Battery drain complaints are almost guaranteed after a major iPhone update, with background indexing usually taking a few days to settle. But when my battery died quickly well beyond the update period, I suspected that Connectivity Assist, renamed for iOS 27, was the hidden culprit.
It turns out I’m far from alone. A growing group of frustrated users on r/iPhone have reported similar battery hits, with some directly pointing to this setting as the root cause. Designed to avoid slow loading times when your wireless signal drops, the way Connectivity Assist works under the hood could strain your power reserves.
Here’s why Connectivity Assist powers up so quickly, and how to turn it off.
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How Connectivity Assist actually works
In previous iOS versions, Wi-Fi Assist automatically supplemented a poor Wi-Fi network by routing traffic over cellular data in the background. Connectivity Assist in iOS 27 takes a significantly more aggressive approach, actively using cellular data in addition on Wi-Fi to mix the connection speed.
Keeping both wireless radios active at the same time can prevent stuttering, but running both receivers at the same time consumes noticeably more power and can lead to faster battery drain.
How to turn off Connectivity Assist
if you want to save battery life in all your places, you can turn off the feature entirely in a few taps. Open the Settings app, select Wi-Fiand scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page. Turn off Connectivity Assist. Right above the switch, you can also see how much cellular data the feature has used so far.
If you prefer to keep the feature active when you’re out in public, but want to save battery at home or at work, you can manage it on a per-network basis. Head to Settings, Wi-Fi, tap on the info icon next to your connected network name, scroll down, and switch off Use Connectivity Assist.
And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if this helped preserve battery life on your iPhone, or if you have any other tips of your own.
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