NetSwitcher

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Quick switching between home Wi-Fi networks, mobile data (with SIM selection), and Ethernet — from the app itself, a home-screen shortcut, a widget, or the Quick Settings shade.

Built for Pixel (Android 12+, tested on Android 17).

Installation

The button opens Obtainium and adds the app with GitHub-release tracking — the link isn't pinned to a version number, it always grabs the latest release and then picks up updates on its own. (GitHub strips obtainium:// links out of rendered Markdown, so the button actually goes through Obtainium's own https redirect page, which immediately hands off to the app.) If the button doesn't do anything, add the app manually in Obtainium by pasting the repository URL: https://github.com/nd4y/netswitcher.

Or just download the APK from the releases page.

What's new in v1.10: the "Networks" and "Profiles" tabs have been merged — editing, sharing, and adding networks now happens right on the "Networks" tab's cards; fixed a crash in the panel tile's over-the-shade mode; the widget now shrinks correctly (compact cells) and shows up to 10 rows; the Wi-Fi password no longer ends up in the command log. Earlier: the panel tile in the shade (v1.1), "share network" via QR/NFC (v1.2), NFC tag-emulation mode (v1.3), the panel over the (non-collapsing) shade (v1.6). Details are in the Share a network and Panel in the shade sections.

Why Shizuku

Starting with Android 10, a regular app cannot turn Wi-Fi on/off or connect to a specific saved network:

• WifiManager.setWifiEnabled() and enableNetwork() are no-ops for third-party apps;
• WifiNetworkSpecifier binds the network to the requesting app only, not to the device;
• WifiNetworkSuggestion merely suggests a network to the system — the system decides if and when to connect.

The working approach without flashing anything or rooting is Shizuku: it grants the app access to adb's shell privileges, and NetSwitcher runs exactly the commands you'd type over adb shell:

Three privilege sources are supported, switchable in Settings:

• Shizuku — the primary one, no root needed;
• Root (su -c) — if the phone is rooted;
• None — degraded mode: the app registers a Wi-Fi suggestion and opens the system network panel, then it's manual from there.

Setting up Shizuku

1. Install Shizuku from Google Play or from shizuku.rikka.app.
2. Enable "Wireless debugging" in Developer options and start Shizuku (works without a computer on Android 11+; after a phone reboot, Shizuku needs to be started again).
3. Open NetSwitcher → Settings → "Grant permission".

Share a network

On the "Networks" tab, every Wi-Fi card has a "Share" button, offering three ways to do it:

• QR code — the standard WIFI:T:WPA;S:<ssid>;P:<pass>;; format, read by the stock camera app on Android and iOS, which immediately offers to connect. Special characters in the SSID and password are escaped per the format's rules.
• NFC tag — writes the credentials to a rewritable tag using the application/vnd.wfa.wsc format (Wi-Fi Simple Configuration) — the same payload Android itself writes for "share Wi-Fi via NFC." Any phone tapped against the tag gets a prompt to connect.
• Tag emulation (NFC HCE) — the phone itself acts as an NFC tag via Host Card Emulation: it implements an NFC Forum Type 4 Tag (AID D2760000850101) and hands the same Wi-Fi NDEF record to the reading device. This replaces Android Beam (removed in Android 10) for the phone-to-phone case. It's fussier than the other methods — the sending phone's screen has to be on and unlocked, both devices need NFC, and results vary by firmware (most reliable Pixel↔Pixel) — which is why QR remains the primary method.
• System "Share" menu — send as text (SSID + password + a WIFI: string) or as a QR-code image through the regular share sheet.

The QR code is generated in-app (ZXing core), the image is served via FileProvider. Requires the NFC permission (declared in the manifest) and, for writing, NFC turned on plus a rewritable tag.

Wi-Fi passwords

The profile's password is needed for the first connection — while the network isn't among Android's saved networks yet — and in the "Re-add the saved network" mode: in both cases the network is added with cmd wifi connect-network, which doesn't work without a password. An already-saved network is joined by its id (see below), and the profile's password isn't required for that. Passwords live in the app's private storage (DataStore) and are never sent anywhere.

Saved networks and Android's settings

cmd wifi connect-network doesn't "pick" a network, it adds it anew — and in doing so rewrites the entry Android has saved with fresh defaults: MAC randomization, "metered", auto-connect, "send device name" — everything set in Android's Wi-Fi settings got reset on every button press. Proxy and static IP only survived because the merge in WifiConfigManager happens to leave them alone.

So an already-saved network is joined differently: the app's own helper finds it among the saved networks (by SSID and security type) and calls IWifiManager.connect(netId) — exactly what a tap on the network in Android's settings does. The saved entry doesn't change: password, proxy, IP, MAC, metered override and hidden flag stay as they are in Android. The one thing that may be applied from the profile is "Auto-connect" (via allowAutojoin), and only when the profile says "On" or "Off"; "As in Android" touches nothing. The verbose log shows what Android has stored for the network.

