About Wi-Fi Assist

You can use Wi-Fi Assist to automatically switch to mobile data when you have a poor Wi-Fi connection.

How Wi-Fi Assist works

With Wi-Fi Assist, you can stay connected to the internet even if you have a poor Wi-Fi connection. For example, if you’re using Safari with a poor Wi-Fi connection and a webpage doesn’t load, Wi-Fi Assist will activate and automatically switch to mobile data so that the webpage continues to load. You can use Wi-Fi Assist with most apps such as Safari, Apple Music, Mail, Maps and more.

When Wi-Fi Assist is activated, you’ll see the mobile data icon in the status bar on your device.

Because you’ll stay connected to the internet over mobile data when you have a poor Wi-Fi connection, you might use more mobile data. For most users, this should only be a small percentage higher than previous usage. If you have questions about your data usage, learn more about managing your mobile data.

You can use Wi-Fi Assist with any iOS device with iOS 9 or later, except for these models: iPhone 4s, iPad 2 Wi-Fi Cellular, iPad (3rd generation) Wi-Fi Cellular and iPad mini (1st generation) Wi-Fi Cellular.

Turn Wi-Fi Assist on or off

Wi-Fi Assist is turned on by default. If you don’t want your iOS device to stay connected to the internet when you have a poor Wi-Fi connection, you can disable Wi-Fi Assist. Go to Settings > Mobile Data or Settings > Cellular. Then scroll down and tap the slider for Wi-Fi Assist.

Find out more

  • Wi-Fi Assist won’t automatically switch to mobile data if you’re data roaming.

  • Wi-Fi Assist only works when you have apps running in the foreground and isn’t activated with background downloading of content.

  • Wi-Fi Assist isn’t activated with some third-party apps that stream audio or video, or download attachments, such as an email app, as they might use large amounts of data.

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