We all are well aware of the presence of the Flight Mode option in our phones. But not everyone who uses it knows why is it actually there and how does it works. Most of the people uses that when they don't want any call from anyone but still wants to use the phone. Some others uses it for battery saving and other stuff. I will try to put in almost everything you need to know about how Flight Mode works and why is it necessary in each phone.
It is very common in every flight you take to travel to any place that prior to take off, the crew asks you to put your phone in Flight mode or to completely switch it off. This is the place where the Flight Mode on your phone comes into action primarily, and hence getting that name. Let us look a bit more deeper.
Source: Techradar
"Flight mode cuts all the wireless transmissions that is being made from your phone. Wireless functions mainly include Cellular network, Bluetooth, Wi-fi and GPS"
It is very common in every flight you take to travel to any place that prior to take off, the crew asks you to put your phone in Flight mode or to completely switch it off. This is the place where the Flight Mode on your phone comes into action primarily, and hence getting that name. Let us look a bit more deeper.
Source: Techradar
What does Flight Mode do
As said earlier, Flight mode disables all the wireless connections and transmissions which is enabled on your phone. Here is how each of them would be affected individually when the Flight mode is on
- Cellular- The flight mode restricts your phone from communicating with the cellular towers around you. There wont be any connection between your phone and the towers after this point. And because of this very reason, you will not be able to make or receive any calls or text messages or even use cellular data.
- Bluetooth- This feature is being used for many things which includes transferring media, for connecting to headsets, keyboards etc. After the flight mode is on, you will not be able to connect your phone to anything via bluetooth.
- Wi-Fi- The device is disconnected from any networks you are connected to once you switch flight mode on. Not only does it disconnects, but also stops searching and trying to connect to any wifi networks.
- GPS- Once you are connected to GPS, you are connected to a minimum of 3 GPS dedicated satellites around the planet for knowing your position. And once the feature is switched on, your phone turns off GPS automatically and is automatically disconnected from all the satellites which it was connected to.
It doesn't matter which system you are connected to, all the flight modes have the same functions until date.
Different Uses of Flight Mode
It is not just for having a safe journey in a flight that people use this feature. Even if it is not the only reason, that is the most prominent and important use of flight mode. Let us look into the different uses of this mode.
- The first and primary use of the feature is to have a safe journey in flights. As everyone knows, a flight will be connected to the ground by means of so many wireless transmissions and these connections are very important for each and every details of landing or take off. Our phones, when in normal mode, are connected to cellular towers nearby. Sometimes one, sometimes two or even three towers simultaneously for better connectivity and network. These radiations which originate from our phones, when it travels towards the towers interferes with the radiations the flight makes to the ground and gets disturbed. And a landing or take off made after a poor communication with the ground staff is not something anyone would look forward to for having a safe and sound journey.
- Most of the radiations which comes out of the phone you own is actually harmful to your body. So people use this feature as a way to stop the radiations which comes and harms them. This is mainly used when you are taking a nap and you have set an alarm. After setting an alarm for a certain time, you have a tendency to keep the phone near your ears so that you can listen it no matter what and you can wake up on time. But during this time, we are unaware of the fact that there is a lot of radiations coming out and harms your body. And in certain cases, even if people are aware of that fact, they prefer turning a deaf ear towards it. The health hazards a phone is capable of imparting is beyond our guesses. So while setting the alarm and keeping it near your ears, it is much better to keep it on flight mode. This is just one example and there are many more areas where you can save yourself from the radiations of the phone by keeping your phone in flight mode.
- Flight mode is a very effective and amazing way to save battery on your phone. When your phone is in normal mode, it has so many connections made to it and all these take up battery of their own. The more the connectivity options enabled, the faster the battery gets drained. Here the flight mode is switched on in situations where you are not expecting any calls and just want to listen to music or any sort of media but you have very less battery. When the battery is less, the power is less and thus the networks exert more power in the phone to get the required network strength and this can turn fatal.
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can still be switched on
Even though cellular network, bluetooth, wifi and gps are switched off in flight mode, you can turn bluetooth and wifi back on because of the strength difference in them. While cellular network and GPS radiations are very strong, bluetooth and wifi are less powerful and as a result, the first two messes up with the other networks, which are not supposed to be disturbed, more.
