WiCellSwitcher helps your iPhone conserve battery and reduce data usage

Your iPhone uses an assortment of cellular and Wi-Fi-based networks to keep you connected to the internet throughout the day, but as you might come to expect, your iPhone uses more battery and data when it stays connected to both.

WiCellSwitcher is a new free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Bruno Andrade that automatically disables your iPhone’s cellular radio whenever you connect to a Wi-Fi network, and as you might come to expect, it automatically turns the cellular radio back on again after your handset drops its Wi-Fi connection.

Disabling your iPhone’s cellular radio and relying solely on Wi-Fi networks can have implications for incoming phone calls and SMS messages, but with much of your incoming pings coming by way of FaceTime or iMessage, chances are you won’t even notice it.

WiCellSwitcher is ideal for low battery situations when you want to conserve as much power as possible while still maintaining an internet connection, and it’s also ideal if you want to save cellular data since your iPhone won’t be pinging any nearby cellular towers as long as you’re connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Once installed, WiCellSwitcher puts a preference pane in the Settings app where you can turn the tweak on or off on demand and enable automatic network switching (you could leave this off if you prefer to do things manually):

Admittedly, the tweak is a bit of a niche point for me and perhaps 99% of other people, especially since iPhone batteries are becoming larger and Apple’s hardware and software combination are getting more efficient. On the other hand, if you’re in that 1% of people who feel like they need to squeeze every last bit of power and value from their iPhone’s battery and data usage, then this just might be the tweak for you.

If you’re interested in trying WiCellSwitcher, then you can download it for free from Cydia’s BigBoss repository. The tweak supports jailbroken iOS 12 devices, but unfortunately, it can’t be installed on iOS 11 devices.

Do you think you have a legitimate use for WiCellSwitcher? Discuss why or why not in the comments section below.