Samsung Galaxy Phones Have a Secret Wi-Fi Menu Full of Useful Options
After spending more than two decades writing about gadgets and tech in general, it’s not often that I come across a feature I’ve never seen or heard of before, but Samsung surprised me. It turns out the device maker has hidden a pretty useful Wi-Fi menu in its One UI software that gives you a whole bunch of useful options. It’s definitely new to me, and it might be new to you, too.
I owe a debt of gratitude to the fine folks at Android Authority for spotting this; they, in turn, discovered it via a Reddit thread that had a TikTok video embedded in it. The feature is called Connectivity Labs, and it looks like it’s being added sometime in 2023. You’ll find it in the Intelligent Wi-Fi settings that Samsung makes available for the networks you connect to.
How to enable Connectivity Labs
Here’s how to turn it on: Open Settings on your Galaxy phone, then tap Connections > Wi-Fi . Tap the three dots in the top-right corner, then select Smart Wi-Fi . Here, you’ll see some handy options for switching Wi-Fi networks, connecting to hotspots, detecting suspicious networks, and prioritizing real-time data.
To find the hidden menu, you need to press Intelligent Wi-Fi at the bottom of the screen seven times to enable Connectivity Labs (you’ll see a message when you get close that the feature will be enabled). This will give you an additional Connectivity Labs menu option on this screen. The menu button describes the feature as “for internal testing purposes.”
What You Can Do with Connectivity Labs
Tap Connection Lab, and you’ll first see a set of stats about your phone’s Wi-Fi connection over the past week, including how much data you’ve used, how long you’ve been connected, and even the Wi-Fi bands and standards you’re using (this will help you make sure you’re getting the most out of your new Wi-Fi 7 tri-band router).
Below you’ll find a number of options and toggles. One setting worth noting is “Switch to mobile data faster,” which means your phone will switch from an unstable Wi-Fi network to cellular data faster, and may be preferable if you have an unlimited data plan for your phone.
Then there’s the Auto reconnect to carrier Wi-Fi feature , which apparently completely automates the process of connecting to public Wi-Fi hotspots provided by your carrier. Whether you want this to happen or not will really come down to personal preference and how you want your phone to work, but it’s a useful option to have.
Tap Customize Wi-Fi list settings and you can make improvements to the list of available Wi-Fi networks you see on your phone. You can change the signal strength threshold that determines whether a Wi-Fi network appears as available, for example, and set up more filters to control which networks you see (for example, you only want to see secure 5GHz networks).
Select Wi-Fi developer options for even more stats, including a nearby Wi-Fi info screen that ranks the networks around you by their signal quality from worst to best. This can be useful for troubleshooting and making sure devices are connected to the network with the best signal.
Speaking of checking signal strength, if you open the home Wi-Fi test option on the Connectivity Labs page, it will walk you through the process of checking the quality of the Wi-Fi at different points in your home. You select the network you want to analyze, then wander around with your phone to check its strength at different points. Again, this is handy for figuring out why your laptop might be losing connection in the bedroom or finding the best place to install a new security camera.
Taken together, all the tools in Connectivity Labs are so useful that it’s surprising that Samsung put them in a hidden menu that you don’t see by default. I’m glad I discovered it.