If the network isn't saved, it's added from the profile with connect-network — that needs the password. The "Re-add the saved network" switch (overwriteSaved: true in YAML) brings back the old behaviour: the network is re-created from the profile on every connect, and its Android settings are replaced. If the helper fails to connect (say, the password stored in Android has changed), NetSwitcher reports that and overwrites nothing — that's what the switch is for.

The helper is a class inside the app's own APK, launched by the privileged shell through app_process (the same way the system's svc tool works). It is built for both backends, Shizuku and root; cmd wifi has no connect-by-id.

Buttons

Five surfaces, all configurable on the "Buttons" tab:

1. In the app — the "Networks" tab, a button for every profile.
2. App shortcut long-press — dynamic shortcuts; the Pixel launcher shows the top 4–5, ordered with the arrows.
3. Widget — a Glance widget, a grid of buttons, column count is configurable.
4. Shade / Quick Settings — eight NetSwitcher 1…8 tiles; each is assigned a profile, and the "Add to shade" button triggers the system's add-tile dialog (Android 13+).
5. Panel tile — a separate NetSwitcher: panel tile opens a popup menu with all the toggles and Wi-Fi networks from the home screen (see below).

Panel in the shade

The system "Internet" tile opens a menu with Wi-Fi/mobile-network toggles, but it's slow and only shows "discovered networks" — it kicks off a scan every time. NetSwitcher has its own NetSwitcher: panel tile: tapping it collapses the shade and instantly raises a popup panel with the same set as the home screen — toggles on top, Wi-Fi networks below. Nothing gets scanned; it just draws the ready-made list of your profiles, so the panel appears with no delay.

The tile itself is live too, and mirrors the system "Internet" tile: the title stays constant ("NetSwitcher"), while the current network shows up in the subtitle — the profile's name if its SSID matches a configured one, otherwise the raw SSID. While Wi-Fi is on, the tile stays lit; when it's off, it dims (STATE_INACTIVE) like a regular inactive tile.

Without collapsing the shade. By default, Android requires a third-party tile to collapse the shade before showing any UI. The system "Internet" tile sidesteps this because it draws its panel not as a separate window but right inside the System UI process — third-party apps have no access there. The closest legal workaround is showing the panel as an overlay (TYPE_APPLICATION_OVERLAY) on top of every window, including the shade itself. Settings → "Panel without collapsing the shade" → "Grant permission" (SYSTEM_ALERT_WINDOW, "Display over other apps") — after that the panel slides right over the open shade, just like screenshots of the system "Internet" tile, and the shade doesn't close. Without the permission nothing breaks — it just falls back to the old behavior: the shade collapses, then the panel opens.

Tapping an item triggers the action through the same mechanism as the widget and shortcuts (the work runs in the background and survives the panel closing; the start is confirmed with a notification). The panel closes on a tap outside the card, the close button, or the Back button — in all three cases the card smoothly slides back down instead of vanishing abruptly.

The slide-in/slide-out animation is custom (Compose); the system's activity-window animation is disabled for this screen — on some firmware (MIUI, for instance) it's noticeably heavier, and layered on top of ours it looked janky.

Technically this isn't a menu "built into" the shade — detailed tile panels remain a private System UI API that's off-limits to third-party tiles. The panel is raised as a separate translucent window on top of the screen: visually almost the same, but not actually inside the shade itself.

The panel's contents are the home-screen set (home in the config): what to show and in what order is configured on the "Buttons" tab → "App home screen," and in YAML. To add the tile itself to the shade: "Buttons" → "Panel tile" → "Add to shade" (Android 13+), or manually through the tile editor.

Feedback on tap

A tap is acknowledged immediately, before the privileged commands even run. This matters for the widget, the shortcut, and the shade: the app's process may have been unloaded there, and without an explicit response there's no way to tell whether the tap did anything at all.

1. A short vibration — before anything else.
2. A "Switching: …" notification with a progress indicator. Settings lets you choose whether it sits quietly in the shade or slides out as a heads-up banner. Either way it's always silent and vibration-free: the channels are created with setSound(null, null) and enableVibration(false).
3. On Android 16+, the same notification is additionally promoted into a status bar chip (NotificationCompat.ProgressStyle + setRequestPromotedOngoing), with setShortCriticalText() putting the network's name in the chip.
4. On completion the notification closes itself, and the result arrives as a pop-up message.

The widget button lights up and shows "switching…" for the duration of the work, and the tile's subtitle changes — the feedback shows up right where the tap happened. Inside the app, controls give a light haptic response.

Requires the POST_NOTIFICATIONS permission (requested on first launch), POST_PROMOTED_NOTIFICATIONS, and VIBRATE (declared in the manifest), plus androidx.core 1.17+.

