts of being on the internet. I still use a filter on my home Wi-Fi. I think letting kids stay up playing games is just as bad as letting them surf the internet, so filter the internet. Check with your carrier. Keep asking around. Good Luck

 

[mikedt]

Well Steve Jobs did call the iPhone a "magical device". It would have to be magic to check emails without the internet or to post to an internet forum without being connected to the internet.

Actually are you absolutely certain that the internet is completely turned off? Try putting it in "Airplane mode", and then see if can post here, because "Airplane mode" does turn off all wireless connectivity. Because if you're just turning off Wi-Fi, cellular data is likely still active, and vice-versa.

 

[chanchan05]

That means you're connected to the internet, perhaps WiFi. How else would you be connected to the internet. I now understand why you say you don't understand the technical jargon. Turning off "internet" or "data" in the settings of the iPhone only means turning off the mobile data connection through the carrier. However you can still connect to a WiFi to access the internet. I have tried using an iPhone, and regularly some friends ask me to tinker their iPhone for syncing to Google or whatever. And I can say that if I turn cellular data off on an iPhone, meaning no actual internet connection, emails and tapatalk doesn't work.

 

[steiny180]

You guys are incorrect. I am on my iPhone, with the internet off, using tapatalk to type this, and at bat just told me about the Cardinals big rally over the Dodgers.

Internet is off in the settings. I can't open it without a password, but I have full functionality of all my games and apps. Just got done deystroying some enemies on Boom Beach too

You're communicating via the cell towers (using data).

Turn on airplane mode and see what happens...

 

[Dpadre]

I think what Medley is trying to say is that Medley has turned off Safari in settings. So whenever the kids try to press the Safari web browser icon, it will not launch without a passcode. I knew years ago you could turn it off, and the icon would not show at all. This is why I installed a paid filtered web browser for my kids to surf it was Mobicip. If they ever ran across a website on it that they wanted, there was a ask permision button and I would get an email and aprove or deny access to websites.

 

[medley]

Yes, that is correct. Thanks for clarifying. I can turn off Safari (browser) but everything else still works. I was hoping that you could do this with Android, but I don't think you can

 

[chanchan05]

You can put a passcode on any app, using a security app. The thing though is that if your kid downloads another browser, say Firefox, then they can surf because you only locked Chrome. Same thing with iPhones. Sure you can lock Safari. The kid then downloads Chrome and they can browse as much as they want even with Safari locked. You can lock the Play Store to stop them from downloading anything without permission though.

 

[medley]

Ok yes, but that's the main question. A couple of years ago, I had an Android. I tried two different apps to lock Chrome, and both times it did lock Chrome, but also prevented any of the above mentioned from working. Make sense?

Locking Safari truly locks just Safari.

Not the case with Android, as of a couple of years ago

 

[chanchan05]

Depends on your definition. I now see that we're having a language barrier here. I've used an app lock on Android since 4 years ago, putting passwords on various things, including chrome, and no, it didn't affect the internet capabilities of other apps. It would help if you mentioned exactly what you used to "lock" the app. I would rather not be surprised when you instead put in an app that limited internet access itself, rather than just putting a password on Chrome.

EDIT: Here you go:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.domobile.applock

I've used this before. You can lock Chrome and the Play Store with that, but it won't affect internet connection of other apps (games, email, tapatalk, etc).

 

[medley]

Hey, thank you very much. I'm sorry that I did a horrible job of explaining what I was looking for.

 

[medley]

I was just looking at this app lock. This is the same app that I tried a couple of years ago when I had an android, and when I used it to lock the browser, it prevented other apps and games like At Bat and Tapatalk from working. Maybe that's been fixed over the last couple of years?

I wish I had an android to test this out

 

[Dpadre]

You won't have to look far to ask someone to try it for you,