Some Carriers May Start Hiding Signal Strength from Users in Android P

Megalith

Megalith

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According to a few commits, it appears that some carriers are pushing for the ability to hide the signal strength in the next version of Android. Currently, the signal strength can be found under “Sim Status” in the settings menu. This is the actual numerical signal strength measured in dBm or asu: the lower the dBm number, the worse the device’s network signal is.

While most users wouldn’t care to look at the exact dBm value of the signal strength, it can be a useful number when comparing how multiple devices on the same network perform. Your device’s signal strength is incredibly important for call quality, data connectivity/speed, and battery life, so looking at the dBm value when using your phone in certain areas can be a useful way to see how well your new device fares on the network.
 
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GuruX

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Nolan7689 said:
Possibly? Though I doubt transparency of signal strength is in anyway legislated. I don’t know of any way to check the actual dBm on an iPhone.
Click to expand...

Looks like they removed the option to do so in iOS 11 (there was a dialer code you could enter before to replace the signal dots with the dBm value).

At least with Android we can use apps like LTE Discovery if we need detailed info on signal levels and such.
 
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XacTactX

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 13, 2010
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Megalith, you wrote the signal strength wrong. High dBm values mean poor signal strength, and low dBm values mean high signal strength. The image you posted in the article shows the same thing.
 
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