How to turn off iPhone cellular radio when using wifi?

[MrDoh]

We have very low cell coverage here. For calling and texting, wifi works great. Howver, a large portion of my iPhone battery usage goes into "no cell coverage". I've got "wifi assist" disabled, and the phone still wants to use the cellular radio when I'm using wifi calling. So I'm looking for a way to turn off the cellular radio when on wifi. Of course, I also want to turn the cell radio back on once I'm not on wifi *smile*.

Does anyone have shortcuts that do this, and can share them? Or knows if this can't be done, and can save me a lot of time?

For the record, I have an iPhone 16 Pro, and am on iOS 18.0.1.

Thanks!

 

[ShadowJamie]

We have very low cell coverage here. For calling and texting, wifi works great. Howver, a large portion of my iPhone battery usage goes into "no cell coverage". I've got "wifi assist" disabled, and the phone still wants to use the cellular radio when I'm using wifi. So I'm looking for a way to turn off the cellular radio when on wifi. Of course, I also want to turn the cell radio back on once I'm not on wifi .

Does anyone have shortcuts that do this, and can share them? Or knows if this can't be done, and can save me a lot of time ?

For the record, I have an iPhone 16 Pro, and am on iOS 18.0.1.

Thanks!

You can toggle on Airplane Mode from the Control Center, which will disable cellular service. Right next to the Airplane Mode button is the Wi-Fi button, which you can enable. This way, you have Wi-Fi on and cellular off. If you need cellular service again, simply turn off Airplane Mode.

 

[MrDoh]

You can toggle on Airplane Mode from the Control Center, which will disable cellular service. Right next to the Airplane Mode button is the Wi-Fi button, which you can enable. This way, you have Wi-Fi on and cellular off. If you need cellular service again, simply turn off Airplane Mode.

Yep, I can do that *smile*. I was hoping for an automated way of doing it, so I don't have to think about it every time I enter or leave my house. Should have mentioned that I was looking for an automation, looks like.

Thanks, though.

 

[Slartibart]

you can easily do this in Apple Shortcuts. First create a shortcut like this:

save it under some adequate name. 🙃 Within Shortcuts then switch to »Automation« and create an automation which “on arrival” at the geolocation you specify, runs this shortcut “immediately”. Done. 🤓

 

[arw]

And just in case your home can't be pinpointed correctly for whatever reasons, you can set joining your WiFi as trigger:
When *Your iPhone* joins *Your WiFi* Do *The Shortcut from above*.

Same as for geo-fenced triggers, you will get a notification once the Automation is run that cannot be suppressed.

 

[MrDoh]

Thanks to both of the above posters. I'll be giving that a try tomorrow, after I get some sleep *smile*.

 

[throAU]

Just to confirm - if you are in airplane mode with cellular disabled and have wifi assisted calling enabled with your carrier, do cell calls still come in?

I'm in a similar situation: really bad cell coverage in my house - guessing this will save me a HEAP of battery life if calls still work.... would even be tempted to set it up with a geofence if possible.

 

[arw]

Just to confirm - if you are in airplane mode with cellular disabled and have wifi assisted calling enabled with your carrier, do cell calls still come in?

I use it daily. That's what Wi-Fi calling is for (if activated in your iOS settings). Even SMS get through this way.
You can check what Wi-Fi features your carrier supports here (for iOS 17):
Settings > General > About > Network Provider or Carrier
Tap on it until it switches to 'IMS Status' and displays either Voice or Voice & SMS.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imessage-delivery-when-ios-is-off.2374743/post-31923090

 

[MrDoh]

I use it daily. That's what Wi-Fi calling is for (if activated in your iOS settings). Even SMS get through this way.
You can check what Wi-Fi features your carrier supports here: Settings > General > Info > Carrier
If you tap on it, it switches to 'IMS Status' and displays either Voice or Voice & SMS.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imessage-delivery-when-ios-is-off.2374743/post-31923090

And, if you're really lucky, it will display "Voice & SMS & RCS" *smile*...subject to your cell carrier having added RCS compatibility.

 

[MrDoh]

So I couldn't get the location-based automations to work. Did lots of research, and my phone is set up in such a way that it should work.

