14 DAY TRIAL // The option to see the speed rating for a Wi-Fi connection has been finally added by Google into Android 8.1, but it’s not rolling out to everyone at once.
A feature called WiFi Speed Labels was revealed by Google a while back for Android 8.1, but not much information was disclosed until now. It turns out that it’s a much more exciting option than you might think, although it’s still rough around the edges.
The idea is to provide users a way to know how good a particular open Wi-Fi connection is, at least regarding bandwidth. It’s nice to know that you can watch Netflix before trying fruitlessly to do so.
Such a small feature, such a big impact
WiFi Speed Labels is one of those options that you don’t actually know you need them until you have them. And then you will want that option present, no matter the phone that you’re getting. Since this is rolling out with Android 8.1, it means that it will be a while until it reaches any other device that’s still on older versions of the OS.
The idea is pretty simple. Users can see, at a glance, the quality of the Wi-Fi connection. For now, the four Wi-Fi tags are Slow (send texts), OK (read the news and maybe get on social media), Fast (check out YouTube and other services), and Very Fast(pretty much whatever you want or need).
It’s not a precise way of determining the speed, but for now, it’s much better than nothing. It’s interesting to note that the provider for these ratings is Google. This means that Google has to know about a particular Wi-Fi and its capabilities in order to inform other peoples about it, and it will take some time to gather the data and send it across the network.
You can expect to see these ratings only with open Wi-Fi networks, and they might improve over time. Of course, there is a way to disable this feature. Just go into Settings > Network & Internet > Wi-Fi > Wi-Fi Preferences > Advanced > Network and choose None instead of Google.
Public Wi-Fi can be spotty. For the first time, #AndroidOreo 8.1 lets you take out the guesswork & see the speed of networks before you hit connect. Rolling out now: https://t.co/lSzvCFgNk7 pic.twitter.com/60EmoPxUX4 — Android (@Android) January 22, 2018