iOS 11 Control Center: Wi-Fi Bluetooth remains on as a feature

[WMGroomAK]

So in an article posted on Motherboard (I originally read it on HardOCP) it turns out that turning off the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth from the new iOS 11 Control Center does not actually turn off the antenna but just disconnects any connections the device has.  Apple is implementing this as a feature so that the phone can continue to use AirDrop, AirPlay, Location Services and any other Apple paired device (Pencil/Watch).  If you want to turn off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you have to do this through the Settings Menu and not the Control Center.  My first thought on this is that on my Android device, I'm typically toggling on and off my Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to save on battery when I'm not using it as I find the constant antenna use can drain battery faster.  As the article points out though, the other issue is the security aspect in potentially having phone owners thinking their device is secure in not having a Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connection available when there still is a signal being transmitted and received.

 

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/evpz7a/turn-off-wi-fi-and-bluetooth-apple-ios-11

 

Quote

Turning off Bluetooth and Wi-Fi when you're not using them on your smartphone has long been standard, common sense, advice. Unfortunately, with the iPhone's new operating system iOS 11, turning them off is not as easy as it used to be.

 

Now, when you toggle Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off from the iPhone's Control Center—the somewhat confusing menu that appears when you swipe up from the bottom of the phone—it actually doesn't completely turn them off. While that might sound like a bug, that's actually what Apple intended in the new operating system. But security researchers warn that users might not realize this and, as a consequence, could leave Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on without noticing.

 

"It is stupid," Collin Mulliner, a security researcher who's studied Bluetooth for years, told Motherboard in a Twitter chat. "It is not clear for the user."

 

To be clear, and to be fair, this behavior is exactly what Apple wants. In its own documentation, the company says that "in iOS 11 and later, when you toggle the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth buttons in Control Center, your device will immediately disconnect from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth accessories. Both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth will continue to be available." That is because Apple wants the iPhone to be able to continue using AirDrop, AirPlay, Apple Pencil, Apple Watch, Location Services, and other features, according to the documentation.

 

Motherboard tested this behavior on an iPhone with iOS 11 installed and verified that Bluetooth and Wi-Fi remain on in the settings after turning them off in the Control Center, as some users have started to notice.

 

[Godlygamer23]

Does the toggle state any information when tapping the switch? What occurs in the status bar? Is there any information being displayed that would allow a new user(to iOS 11 or iOS in general) to know that WiFi and/or Bluetooth is still enabled?

[vanished]

That's going to annoy a lot of people and cause confusion about how their other features (AirDrop, etc.) work.

 

But then, that probably plays in their favour... they like to make their stuff seem magical, and what better way than to do things wirelessly while wireless is apparently turned off?

[ARikozuM]

Maybe they could implement something like "hold to turn off". This sounds good since any Apple Watch will stay connected while any other connections are dropped and bad since you might not be aware of how this functions. 

[Nup]

Yeah, read this today too, its a pain. Especially if your battery starts to age...

[YedZed]

Confusion is the new Apple magic.

Isn't antenna searching usually the big drainer and not actual usage?

[WMGroomAK]

14 minutes ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Does the toggle state any information when tapping the switch? What occurs in the status bar? Is there any information being displayed that would allow a new user(to iOS 11 or iOS in general) to know that WiFi and/or Bluetooth is still enabled?

Not sure if it removes the Wi-Fi/BT logos from the status bar, but according to Apples site, while the antennas are still active the auto-join will be turned off on Wi-Fi until:

• You turn Wi-Fi back on in the Control Center
• You connect to a Wi-Fi network in the settings menu
• You walk/drive to a new location (does not mention distance of that new location)
• It is 5 AM local time (????)
• You restart your device

With Bluetooth the antenna will still be active however you won't connect to a device until:

• You turn on BT in the control  Center
• You manually connect to a BT accessory in the Settings Menu
• it's 5 AM local time (Again?????)
• You restart your device

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208086

 

Of course, Apple says that for the best experience you should try to keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on...

[themctipers]

Fuck you Apple. 

[vanished]

2 hours ago, WMGroomAK said:

Of course, Apple says that for the best experience you should try to keep Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned on...

One thing I've never seen Apple accused of is spying on users, but can you imagine if Microsoft or someone like that did this with a phone?  The outrage, I can feel it from here.

[PlayStation 2]

That's kinda stupid. Oh well, at least I know why it was showing the car I had it connected to for whatever reason.

[dizmo]

Hahaha. Hilarious. Especially the fact that even if you go through the added hassle of the Settings menus to turn it off, it'll turn itself back on. But it's not a bug. No. It's a feature. A stupid one at that.

[79wjd]

2 hours ago, Godlygamer23 said:

Does the toggle state any information when tapping the switch? What occurs in the status bar? Is there any information being displayed that would allow a new user(to iOS 11 or iOS in general) to know that WiFi and/or Bluetooth is still enabled?

If wifi is on and connected, and you toggle it "off", then the wifi connection icon in the status bar goes away and the control center toggle is no longer lit up. If you 3D Touch into the Wifi toggle, then it will say "Not Connected" (which is what it says in the settings menu when it's on but not connected to anything. 

 

2 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Especially the fact that even if you go through the added hassle of the Settings menus to turn it off, it'll turn itself back on. 

Was that in the article? Is there a source for that? Because I can turn my wifi off in settings. 

[dizmo]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Was that in the article? Is there a source for that? Because I can turn my wifi off in settings. 

