Airplane mode’s nominal purpose is to put your phone into a ‘silent’ mode when it comes to connections and signals sent and received. Though it does not affect your volume settings at all, it will shut off all wireless connections your phone has – mobile data, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, and so on.
It has a variety of purposes – in addition to making your phone safe to use while flying, it can also help save battery – turning it on means your phone uses far less battery than it would with everything turned on.
In order to activate this mode on your Samsung phone, all you need to do is swipe down from the top to expose your shortcut tray. There, among the several symbols listing various functions, you’ll find one labelled ‘Flight Mode’.
Tap it and wait about 5-10 seconds until the symbol changes colour and the top right corner of your phone screen no longer indicates a WiFi or data connection – your phone is now in airplane mode.
Tip: You can still turn individual functions back on – if you tap the WiFi button after turning airplane mode on, the WiFi alone will switch back on – all other services will remain disabled.
To turn airplane mode back off, simply tap the icon for it again – please be aware that it can take up to a minute for all of your services to reconnect and start working again.
Ed Johnson says
How can I give tracking apps (e
g. Strava, AllTrails) access to GPS while hiking with all other wireless use (cell, Bluetooth, wifi) disabled to extend battery life on my Galaxy A12?