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[App Idea] GSM/WCDMA Switcher

Hey guys,
As the radio stack is the second cause of battery draining after the display, I was thinking about a way to save battery life by reducing the impact of the 3G connection. Most of the energy saving apps on the market are only disconnecting the phone from the APN, but this isn't a great solution as each app could be set to update at different times and thus being unable to download data even if the user sets some exceptions. So I thought that an application which operates in the following way could be great to save power:
- The phone uses the 3G network while the screen is on;
- It switches to 2G when phone is in standby mode;
- It disconnects the APN data connection while the phone is using a WiFi Network;
Obviously to avoid possible issues during the switch between 2G and 3G the following rules are applied:
- If there's an incoming call or a phone call is being performed, there won't be any radio switch until the phone call is ended;
- If there's an incoming SMS/MMS, there won't be any radio switch until the text message is fully received.
Unfortunately as I'm not a Java developer I can't code anything like this. But let me know what you guys think about my idea and if it's technically feasible... Maybe some developer could be interested into further exploring my thoughts and will try to create such an app
Cheers

I'm not a developer but I think it sounds like a great idea. I go into settings and switch it to 2g when I'm in spotty areas outside of town. I have to work a bit to keep my N1 battery alive all day...

Hello I'm new here.
I don't know if your suggested profiles are the best case scenarios. You would need to calculate your data throughput, not just the radio power.
If you need to send 100 packets, your radio would be on the longest for edge > 3g > wifi. So, even though wifi uses the most power, it would be for a much shorter duration.
A profile for "place calls only" would work somewhat like airplane mode, but still keep track of towers. Your phone just wouldn't register on the network unless you wanted to place a call. You would miss your incoming calls, have no data connection, or sms. But, you could have it check at an interval for voicemail or sms. This would be most useful for "ringer off" situations like class or meeting.

Afaik Android is always connected to the APN even if the phone is not downloading anything, consuming a lot of battery power. On other platforms, i.e. Windows Mobile, the connection can be terminated by user and re-established when an app needs that.
The amount of data downloaded by widgets, Google mobile applications or apps which operates in background like eBuddy or Facebook should be quite low, so downloading the required data by using GSM or WCDMA while the phone is in standby would be pretty much the same. The only difference is that downloading stuff using GSM/EDGE should take much less energy power.
So that's why I thought about the app I described before: the phone can save a lot of energy power while in standby and be back to its full horsepower when there is any kind of user intervention. Pretty much the same thing that the system already does for CPU usage. It scales to the less consuming protocol (or, in the case of CPU, frequency and voltage) to save power

I know on the google api it isn't possible to do this, but I don't think that isn't the problem.
At the moment you have 3 options. GSM only, WCDMA only and GSM/WCDMA. Whenever you switch between the 3 of them, the phone will lose signal for 10 seconds before it can find the best network. So the switcher here is not the best as you will lose connection, and what if you are downloading something at the same time...
What you need is when the phone is on GSM/WCDMA that it knows the best network to pick from depending on the phones lifecycle. GSM/WCDMA loses battery power because it always tries to find the best network to connect to, so for example if you are on GSM it will constantly try to find a 3G network etc (as far as I understand it).
What we need is the ability for the phone to stay on GSM when the phone is idle and then when the phone is woken up to automatically start to search for a WCDMA network and then gracefully switch over like it does now. For this I have no idea if it is possible as I don't know how the scanning of the network works. If it is possible then that would be wicked. But this is what we need.

my preference would be if the phone would stay on 3g as long as any possible even if there would be a more reliable 2g connection and only switch to 2g if there really is no way to connect to 3g. turn of apn if the screen us turned of for longer then 1 or 2 minutes and only check every 15 minutes or so.
most of the time I'm on 3g only mode . since I live in a city I got good coverage almost all over the city. only problem is that when there is no 3g available also my phone is unreachable. I don't really miss data connectivity when there is no 3g since 2g is so slow that I rather have no internet at all but not being sale to be called or texted is a major disadvantage...
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

[Q] wifi/data auto toggle?

This may be a dumb question but is there a way to set up wifi and data to automatically toggle? As in, when wifi is available it uses wifi, but when its not it automatically switches to 3g/4g? When im home i like to use wifi, but then when I leave I lose it and usually forget to switch over to data, so I get no emails or updates on anything until I look at my phone.

