In the past few hours, the Google team has announced a new Internet tile dedicated to users of the Pixel series smartphones: it is clearly in perfect Material You style and is designed to offer a simpler and more intuitive connectivity experience. Google Pixel 6 and Google Pixel Pro, together with the release of Android 12 in a stable version, are naturally the hottest topics of the moment in the Android landscape and the news is not over yet.
New Internet tile for Google Pixel
The purpose pursued through this new Internet tile in the Quick Settings is to facilitate the transition from one network to another and solve any problems that may arise. The new Internet panel, which opens via the tile in the quick settings drop-down, allows you to activate and deactivate both the Wi-Fi connection and the Mobile Data connection using special switches marked with the words Wi-Fi and with the name of the internet provider.
In this way, obviously, an extra step is required to disable Wi-Fi and Google explained this choice by pointing out how most users usually disable Wi-Fi only when they intend to force the use of the data network, for example. example in the case of slow Wi-Fi or with a weak signal. However, users who turn off Wi-Fi are also the same ones who often forget to turn it back on and end up consuming excess mobile data.
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Apparently, this drawback is particularly common, for this reason, Big G has decided to solve it by adopting a change that may require a period of adaptation but which, in the long run, should bring benefits in terms of reducing errors and unwanted consequences. The change, Google is keen to point out, will not affect in any way the rules for switching from the Wi-Fi network to the mobile data network: in the presence of a Wi-Fi network available, the Pixel will try to connect automatically.
As for turning on Wi-Fi with airplane mode enabled, there are two possibilities:
- Open the Quick Settings, tap on the new Internet tile and from the Internet Panel activate the relative toggle, selecting the network to connect to.
- From the Settings, enter the Network and the Internet and then tap on the Internet and activate the dedicated toggle.
Regarding dual SIM smartphones, Google explained that the new Internet Panel and the Internet page in the System Settings only show the operator whose SIM has been set as the default for the data connection. At the moment, in short, it is possible to set only one operator at a time, however in a future update there may be an opening towards dual SIM smartphones, so as to allow users to activate the data connection on one SIM or the other direction from the Internet Panel and the Internet Settings page.
Big G then addressed the lock screen speech: in the first release with Android S, access to the Internet Panel required the prior unlocking of the smartphone. However, in an upcoming quarterly Pixel Feature Drop, the Mountain View house intends to make the Internet Panel also accessible from the Lock Screen, so as to be able to activate or deactivate Wi-Fi and data networks as needed. However, for security and privacy reasons, you will not be allowed to switch from one Wi-Fi provider to another without first unlocking the device.
Finally, Google has specified that users will be able to continue to activate/deactivate the Wi-Fi search without affecting the functions and services based on the location since the deactivation of the Wi-Fi search does not deactivate the Wi-Fi chip of the smartphone.