You have an Android phone. It can do a lot of things – take and share photos, browse web, watch videos, play games, etc. The one thing that has changed little in the past decade is the mobile reception. Even the top-end smartphones do have their pitfalls regarding to the ability to pick up network signals efficiently. Sometimes you find yourself in that particular spot where you apparently get the maximum range. You wish there was way to see a map of points best for mobile reception. Open Signal for Android is the great app for all your network problems.

Open Signal is a toolkit that tracks both the cell and Wi-Fi reception. It works on crowd-sourced data – it collects and stores information of cell towers and public Wi-Fi networks.Open Signal then uses this data to create the map of radar views of cell tower and Wi-Fi hotspots.

On open, Open Signal displays the dashboard with tabs on the top. The dashboard contains two areas, the top part is for the cell reception and the other for the WiFi. You can see a speedometer-like interface for the cell reception. It contains a compass like dial that shows the direction of the cell tower your phone is presently connected to. On the left shows the strength of the current network and on the right the data network strength. The Wi-Fi dashboard displays the WiFi network that the phone is connected to, it’s strength bar chart and the available Wi-Fi networks in the area.

You can also click the “Advanced” button to get more details about the networks your phone is connected to. The extra information include details like the location of the cell tower, details of the cell receptivity, ping delay of the network data (3G or EDGE), IP address of the Wi-Fi network as well as the MAC address of the Wi-Fi module of the phone.

Click on map for either Cell reception or Wi-Fi to get the hotspots for both. The map for the cell reception shows the the towers for the current network provider in your locality. You can also check out the hotspots for other network provides from the drop-down menu on the top left. The Wi-Fi hotspots map shows the available Wi-Fi hotspots in your locality and also other places. You can also get info of the Wi-Fi provider.

Open Signal also has other features such as network usage data, which shows how much and where the data was used and accordingly calculate the usage charges as per the tariff plans. You can also save the WiFi hotspots by running the speed tests that is under the “Test” tab. You also get the history of all the network usage and the towers and Wi-Fi hotspots connected to and save the data to local SD card. It also has a widget that display similar information like signal strength, WiFi data etc. Also read – find the range and network coverage of your wireless network.

Open Signal is a free app and is available for download from the Google Play store. With Open Signal, you can now track all the best areas for better reception and know beforehand the best possible places in a city for perfect connectivity.

Sources: Open Signal, Google Play