iOS 9 finally brings the Wi-Fi feature we’ve wanted for years

Here’s an annoying issue that iPhone users are all too
familiar with: You’re surfing the web on a Wi-Fi
connection that your device automatically hopped on –
at home, in a public place, or at work – and all of a
sudden the app you’re in tells you it can’t load
something because you don’t have an Internet
connection. Yet you do! After all, you’re paying your
wireless carrier every month for a mobile data plan on
its 4G network… and yet your phone won’t automatically
switch to that. Enter iOS 9, which will change all that.
iOS 9 beta 5 (or public beta 3) includes the Wi-Fi feature
we’ve been waiting for years: It will automatically switch
to cellular data whenever your Wi-Fi dies out.
There’s a new setting you need to look for in the
Settings app and toggle it on and off depending on your
carrier data allotment. The feature is called Wi-Fi Assist
and it will let you “automatically use cellular data when
Wi-Fi connectivity is poor,” as Apple explains it (see the
screenshot below).
The feature should be used with some supervision,
especially if your mobile operator throttles your
connection after a certain data limit is reached. In other
words, if your Wi-Fi networks are more often dependable
than not, then you might want to keep the setting off.
The iPhone won’t just quietly switch over to cellular
data though, so you’ll know when it happens. What the
handset will do is to grey out the Wi-Fi signal, telling
you that you’re about to go into cellular data.
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