this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2026
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Possibly, but how often do you use WiFi on a phone?
Basically whenever I'm at home or a relative's house?
But why? Mobile networks are very fast nowadays. And how many homes still have routers?
...are you joking?
Please note: I didn't say you had to connect to these networks. This happens as a background process unless you do a ritual to shut off location services and actively work to keep it off. Most people do not know/care to do this. And even if it's off in settings, some apps have the permission to temporarily override this (and will ask you once to grant it such permission and then have that permission for the lifetime of the app). And regardless of which app overrides said setting, Google gets a copy of whatever the background scan finds (for all Android phones that have the Play store installed, which is most of them).
Am I the only person who switches off the WiFi after use? I thought that was common advice to save battery.
I use WiFi at home and friends. I use cellular for work and travel (usually between home and friends). I'm glad you have a simple enough arrangement that it's worthwhile to manage it by hand.
Further, in recent versions of Android, factory settings are set to automatically turn WiFi back on if turned off - plus there's several methods to indirectly turn WiFi back on (https://thedroidguy.com/stop-android-turning-wifi-on-automatically-1261625). This is that dark patterns thing. Getting people to do what you want by being frictionless with your preferred options and 'polite' but obstinate about options you wish to steer people away from.
This is the part I don't understand. Mobile data would work in your houses too, right?
I haven't seen this happen, but I use MIUI (Xiaomi's Android ROM) which tends to be aggressive in limiting battery use. It will actually cut hotspot if unused for a few minutes.