However, using "wifi" as a condition does work...when my phone connects to wifi, airplane mode is turned on and wifi is also turned on after that. When my phone disconnects from wifi, airplane mode is turned off, so cellular is turned back on (if available).

I like it, it's simple and it works. The location-based automations seem a bit on the touchy side *smile*.

Thanks for the clues.

 

[Fred Zed]

So I couldn't get the location-based automations to work. Did lots of research, and my phone is set up in such a way that it should work.

However, using "wifi" as a condition does work...when my phone connects to wifi, airplane mode is turned on and wifi is also turned on after that. When my phone disconnects from wifi, airplane mode is turned off, so cellular is turned back on (if available).

I like it, it's simple and it works. The location-based automations seem a bit on the touchy side *smile*.

Thanks for the clues.

Right now I'm determining if it even helps...Airplane mode should stop iOS from fiddling with the cell radio, but I'm not convinced yet.

Can you share with me and the forum how you set this automation up please. I’m new to functionality and would appreciate it. Since I also live in an area of very poor cellular coverage. Thanks.

 

[MrDoh]

I used this tutorial:

Shortcuts User Guide - Apple Support

Guides you though making shortcuts and automating them in short order. Very understandable, and you'll see the actions (for the shortcuts) and triggers (for the automations) that you need right away.

Basically, made the two shortcuts with the actions I mentioned above via the guide, then wrapped automation around each one. Kind of cool tech for a mass market phone, easily accessible, with lots of power if you need it. If you don't need conditionals, etc. then it's very simple, and a half hour (or less) with the tutorial will do it. Tells you how to do each little step, including button pushes, very detailed and clear.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

The biggest drawback to this, and the reason I wouldn’t do it (aside from not needing to…) is that you won’t receive SMS. Every time I log into certain websites an SMS verification code is sent, and I just “accept” the code on my iPad or Mac - but it’s coming through my iPhone.

 

[arw]

The biggest drawback to this, and the reason I wouldn’t do it (aside from not needing to…) is that you won’t receive SMS.

It might not work for you for some specific reason but almost every carrier offers SMS over WiFi and it is supported at least since iOS 16.
See post #8 how to verify it on your iPhone.
(Not doubting that it doesn't work for you, just pointing out it generally does.)

 

[MrDoh]

The biggest drawback to this, and the reason I wouldn’t do it (aside from not needing to…) is that you won’t receive SMS. Every time I log into certain websites an SMS verification code is sent, and I just “accept” the code on my iPad or Mac - but it’s coming through my iPhone.

This may be how your phone works, but I’m getting all the two factor authentication codes that I’m sent. No problems so far. Yes, they come to my phone, and are forwarded to my iPad and Mac’s by my phone ans usual. All good here.

 

[reppans]

I use a manual one-touch toggle shortcut to alternate between cellular and wifi (unused antenna fully off), but it does need the manual touch upon entering and leaving home - that might be too much ‘work’ for most folks. I just prefer to only run the antennas I’m currently using so that Apple isn’t using my phone/battery for its crowdsourcing activities.

 

[MrDoh]

It wasn't aversion to manual labor that got me to automate this. It's the fact that I want my phone to just work, not have to be serving it. And, probably more important, is that I tend to not think about my phone all the time, so I wouldn't remember to switch it when I come and go. The automation works perfectly at this point, and I don't have to think about it, win-win *smile*.

 

[BrianBaughn]

I use it daily. That's what Wi-Fi calling is for (if activated in your iOS settings). Even SMS get through this way.
You can check what Wi-Fi features your carrier supports here: Settings > General > Info > Carrier
If you tap on it, it switches to 'IMS Status' and displays either Voice or Voice & SMS.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/imessage-delivery-when-ios-is-off.2374743/post-31923090

I don't have Settings>General>Info

 

[arw]

I don't have Settings>General>Info

My mistake. It was either changed in more recent versions of iOS or translated differently. I've updated it.
For iOS 17 it is:
Settings > General > About > Network Provider (or Carrier)
Tap on it until it displays the 'IMS Status'

 

[MrDoh]

I don't have Settings>General>Info

On my phone on iOS 18, it's: Settings -> General -> About -> Carrier

Then tapping the field value on the right once will show you what your carrier supports.