Best Google Play Apps Reviewed

Best Wi-Fi Boosting Android Apps

Most modern phones are able to work with several Wi-Fi networks at once, and sometimes even pick up the best network that’s available to them. Still, there are many Android apps that can significantly boost your Wi-Fi browsing experience. Let’s take a good look at some of the best ones.

Wifi Analyzer is one of the most downloaded Wi-Fi apps in Google Play Store, and for a good reason: it can turn your smartphone into an amazingly powerful Wi-Fi analyzer. Trust me, apps like this have ruined the businesses of many hardware manufacturers, which used to ask hundreds, and sometimes even thousands of dollars for custom-built equipment that had similar purposes. And when you take into account the fact that Wifi Analyzer is 100% free, it’s quite easy to understand why this has happened.

The app shows the networks in your area, telling you which channels are crowded and which are available. According to https://www.data-alliance.net (see their graph below) the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi channels overlap, so it’s best to keep a distance between them, if possible.

This means that if channel #6 is the most crowded in the area and you can choose between #1 and #5, you should always pick the 1st channel, which won’t overlap with the 6th one.

If you are a geek who simply loves playing with virtual tech toys, I’ve got a Wi-Fi app for you, and its name is WiFi Overview 360. It’s the perfect application for people who are interested not only in evaluating their Wi-Fi Network’s performance, but also in optimizing it.

WiFi Overview 360 scans the Wi-Fi networks in the area, and then maps them, providing detailed information about each access point. The information is cleverly presents using graphs and tables which provide a pleasant user experience. Based on the gathered information, the app is also able to recommend the best Wi-Fi channel for a particular user.

The application can also be used as a widget, offering several pleasant-looking styles. You can sort the discovered Wi-Fi networks according to their signal strength, channel, name, and so on.

OpenSignal 3G 4G WiFi Maps & Speed Test is a really long name for an app; I’d say that we can all agree on that! But, at least in this particular case, the long app name hints at a long feature list, which makes this app stand out from the rest.

The application allows you to see the cell towers in the area, and then shows the route you should follow towards them, if you want to boost signal strength. It also incorporates a speed test section, which works with cellular data, Wi-Fi, DSL, ADSL and cable connections, and helps you measure the download and upload speeds, as well as connection latency.

If you’re constantly on the move, you will appreciate the fact that the app can also be used as a widget, helping you see all the needed info at once.

But what should you do when you’re traveling, and you need Internet access badly? Well, install Swift WiFi:Global WiFi Sharing, of course! Just like the apps above, it is free and helps you find decent Wi-Fi hotspots. The application database, which includes over 1,000,000 hotspots, ranks them according to their security, speed and signal quality. These are the only things that really matter, if you ask me.

An interesting app feature, which should have made its way into the Android O.S. many years ago, is the ability of disabling Wi-Fi according to a preset schedule, with the goal of saving battery power. I’d say that it’s also a very useful feature for people who may have forgotten to disconnect from a previously used hotspot which has proved to be dangerous.

Just like the apps above, Swift WiFi:Global WiFi Sharing also comes as a widget, and it can be set up to deliver the desired notifications straight in the status bar. And if your friends have the app installed, you can easily share files with them without using a third-party service.

These features (and there are many more!) explain why this app has found its way on over 100 million cell phones. And with close to 1 million positive ratings, there isn’t any reason why you shouldn’t consider installing it.