Separately, "Location" (ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) is requested on first launch: without it, Android hides the current network's SSID, and the "connected" highlight on cards, the widget, and the panel tile won't work. The SSID never goes anywhere except the screen.

Toggles

The home screen's first row is four toggles: Wi-Fi, LTE (mobile data), Ethernet, and Airplane mode. Each shows its current state ("on"/"off", highlighted) and flips it on tap. These can also be placed on the widget, a shortcut, or a tile.

Above the toggles sits a status card: which network you're connected to, over which transport, and which privileges are available.

Below the toggles come Wi-Fi networks only. Cards are reordered by press-and-drag; each one has "share" and "edit" icons (the editor includes delete), and the "+" button in the header adds a new network. One-shot actions (Wi-Fi on, LTE only, Ethernet only) aren't shown as home-screen buttons — they belong on the widget, a shortcut, or a tile; they're edited in the "Other profiles" section at the bottom of the same tab. There's no separate "Profiles" tab anymore — all profile management now lives on "Networks."

The home screen's contents are configurable: "Buttons" → "App home screen" — any toggle or profile can be removed and brought back. The "Reset button layout" button in Settings restores the home screen, shortcuts, widget, and tiles to their original layout without touching profiles or passwords; a full reset means clearing the app's data in Android's settings.

Wi-Fi profiles for specific networks also work as toggles: tapping a network you're already connected to disconnects from it. There's no dedicated "disconnect" shell command, so this is done by turning the radio off — this behavior can be turned off with the "Tapping again disconnects" flag on the profile.

Every Wi-Fi network also has an "Auto-connect" setting (autoJoin in YAML) with three values. "As in Android" (SYSTEM, the default) — NetSwitcher leaves the flag alone. "Off" (OFF) — connecting through NetSwitcher saves the network in Android with auto-join disabled (-d when the network is added, allowAutojoin for an already-saved one): the phone no longer hops back onto it by itself when it comes into range or when the radio turns on — only when you press the button. That's for guest and IoT networks you visit on purpose rather than live on; the stock Guest and IoT profiles ship with OFF. "On" (ON) does the opposite and re-enables auto-join in the system entry on every connect. The value is applied at the moment the app connects, so for a network already saved in Android it changes after the first button press. Version 1.19 configuration files with autoJoin: true / false are read as ON / OFF.

Profiles out of the box

Toggles for Wi-Fi / LTE / Ethernet / Airplane mode, networks Home, Home 5G, Guest, IoT (placeholder SSIDs — replace with your own), plus the one-shot LTE only, Wi-Fi on, Wi-Fi off, Ethernet only. Passwords are filled in through the profile editor (the pencil icon on the card).

YAML configuration

Settings → "Export to file" / "Import from file". The format is human-readable and commented, with an example at examples/example-config.yaml. Import fully replaces the profiles and button assignments; a broken file is rejected outright rather than half-overwriting the configuration.

The home / shortcuts / widget / tiles lists set what shows up on the home screen, in shortcuts, on the widget, and in the tiles. A missing home means "show everything," while an explicit home: [] means an empty home screen. References to nonexistent ids are silently dropped, so you don't end up with buttons that do nothing.

One gotcha: in YAML 1.1, bare off / on / yes / no are parsed as booleans, so always quote id values. The exporter does this automatically.

Automated deployment via adb

For automating "install the new version → push the config," there's a headless YAML import with zero taps on the phone (needs USB or Wi-Fi debugging enabled):

adb install -r netswitcher.apk
adb shell am start -n icu.nd4y.netswitcher/.ui.MainActivity
adb shell am broadcast -n icu.nd4y.netswitcher/.action.ConfigImportReceiver \
    -a icu.nd4y.netswitcher.action.IMPORT_CONFIG \
    --es yaml_base64 "$(base64 -w0 my-config.yaml)"

The broadcast returns result=0 on success (resultData holds the profile count), and a toast shows up on the phone. The YAML is passed as base64 to survive shell quoting. The semantics match in-app import: a full replace, and a broken file is rejected outright.

The receiver is exported but locked behind the android.permission.DUMP permission — adb shell has it, but a regular third-party app can't obtain it, so the endpoint is only reachable by whoever already has adb access to the device.

Ethernet

The Ethernet profile turns off Wi-Fi and mobile data so the wired adapter (USB-C ↔ Ethernet) becomes the default route. Bringing the interface itself up (ip link set eth0 up) only works with root — without it, this just "clears the way" for a link that's already up.

What's Changed

• Подключение к сохранённой сети по id, не трогая настройки Android (v1.20) by @nd4y in https://github.com/nd4y/netswitcher/pull/2

Full Changelog: https://github.com/nd4y/netswitcher/compare/v1.19...v1.20