SignalPlane – Turn Airplane Mode on when signal strength is low

Another day, another tweak. SignalPlane automatically turns your airplane mode on depending on the signal strength level. Download this tweak for your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch below.

How SignalPlane works

Most of us no longer feel the need to use airplane mode on our iPhones thanks to expansive networks of almost of major cellular carriers.

In spite of that, there are several instances where enabling it will save your battery life. That is where this new tweak, which automates this feature, comes in.

SignalPlane Cydia tweak intelligently enables airplane mode based on your device’s signal strength level. It is developed by veteran tweak developer Julio Verne.   

Here’s how this tweak looks like in action.

For the uninitiated, the iOS operating system checks for the signal strength level at frequent intervals of time.

While this is necessary when you are in an area that has good coverage, it also drains a lot of battery when the signal strength is poor. 

When you find yourself in an area with poor network coverage, the “apsd” daemon increases the power supply to the antenna, which constantly searches for the signal until it finds it.   

Even if you keep cellular turned off and use WiFi exclusively, your device will still ping the nearest cellular base station.

Setup

• Enabled (on) – Enables the tweak functionality.
• Airplane When Signal (25% or less) – Defines the signal level below which the airplane mode gets activated. 
• After (5 sec) – Defines the time interval in seconds after which the airplane mode gets enabled. Setting it to 5 seconds ensures that it kicks in right after the signal falls below or equals in magnitude the threshold value specified above.
• Always Enable WiFi (on) – Enables WiFi along with airplane mode as soon as the signal strength drops below the value you select in the “Airplane When Signal” option.
• Always Enable Bluetooth (on) – Enables Bluetooth along with airplane mode as soon as the signal level drops below the threshold value. I highly recommend enabling this option if you use Bluetooth headphones or any other Bluetooth device. What this does is, it ensures that the Bluetooth connection doesn’t drop when airplane mode is enabled.     
• Vibrate Notification (on) – Enables vibration for notifications.
• Re-check After (5 min) – Defines the value after which your device rechecks for the signal strength level. Once the signal strength exceeds the threshold value, airplane mode will automatically get toggled off. 

Once you set this tweak up according to your requirements, there’s no need to restart the SpringBoard. Just close the Settings app and you shall be good to go. 

If, however, you wish to go back to the original settings, just tap the “Reset Settings” option once.  

Download SignalPlane Cydia tweak

If you travel a lot or just happen to live in a place where cellular reception is spotty, SignalPlane is the tweak for you.

Even if you don’t, Julio Verne’s tweaks are top-notch and it wouldn’t really hurt to not have this nifty little tweak on your device.

Although you can enable airplane mode yourself, this tweak will automate that without requiring any user intervention. Highly recommended.

SignalPlane is available for download on Julio Verne’s Cydia repository (http://julioverne.github.io/). It is compatible with iOS 11.