Poll: iOS 11.0 Control Center Bluetooth/WiFi Toggle Implementation

[rootee]

I love the new functionality; it was literally impossible to do something like this previously, you had to shut off WiFi or Bluetooth and remember to turn it back on later.
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Then shut them off in "Settings;" the "Settings" switches really do shut the features off or turn them on.

Yes, we all know that the radios can indeed be fully turned off via the Settings app. The issue is that the Control Center formerly provided that convenience for years, and now it doesn’t. It used to be a couple of screen taps, and now it’s four or more, and counter intuitive (to me). Apple should have provided both the disconnect and on/off in the Control Center instead of completely removing a feature that a gazillion people have used for years.

The real reason I started this poll was to see what the popular opinion was on this; even if it’s 50/50 Apple should not have removed/changed it, IMHO. If it’s like 70/30 in favor of the 11.0 functionality, then I would have to say that Apple is indeed correct, and this is the way it should work. The user is always right!
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Well I never used Control Center to do this before and they provided me with functionality that was impossible previously.

I get that your muscle memory will have to do something else, but do you really turn off WiFi or Bluetooth that often?

I totally agree that they should have provided both disconnect and on/off options in CC. It’s software, just add it and say “look, we added this cool new disconnect feature you’re gonna love!”.

BTW I used to use CC to toggle WiFi on/off quite often.

 

[C DM]

iOS 11's version is literally the worst change they've made. I downgraded because of it, makes my phone pointless. Why can't Apple bloody give us the choice.

Makes the phone pointless? Seems like the iPhone was just pointless for years and years before Control Center was introduced.

 

[rootee]

Makes the phone pointless? Seems like the iPhone was just pointless for years and years before Control Center was introduced.

I think oldmacs hyperbolic statements aren’t literal, but just an indication of the frustration even small, unsubstantiated changes make to a phones overal UI experience. Design choices like this drive me bonkers, especially knowing that Apple could have easily provided both options in CC. I can’t wait to see what the poll numbers look like in a week, either way!

 

[C DM]

I think oldmacs hyperbolic statements aren’t literal, but just an indication of the frustration even small, unsubstantiated changes make to a phones overal UI experience. Design choices like this drive me bonkers, especially knowing that Apple could have easily provided both options in CC. I can’t wait to see what the poll numbers look like in a week, either way!

Hyperbole isn’t very useful and usually just ends up distracting and detracting.

 

[oldmacs]

Makes the phone pointless? Seems like the iPhone was just pointless for years and years before Control Center was introduced.

Prior to iOS 7 I didn't work in the environment I do now.

Hyperbole isn’t very useful and usually just ends up distracting and detracting.

I don't really care. Apple's removal of features are distracting and annoying and not very useful. The removal of a something that was easily done drove me up the wall.

 

[Falhófnir]

It is a bit of a pain to actually have to go into settings to turn it off, iOS 11 is very much a step forward in some areas and back or sideways in others...

 

[Porco]

Given that toggling Wifi on and off was the no.1 reason I liked Control Centre in the first place I find this new behaviour with unchanged icons disappointing and a bad idea (not that I've updated to iOS 11 yet - and this doesn't encourage me to do so). By all means make it an option, either way, but having to go into settings to properly tun Wifi off now, just when Control Centre has just added a load of other options seems more than odd, it's perverse.

 

[JamesIV]

I don't like it but I hate the old control center as a whole more from iOS 10 so I'll def be sticking with iOS 11 and just putting up with the wifi/bt toggles

 

[rootee]

Overall the iOS 11.0 CC is nicer, I like the new long press features. It does pop-up a bit slower in my iPhone 6, but no biggie. It’s just this WiFi toggle disconnect thing is wonky IMO, but I would be perfectly content with simply adding the two modes: disconnect + on/off.

 

[danmart]

I haven't upgraded yet as I'm on holiday.

The hotel has rubbish wifi, which means turning it off and using 4G is far better. But every time my wife asks me to AirDrop her photos we end up sitting staring at the screen until we remember one of both of us has wifi turned off. The new method would avoid this issue.

I think this is the driver for Apple's decision. The devices use Bluetooth and wifi for various iOS-level features and Apple wants theses to be available to you even if you don't want to use the wifi network to get your data.

 

[oldmacs]

I haven't upgraded yet as I'm on holiday.

The hotel has rubbish wifi, which means turning it off and using 4G is far better. But every time my wife asks me to AirDrop her photos we end up sitting staring at the screen until we remember one of both of us has wifi turned off. The new method would avoid this issue.

I think this is the driver for Apple's decision. The devices use Bluetooth and wifi for various iOS-level features and Apple wants theses to be available to you even if you don't want to use the wifi network to get your data.

They should offer both as they both have their uses.

 

[danmart]

They should offer both as they both have their uses.

Arguably they do, but it sounds like you have to go into settings to achieve the 'full' switch off.

Genuine question - what drives the need to switch off wifi as opposed to 'not use it', which seems to be the iOS 11 approach?

 

[bchreng]

They have given us the choice. You can just go into Settings if you want to disable the Wifi/BlueTooth services completely, and you can use Control Centre to disconnect from specific devices.

We never had the choice before, it was disable/enable only.

I wish they carried that idea of choice over to the Control Center and allow users to select what the toggle buttons do.

 

[boltjames]

I get that your muscle memory will have to do something else, but do you really turn off WiFi or Bluetooth that often?

