Smart Actions question - data/wifi/cellular

Dabrador · Aug 22, 2012

I spend most of my day in a wifi area (home & work). I was wondering how to setup a Smart Action that takes advantage of this. My question is, I'm not sure of the relationship between data, wifi, cellular, 4G, 3G, etc.

While in a wifi area, what can I 'turn off' using Smart Actions that will help battery life while at the same time allow me to continue to receive calls, texts and emails?

Any suggestions would be appreciated...thanks.

JRJ · Aug 22, 2012

I have a smart action set up that disables cellular data while connected to my home wifi network. As long as you have a solid reliable wifi connection this makes a very noticeable difference in battery life. Emails will come in over your wifi just like normal. Phone calls and standard text message come in just fine but text messages containing media do require you to turn cellular data back on to download the media.

A good connection is very important to this smart action being beneficial. I tried this at my office and unfortunately because of the large amount of people using the wifi, the connection would get weak and my phone would constantly switch back and forth. Which meant restarting the cellular data and regaining a connection and this constant switch made for terrible battery life.

Dabrador · Aug 22, 2012

With that setup, will the cellular connection come back on automatically when there's no Wi-Fi connection? Or do I need to setup some sort of default profile?

Helloneumann · Aug 22, 2012

It will switch automatically.

JRJ · Aug 22, 2012

I actually have mine set to turn the wifi on automatically as well based on the time of day. For instance a smart action turns on my wifi at 7pm everyday and turns it off at 7am every morning. I have a speperate smart action set to disable cellular data when ever it is connected to my home wifi. For me this works great I usually get home around 7pm and leave for work around 7am and never have to even think about messing with the wifi settings since it takes care of itself.

Dabrador · Aug 22, 2012

Is it okay to leave Wi-Fi on or is that an unnecessary battery drain?

JB in AZ · Aug 22, 2012

Dabrador said:
Is it okay to leave Wi-Fi on or is that an unnecessary battery drain?

I think the general consensus is that wi-fi uses less battery than 3G...perhaps not less than 4G however. But, wi-fi will use less battery than either 3G or 4G if you have a low signal strength.

JRJ · Aug 23, 2012

Dabrador said:
Is it okay to leave Wi-Fi on or is that an unnecessary battery drain?

I would consider it an unnecessary drain since the radios will be on and it will be constantly searching for a wifi network to connect to. I have tried leaving wifi on all day for a week even though I would not have a network to connect to in order to see if it there was a noticeable amount of battery drain. For my MAXX I ended the day with an average of 10% battery less than normal. For me 10% is not really a big deal but for someone like my wife that has a standard RAZR 10% can be a big difference in battery performance.

MasterGadgets · Aug 24, 2012

I use "Verizon Wifi Auto-on" from the play store.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vzw.wificonnect&feature=search_result#?t=W10.
You can set up different locations that will turn WIfi on when you get there and turn it off when you leave.
I have used it for about a month and it seems to work good most of the time. It can be slow to activate.
Then I have a "Smart Actions" set to turn off Cellular data when the Wifi connects.
This combination works well for me.

Smart Actions question - data/wifi/cellular

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