Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi scanner, access points, channels, security check, roaming test

See the networks around you

Open “Wi-Fi scanner”. A scan starts at once and repeats while the screen is open. The list shows every access point the phone hears, strongest first.

Wi-Fi scanner list: scan status at the top, then access points grouped by physical device with signal in dBm
The scanner groups radios by the physical access point they belong to.

Read the list

Know whether the list is fresh

The line at the top always says what the last scan did: “Scanning…”, “Updated 14:02:31 · 5 s ago”, “No new scan — Android returned cached results”, or “Scan refused by Android (throttled)”. When you move to a new spot, tap ⋮ › “Clear list” to start from an empty list, then wait for the next “Updated”. Only access points heard at the new spot will show.

Tap ↻ (“Scan now”) to ask for a scan straight away.

Android's scan limit

Android lets each app start only 4 Wi-Fi scans every 2 minutes. SSIDekick scans every 30 seconds, which uses exactly that allowance, and shows what's left: “Scan limit: 2 of 4 left · full again in 40 s”. The line turns orange with one scan left and red at none. While Android is refusing scans, the results don't change.

You can lift the limit for all apps: in Android's Developer options, turn off “Wi-Fi scan throttling”. The scanner then says “Android scan limit: off” and scans every 10 seconds. If you don't have Developer options, open Settings › About phone and tap Build number seven times. When the limit stops the scanner, a box offers “Open Developer options”.

Another way is “Passive scanning” (the switch at the top). It asks for nothing and shows the scans Android makes anyway, so it doesn't use the limit. Android scans rarely while you're connected with a good signal, sometimes not for several minutes, and the scanner says when it has been quiet.

Wi-Fi scanning needs location access, and location services switched on. Without them Android returns an empty list.

See networks on a channel graph

Switch from “List” to “Channels”. Each access point is drawn as a shape as wide as its channel and as tall as its signal. Pick the band with the chips above the graph. Pinch to zoom, drag to pan, and tap a shape to open that access point. DFS channels are shaded on 5 GHz. A dashed shape wasn't heard in the last scan. All radios of one physical access point share a color.

Shapes that overlap disturb each other. Networks on exactly the same channel take turns; networks on overlapping but different channels can't coordinate, which is worse.

Inspect an access point

Tap any row to open its details. The top shows the name, signal and how long ago it was heard. Below are labeled panels:

Access point details: name, signal, My network switch, signal history and the Radio and Load panels
Everything the access point broadcasts, in labeled panels.

A value the access point doesn't send reads “Not advertised” rather than disappearing. That is useful in itself: an access point without 802.11k, for example, gives phones less help when roaming. For anything the app doesn't decode, “Show hex” under “Raw information elements” shows the raw data.

Name your access points

Hardware addresses are hard to tell apart. Give each access point a name such as “Office ceiling” and the name replaces the address in lists, graphs, the roaming test and reports.

All names are listed under Settings › AP names, where you can also import and export them.

Mark your own networks

The network you're connected to, and every network its access point broadcasts, counts as yours from the start. Android doesn't let apps read your saved networks, so add the others yourself: open an access point and switch on “My network”. Every access point broadcasting that name now counts as yours.

From then on, other networks overlapping your channels are flagged with ⚠ in the scanner, and listed under “Your networks” in Channels. The security check and twin watch also use this list.

Test through one specific access point

When several access points share one network name, you can't normally choose which one the phone uses. “Test through this AP” on the details screen connects SSIDekick alone to that exact access point:

  1. Type the network's Wi-Fi password and tap “Connect and test”.
  2. Approve the system dialog. Android asks you to confirm this exact access point.
  3. The app sends 10 pings to that network's router and 10 to 1.1.1.1 and shows the average, range and how many answered.

Only SSIDekick's test traffic goes through the chosen access point; your other apps carry on as before. On phones that can hold two Wi-Fi connections, your normal Wi-Fi stays connected; on others it drops during the test, and the screen tells you which applies. The password isn't stored.

Find the best channel

Open “Channels”. It has two tabs: “Assistant” and “Channel plan”. The free version shows “Your networks”: each of your access points and the outside networks overlapping it. Planning the fix is Pro: the setup, the recommendation, rating other channels, and the whole “Channel plan” tab. The Wi-Fi scanner's own “Channels” view, a graph of every network by channel, is free.

Channels assistant: your networks with their overlaps, the setup choices, and the recommended channel and width
The assistant rates channels against what the phone hears right now.

Use the assistant

  1. Stand next to the access point you're planning for. Interference is measured where the phone is.
  2. Under “Your networks”, check what overlaps your own radios. Tap one of your radios to plan for it.
  3. Pro Under “Your setup”, fill in the “Country”, the “Access point” generation (Wi-Fi 4 to Wi-Fi 7), the “Band”, the “Use” (indoor, outdoor or point-to-point link), the “Walls between the AP and its devices”, and how many “Devices” use it. Switch on “Avoid DFS channels” if you want to stay off radar channels; “What is DFS?” explains them.
  4. Read the “Recommendation”: channel, width, the power limit, and the reasons.
  5. Under “Try another channel” (or “Its current channel”), pick a width and a channel to see how it rates and why. “Ranked alternatives” lists other good choices, and “Not available here” what the rules exclude.