Option 1: Leave wifi and data on all the time.
When a trusted wifi network is available and your phone is connected, your phone will not use data (you will see the data indicator automatically disappear even though it is enabled). When you are no longer connected to wifi, your phone will automatically bring the data connection back.
Exception: using apps (usually Verizon-specific) that require a mobile data connection will bring the 3g/4g radio out of dormancy.
Pro: automatic switching, no need for additional apps.
Con: leaving wifi on takes its toll on battery life.
Option 2: Download/Install Llama from the Market
After you teach the program what cell towers are where, you can define criterion (ie you physically leave or enter a defined area, a certain time, etc) to carry out specific actions, including changing volume, display brightness, toggling data connection, wifi connection, bluetooth, gps, etc.
Pro: automatic switching of most anything imaginable, saves battery life compared to leaving wifi on
Con: additional app running in background, occasional instances of bugs

cnoevl21 said:
This may be a dumb question but is there a way to set up wifi and data to automatically toggle? As in, when wifi is available it uses wifi, but when its not it automatically switches to 3g/4g? When im home i like to use wifi, but then when I leave I lose it and usually forget to switch over to data, so I get no emails or updates on anything until I look at my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wi-fi matic is the app you want, it auto toggles wifi on when you are on the same cell tower than is near your home, as soon as your cellular switches to your home cell towers it toggles wifi on, and when it's away from home cell towers it toggles wifi off, you can use it for multiple wifi networks as well, i travel for work so i dont have a work wifi but u could have it auto toggle on at work or home, its also extremely easy to use, far easier than any tasker program.

[Q] Stupid wifi scanning?

I just bought an S6 edge, UK variant, and all I need to do is to have wifi on (I'm at home) but NOT have it continually scanning for other networks.
There doesn't seem to be an option for this in the wifi - more section in settings. Am I missing something?
Just to recap, I need:
Wifi: on
Scan: off
Is this possible?

Unfourtuanly there is only 2 viable options.
Allow searching all the time
Allow searching when Wifi is on (but not connected)
So best bet, is download Tasker, set it to disable wifi when disconnecting and set it to turn wifi on when arriving at home (Cell tower scan can do that)

If you are rooted, you can go to /system/build.prop and change this line
Code:
wifi.supplicant_scan_interval=XXX
where XXX=wifi scan interval in seconds. I don't think it can be completely disabled, but for example you could change XXX to 99999999 seconds, which is 1666666.65 minutes, which is 27777.78 hours, which is 1157.41 days.

Does this exist?

I am trying to find a free toggle widget to do one simple thing - enable or disable the WiFi Calling feature on my T-Mobile HTC One M7.
Why? I've been having shoddy internet connection issues at home for the last year. Spikes, timeouts, and packet loss before it even gets TO the routing server. How this affects my phone is obvious when you also consider I can barely get 2 bars of 2G signal while inside my home. The best way around this is to turn WiFi Calling on and set it to "WiFi Only" mode so it doesn't try to turn the cell radio back on while the connection is unstable (never more than 3-4 seconds). Just means I have a few seconds here and there where it may drop a call or delay a text or something, which is a small price to pay if you ask me.
However, I can't do WiFi calling outside of the house, which means going in and disabling it every time I want to go somewhere. After a couple months of this (because WiFi calling doesn't disable when WiFi is off for some reason...), I'm trying to find an easier solution. Losing 20% of my battery overnight from having it swapping back and forth is a pain, so I'm not going to set it to "WiFi Preferred", which started all of this.
I tried the application at this thread but it only seems to want to work with Tasker, which is a paid app and currently not a financial option for me (that same $3 is two days' worth of food).

Maybe you need to look into "Mobile Data Toggle" widgets? Accompanied with wi-fi toggle widget, you can set Mobile data to Off, and wi-fi - On when you're at home, and vice-versa when you're away.

NerdgrlApps said:
Maybe you need to look into "Mobile Data Toggle" widgets? Accompanied with wi-fi toggle widget, you can set Mobile data to Off, and wi-fi - On when you're at home, and vice-versa when you're away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mobile Data is always off 'cause I have a minimal 50MB plan. I have a WiFi toggle on my power bar (wifi, bluetooth, gps, brightness, etc). I need a WiFi CALLING toggle.

[APP][4.4+]WiFi Companion

WiFi Companion, a new way to manage your WiFi.
WiFi Companion switches your WiFi in a smart way by turning it on only when is needed in order to save battery. You can set when and where your WiFi turns on or turns off, how often it connects, at what time or even which days. It is all up to you.
Additionally, it records relevant information of every network you use so now you will not wonder where this "default" network is located, or when was the last time you used it. For every network you use, WiFi Companion (privately in your phone) stores:
- Name of the network.
- BSSID.
- Last IP address.
- Maximum speed reached.
- Precise location. This location is determined once per each network and uses GPS if available, so you can see its location on a map. You can also manually set its location.
- Last time of connection/disconnection.
In addition, for each network you can:
- Set a label to help you recognize it later.
- Set a password reminder, or even the password itself if you want it. Since Android doesn’t let you see passwords once you set them, now you can use them later or share them with someone else.
- Enable location optimization. Some networks are not related to cell towers location, such as mobile access points, so you can ignore them while searching nearby networks.
- Save map location. Here you can choose if you want to save the network precise location on a map.
- Control master synchronization based on the current network. Useful for limiting data transmission over insecure or non-trusted networks.
WiFi Companion provides a notification that shows you when your WiFi is turned on, so now you can easily check when you are wasting battery by not being connected. It also shows current network name, IP address and last time of connection/disconnection.
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