Yes, constantly. The Bluetooth and Wi-fi antennae are constantly sniffing for a signal and eat battery like a pig. I can get all-day battery life and more by managing Bluetooth and Wi-fi sniffing properly.

I only use Bluetooth in my car. So when I'm spending two days out of town or taking the train into the city for the day, I swipe up and turn Bluetooth off to conserve battery. Takes 1 second.

I never use Wi-fi anymore. I have an unlimited dataplan from ATT and where I live and work the LTE is blazingly fast. I only use wi-fi when downloading apps or streaming something for awhile. I swipe up and turn Wi-fi on only as needed. Takes 1 second.

So this change in functionality is a mess for me. I won't leave both antennae 'on' all week when I only need Bluetooth connectivity 75% of the time and Wi-fi 10% of the time. So now I have to drill deep into Settings to get at the instant on/off functionality I'm accustomed to.

Leave it to Apple to consolidate and improve Control Center and then make it harder to use. I'm a fanboy, but they're wearing me very thin these days.

 

[oldmacs]

Arguably they do, but it sounds like you have to go into settings to achieve the 'full' switch off.

Genuine question - what drives the need to switch off wifi as opposed to 'not use it', which seems to be the iOS 11 approach?

Thats not the same, you've got to unlock the phone and go in to settings. No more swipe up and off in one go. Fair enough to add the new functionality of a disconnect, but how hard would it be to completely disable by a long press.

At work I can not have my personal phone on the wifi network, however I can have other devices that are on my iCloud Keychain so no matter what I do, my phone connects to wifi and forgetting it on the phone forgets it on the other devices. So every morning I turn wifi off and at night I turn it back on again. However while at work I need my personal hotspot frequently. With iOS 11 it becomes a huge huge annoyance.

I also like to turn Wifi off when not needed for the power saving.

 

[danmart]

At work I can not have my personal phone on the wifi network, however I can have other devices that are on my iCloud Keychain so no matter what I do, my phone connects to wifi and forgetting it on the phone forgets it on the other devices. So every morning I turn wifi off and at night I turn it back on again. However while at work I need my personal hotspot frequently. With iOS 11 it becomes a huge huge annoyance.

I sound to me like using the CC option will still give you what you need, depending on how far we have to walk before wifi turns on again.

Arrive at work, trigger the CC wifi off icon and your phone will not attempt to use wifi. You will still be able to do things like wifi hotspot if needed because wifi isn't 'off', it just isn't being used as a connection for internet access. When you drive home it will start using wifi again.

Would you be willing to try that and see if it works?

 

[oldmacs]

I sound to me like using the CC option will still give you what you need, depending on how far we have to walk before wifi turns on again.

Arrive at work, trigger the CC wifi off icon and your phone will not attempt to use wifi. You will still be able to do things like wifi hotspot if needed because wifi isn't 'off', it just isn't being used as a connection for internet access. When you drive home it will start using wifi again.

Would you be willing to try that and see if it works?

Nope. It ended up reconnecting over and over again and drove me mad, thus why I downgraded. I also don't want to waste my battery life having Wifi on unnecessarily.

 

[C DM]

So, who has some definitive non-anecdotal information as far as how much battery life is actually being conserved when WiFi (and/or Bluetooth) are manually disabled when not in use and manually enabled when needed?

 

[358547]

..

 

[sbailey4]

I suppose the airplane mode requirement of actually turning the radios off is a non-issue today, now that airlines have on board WiFi, and allow BT headphones even during takeoff.

I would have preferred a 3D or long-press option for either the disconnect, or on/off, then to just force the user into a totally new thing. The annoyance for me is that I prefer my radios to be off for privacy reasons; I don’t want my phone to be a “here I am” beacon for hackers or ad-based tracking.

You already had and still have 3D functionality for both Wi-Fi and BT. Why go into control center THEN 3D Touch to toggle them when you can simply 3D the settings app and do it?

 

[midkay]

iOS 11's version is literally the worst change they've made. I downgraded because of it, makes my phone pointless. Why can't Apple bloody give us the choice.

This is (perhaps unintentionally) hilarious. Your entire phone is pointless if you have to go into Settings app to disable Wi-Fi? Do you use your phone for literally nothing else but enabling and disabling Wi-Fi? I can't even.

 

[rootee]

You already had and still have 3D functionality for both Wi-Fi and BT. Why go into control center THEN 3D Touch to toggle them when you can simply 3D the settings app and do it?

Because I have an iPhone 6 with no 3D Touch. That is pretty slick you can do that with the Settings app icon; I would probably be happy with that.

 

[dk001]

When I first found this it was driving me nuts. Thought they were turned off and they kept “reconnecting”. How if they were off? Then I found out Off wan’t.
Thankfully I found 3D on Settings for my 7+.
Now if I had that for my Mini4 or Pro 12. .....

The design is a bit moronic in my opinion.

 

[oldmacs]

This is (perhaps unintentionally) hilarious. Your entire phone is pointless if you have to go into Settings app to disable Wi-Fi? Do you use your phone for literally nothing else but enabling and disabling Wi-Fi? I can't even.

Pointless is perhaps hyperbole, but having to go into settings over and over and over again just to do something that was so simple before is infuriating.

 

[rootee]

Okay, we have over 100 votes, with ~60% in favor of the 10.x implementation. We’re getting into the statistical significance territory! I see this as Apple should most definitely include both types of toggles (on/off, disconnect) in CC... now, how do we get them to listen?