The country decides which channels and power levels are legal. If nearby access points advertise a different country, the assistant tells you, since your access point should be set to the country you're in.

Wider channels give more peak speed but overlap more neighbors. Wide channels suit quiet surroundings and short distances; narrow ones suit crowded places.

Read the channel plan Pro

Channel plan grid for 5 GHz: rows by width, blocks colored open, DFS, DFS 10 min or not allowed, with network counts
Every channel at every width, colored by what the rules allow.

The “Channel plan” tab shows every channel at every width for the chosen country, band and placement (“Indoor” or “Outdoor”). Rows are widths in MHz. Blocks are colored:

The number on a block is how many networks the phone hears on it; orange marks networks overlapping that channel. Tap a block for its frequencies, power limit and the networks on it. The rules' sources are listed at the bottom. This is a planning summary, not legal advice.

Check your networks' security

“Security check” judges each of your networks from what its access points broadcast, as anyone in range can see it. Switch on “Include other networks in range” to see the rest too. You need to have marked your networks first.

Security check: a card per network with findings marked with a tick, exclamation mark or cross, each with a fix
Each finding says why it matters and how to fix it.

Each finding is marked ✓ (good), · (for information), ! (worth fixing) or ✕ (a real weakness), with the reason and a “Fix:” line. It covers open networks, WEP, old WPA and TKIP, WPA2 against WPA3 and transition mode, management-frame protection, WPS, and access points of one network set up differently from each other.

Some things can't be seen from the air: password strength, client isolation, firmware and the router's admin page. The screen reminds you.

At the bottom, “Check what the router forwards from the internet” opens the port forwarding check, the other half of “is my network safe?”.

Spot copies of your network (twin watch)

Twin watch learns what your own networks normally look like from their first 20 scans: which radios, makers, security settings, bands and, while connected, which router and DNS server. After that it flags radios that use your network's name but don't fit, for example one with weaker security (the classic “evil twin”) or an unknown maker. Each finding lists its clues and their weight. If a new radio is genuinely yours, tap “It's mine”. Pro

Turn on “Watch in the background” to keep checking while the app is closed; a notification shows while it runs. It uses only the scans Android makes anyway, so it costs no scans. It can't see forced disconnects or probe requests: Android gives apps no raw Wi-Fi frames.

In the free version, a radio answering to several network names (a “Karma” attack) is still shown, and the security check flags an unprotected radio using a name your other radios protect.

Test roaming between access points

The roaming test shows what happens when your phone moves from one access point to another: how long the connection paused, and whether it landed on a slower band.

Roaming test running: connected AP, signal chart and a list of handovers with their gap in milliseconds
Every handover with its gap in milliseconds.
  1. Connect to your Wi-Fi and open “Roaming test”.
  2. Tap “Start test”, then walk between your access points. The screen stays on.
  3. Each change of access point is listed with the time, from and to, signal before and after, the gap, and lost pings.
  4. Tap “Stop” when done. Leaving the screen stops the test too.

During the test the app pings your router 10 times a second. A roam's gap is the longest silence around it: what a call or game on the phone would have felt. The summary shows the number of roams, “median gap”, “worst gap” and “ping loss”. Smaller gaps are better; a roam marked “dropped connection” means the phone lost Wi-Fi on the way rather than handing over.

“↓ slower band” marks a roam from 5 or 6 GHz onto 2.4 GHz, which is typically a third of the speed or less. Common causes are a 5 GHz access point too far away, or band steering turned off.

To rename an access point without leaving the test, tap it in the list or tap the pencil beside the current one.

The free version has 5 minutes of roaming tests in total (“Demo”), counted across all tests; the screen shows what's left, and a test stops when they run out. After that, starting a test needs Pro, which runs as long as you walk.

Log roaming over days

The “Long-term log” panel at the bottom of the roaming test records your phone's Wi-Fi life for days, quietly: every change of access point or band, every lost connection, and the signal once a minute. It doesn't ping anything. Pro

Entries are kept on the phone for 30 days. After the phone restarts, open the app once and the log resumes. It needs precise location access, because Android hides the access point's address from apps otherwise. The same controls are also on the Permissions screen, as “Roaming log (optional)”.

Long-term roaming log panel: Logging status, network chips, and charts of most used access points, time per band and roams by hour
A week of roaming, summarized.

Save a scan

To keep what the scanner sees at a spot, tap ⋮ › “Save scan” and add an optional note, such as “Desk by the window”. Tap “View” on the confirmation to open Saved scans. The save icon in the title bar writes the current scan straight to a PDF, Markdown or text file. Pro