Oliver Haslam on July 26, 2017, 7:44 am

iOS 11 Intelligently Stops Auto-Connecting To Poor WiFi Hotspots

With each new beta release of iOS 11, there is the potential for a whizzbang new feature to be bestowed upon us, and while Apple does not usually announce them, they can often be some of the most important or influential additions to the iPhone and iPad.

With the fourth iOS 11 beta now here, developers have been using it on their test devices, with one new feature already apparent. That feature will prevent the bane of many people these days – an iPhone that is intent on attaching itself to a poor WiFi signal and refusing to ever let go.

We have all been in the situation where we have walked a little too close to an establishment offering free WiFi access and our iPhones have connected as a result. That’s great if the connection works, but unfortunately, that is not always the case. With iOS 11 installed, assuming the feature does not get stripped out again, iPhones and iPads will learn which public hotspots offer strong or weak signals, preventing the device from trying to automatically connect to those that are deemed patchy.

Until now, many of us have gotten around this issue by implementing a sledgehammer of a workaround. That is, we simply turned off the Ask to Join Networks option, but while that does fix the issue, it also means our devices will not tell us when new hotspots are available.

This new addition rectifies that, giving us all some much needed relief from what has been a long standing issue for users of iPhones and to a lesser extent, iPads.

Apple is expected to release iOS 11 alongside new iPhones some time in September. We don’t expect this feature to go anywhere before then, but it is not beyond Apple to add and then remove features during the beta program, so fingers crossed that is not the case here.

(Bottom image via: Ryan Jones [Twitter])