SignalPlane intelligently utilizes Airplane Mode at times of low signal to save battery

As you move closer to or farther away from an internet access point, whether it’s over cellular or Wi-Fi, your handset’s signal level adjusts to reflect your distance from said access point. But did you know that a weak internet signal causes your iPhone or iPad to work harder to maintain that signal?

Many don’t realize it, but the circumstances described above can have an adverse impact on your handset’s battery life. On the other hand, a new free jailbreak tweak called SignalPlane by iOS developer Julio Verne can help counteract these adverse effects with a clever Airplane Mode-centric implementation.

SignalPlane is designed to automatically toggle Airplane Mode on when your internet signal dips below a user-set threshold. By default, the tweak toggles Airplane Mode on when your handset dips to 25% less of a full signal, but this can be configured however you’d like.

After a user-set period, the device toggles Wi-Fi back on to re-check the signal level. At that point, SignalPlane automatically determines whether Airplane Mode should be turned off based on the signal level – if yes, then Airplane Mode is turned off; if no, then Airplane Mode is kept on.

SignalPlane adds a preference pane to the Settings app where you can configure the tweak to your personal liking:

Here, you can:

  • Toggle SignalPlane on or off on demand
  • Configure the signal threshold that will invoke Airplane Mode:
    • 0%
    • 25% or less
    • 50% or less
    • 75% or less
    • 100% or less
  • Configure how quickly SignalPlane toggles Airplane Mode after the signal dips too low:
    • After 5 seconds
    • After 10 seconds
    • After 15 seconds
    • After 20 seconds
    • After 30 seconds
    • After 40 seconds
    • After 50 seconds
    • After 1 minute
    • After 2 minutes
    • After 5 minutes
  • Choose whether Wi-Fi always stays enabled
  • Configure how long SignalPlane will wait before re-checking for a viable internet signal:
    • Disables
    • 1 minute
    • 2 minutes
    • 3 minutes
    • 4 minutes
    • 5 minutes
    • 6 minutes
    • 10 minutes
    • 15 minutes
    • 30 minutes

The developer includes a Reset Settings button at the bottom of the preference pane that lets you revert to stock settings on demand; this action will require a respring.

We particularly like how well-planned SignalPlane appears to be. Instead of toggling Airplane Mode and then leaving the user to manually toggle it back off in the future, SignalPlane sports its own automatic system to ensure your handset reconnects to the internet when internet signal conditions improve.

It’s also nice how the developer provides a timeout period, which ensures you aren’t disconnected from the internet at the very moment that your handset’s internet signal dips too low. Instead, you can configure a timeout period, which gives you some extra time to finish what you’re doing before Airplane Mode is turned on.

As you might come to expect, disabling your handset’s wireless radios can preserve battery life, and this tweak exploits that benefit in times when the wireless radios are under high stress during times of low signal. The result after installing SignalPlane is a longer-lasting battery throughout the day.

If you’re interested in trying SignalPlane for yourself, then you can download it for free from Julio Verne’s beta repository in Cydia. The tweak works on all jailbroken iOS 11 devices.

If you aren’t already using Julio Verne’s beta repository, then you can follow our step-by-step tutorial comprising of how to add it to Cydia. The repository URL is as follows:

http://julioverne.github.io/

What do you think about the concept surrounding SignalPlane? Let us know in the comments section below.