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208086

Quote

Disconnect from Wi-Fi networks

Open Control Center and tap . The icon will dim and your device will disconnect from any network that you're connected to.

While Wi-Fi is disabled, auto-join for any nearby Wi-Fi networks will also be disabled until:

• You turn on Wi-Fi in Control Center.
• You connect to a Wi-Fi network in Settings > Wi-Fi.
• You walk or drive to a new location. 
• It's 5 AM local time.
• You restart your device.

It's the same for BT.

[captain_to_fire]

2 hours ago, WMGroomAK said:

Apple is implementing this as a feature so that the phone can continue to use AirDrop, AirPlay, Location Services and any other Apple paired device (Pencil/Watch).  If you want to turn off the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, you have to do this through the Settings Menu and not the Control Center.

I can actually confirm this. After a reboot, both wifi and bluetooth is turned back on even though I specifically turned it back off before reboot.

 

. Also a few annoyances with fucking iOS 11:

• No more quick toggle for Night Shift in Control Center. I have to go to the settings
• Auto brightness is buried in Accessibility instead of Brightness
• Control Center taking up way too much screen real estate
• Siri got dumber
• Music controls in the control center is way too dinky
• iOS 11 combined both the lock screen and notification center which is confusing and annoying
• They made the album art small whereas before, album art is big, front and center.

Now I regret of not having an iTunes backup of 10.3.3 and I can't undo iOS 11. I'll probably just wait for a few weeks for a fix. At the moment, I just hate the shit out of it even though I brought native screen recording.

[79wjd]

8 minutes ago, dizmo said:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208086

It's the same for BT.

That doesn't turn Wifi on if you turned it off in the settings menu, that's talking about if you disable it from control center. 

 

I just turned wifi off (in settings), and restarted my phone, and wifi remained off. 

 

@hey_yo_ Ummmm, we seem to have a problem here since we're seeing different results. Did you disable wifi in the settings or in control center?

Discrepancy is solved, he disabled wifi through control center, not through settings. 

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

@hey_yo_ Ummmm, we seem to have a problem here since we're seeing different results. Did you disable wifi in the settings or in control center?

Control center. I thought it turned off wifi and bluetooth but after reading OP, it sort of pisses me off.

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

No more quick toggle for Night Shift in Control Center. I have to go to the setting

3D Touch the brightness slider. 

2 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Control center. I thought it turned off wifi and bluetooth but after reading OP, it sort of pisses me off.

I actually prefer it this way since I'll occassionally disable wifi if it's causing an issue, but then forget to turn it back on again. And on the far less frequent times that I disable Wifi outright, I can just go to settings. 

[themctipers]

14 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

One thing I've never seen Apple accused of is spying on users, but can you imagine if Microsoft or someone like that did this with a phone?  The outrage, I can feel it from here.

Apple discord has told me that you should keep it on because it improves service location accuracy and improves battery life by scanning available wifi and bluetooth networks and mapping them with GPS

 

... yeah I need a better source but that's a start; to google! 

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, djdwosk97 said:

3D Touch the brightness slider. 

I actually prefer it this way since I'll occassionally disable wifi if it's causing an issue, but then forget to turn it back on again.

But battery life bruh... Also, what will happen if I'm already out of range with my home wifi and I'm outside, will it keep the wifi radio off? 

[79wjd]

7 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

But battery life bruh... Also, what will happen if I'm already out of range with my home wifi and I'm outside, will it keep the wifi radio off? 

Presumably it would look for nearby networks every so often, but I'd like to see an in-depth test comparing battery life with wifi enabled/disabled. I used to disable wifi on my laptop when traveling, but I stopped doing it because it didn't seem to improve battery life any noticeable amount. 

 

Four scenarios I'd like to see tested: 

• Wifi disabled in settings. 
• Wifi enabled and connected.
• Wifi disabled in control center with a known wifi in range. 
• Wifi disabled in control center without a known wifi in range.

[themctipers]

6 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Apple discord has told me that you should keep it on because it improves service location accuracy and improves battery life by scanning available wifi and bluetooth networks and mapping them with GPS

 

... yeah I need a better source but that's a start; to google! 

@Ryan_Vickers https://support.apple.com/en-ca/ht203033

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, themctipers said:

@Ryan_Vickers https://support.apple.com/en-ca/ht203033

This is also probably to facilitate emergency SOS that was added with iOS 11 -- tap the power button five times in quick succession to make an emergency call and send emergency services (and your chosen emergency contact/s) your location and that you're in trouble. 

[themctipers]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

This is also probably to facilitate emergency SOS that was added with iOS 11 -- tap the power button five times in quick succession to make an emergency call and send emergency services (and your chosen emergency contact/s) your location and that you're in trouble. 

Pretty sure most of Apple's articles aren't update with iOS 11 information as iOS 11 isn't public yet, it's still in 'beta'. 

 

They still use iOS 10 screenshots.

[79wjd]

2 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Pretty sure most of Apple's articles aren't update with iOS 11 information as iOS 11 isn't public yet, it's still in 'beta'. 

 

They still use iOS 10 screenshots.

iOS 11 was released yesterday. I'm on the official day-one release. 

 

But I was just saying that emergency services is probably one of the reasons why wifi is "always on" -- it wasn't commentary directly at crowd sourcing location services.

[themctipers]

Just now, djdwosk97 said:

iOS 11 was released yesterday. I'm on the official day-1 release. 

Damn. 

 

They still have iOS 10 screenshots