On iOS 11, pressing the wifi toggle immediately disconnects the iPhone or iPad from any wifi networks, but leaves the wireless radio available for use by location services, scanning for the names of nearby wifi access points. The Bluetooth toggle operates in a similar fashion. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Wifi toggle and wifi and bluetooth scanning settings on a Samsung Galaxy S8 Android smartphone. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the GuardianA similar thing happens in Android smartphones, which use wifi as part of their location services. Together they help get a location lock much faster than the GPS chip alone and in doing so can reduce the power consumption of location services.

Source: The Guardian September 21, 2017 09:11 UTC