Mobile network operators might hide the signal strength feature in Android P

Android smartphone users might not be able to see signal strength from Settings of the Android phone in the next version of Android. Mobile network operators in the United States might disable the signal strength feature on Android P.

Mobile network operators also called as carriers determine which features a smartphone user can have access to on their device. Carriers can also control the speed of the software updates. According to a report on XDA Developers , some carriers are pushing Google to add the ability to hide the signal strength in Setting in Android P. But that will not stop smartphone to check the strength of a signal and users can download external apps from Google Play Store to check the strength of the signal.

The signal strength is measured in terms of dBm or asu and is also used to check the performance of the smartphone including battery life, data connectivity and call quality by connecting the device to the same carrier.

One thing to note here is that the bars on the top of the smartphones are not the actual representation of the signal strength. The ability to hide the feature is set as false by default on the smartphones. It’s still not clear that which mobile network operator had requested for the feature.