SSIDekick help
SSIDekick is a set of tools for checking Wi-Fi, your local network, the mobile connection and GPS from an Android phone. It shows what your phone can measure and says plainly where Android doesn't let an app see something. There are no ads and no account. Scans and results stay on your phone.
These pages explain each tool in the words the app uses. Labels on buttons and switches are written in quotes, exactly as they appear on screen.
- Wi-Fi: the scanner, access point details, channels, the security check and the roaming test.
- Network: the internet checkup and speed test, finding devices on your network, ping, ports, DNS, traceroute, bandwidth tests and USB Ethernet.
- Cellular, GPS and Bluetooth: the mobile cell you're on, satellites and time, and Bluetooth devices nearby.
- Coverage log: signal along a walk or drive, on a map and in reports.
- Tools and settings: subnet calculator, private ranges, saved scans, reports, AP names, the widget and hiding tiles.
The start page
See what you're connected to
The panel at the top answers “what am I connected to?” before you open any tool. It updates by itself.
- Connection and name. Wi-Fi, Ethernet or mobile data, and the network name. If you named the access point, its name shows as “via …”. The antenna button opens Android's Wi-Fi settings.
- Signal. The large number on the right, in dBm, colored by quality (see the table below).
- Activity. A small one-minute chart of this phone's own traffic (↓ download, ↑ upload) and “air %”, how busy the access point says its channel is. Tap it to open Wi-Fi activity.
- “Channel”, “Link rate”, the Wi-Fi standard and security. The band and channel, the radio rate the phone and access point agreed on, the Wi-Fi generation (with its IEEE name, for example 802.11ax), and the security mode with “encrypted” or “not encrypted”.
- “IP”, “Gateway”, “BSSID”, “Public IP”. This phone's address on the network, your router, the hardware address of the access point radio you're on, and the address the internet sees. Tap the gateway address to open its host page. Tap any other address to copy it; a long press copies too.
Every teal label opens a short explanation that starts from your own value, for example “You're at −59 dBm: excellent”.
If the network name reads “Name hidden”, the app doesn't have location access yet. Android shows the name of the Wi-Fi network only to apps with that permission. Open the Wi-Fi scanner and allow it.
The security mode shows ⚠ in orange when the access point accepts WPA3 but still also accepts WPA2 (transition mode). Tap it for what that means and a comparison of the security modes.
What the signal colors mean
Wi-Fi signal is measured in dBm. The numbers are negative; closer to zero is stronger. Every 3 dB halves or doubles the power, so −70 is a lot weaker than −60.
| Signal | Color | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| −60 dBm or better | Green | Excellent. |
| −61 to −70 dBm | Light green | Good for streaming and calls. |
| −71 to −80 dBm | Orange | Browsing is fine, calls may stutter. |
| Below −80 dBm | Red | Weak, expect drops. |
The link rate is not your internet speed. Real throughput is usually around half to two thirds of it. Use a speed test or a bandwidth test to measure speed.
Find a tool
Under the readout, “Recent” repeats the tools you opened last. Then every tool follows under its group heading: Wi-Fi; Cellular, GPS & Bluetooth; Network; Wired; Tools & reports; and Settings. Tiles always stay in the same place, so you can find them by position. Each tile says in a line what the tool does.
Some tiles carry a marker:
- A lock: the tool, or part of it, is in Pro (see below).
- “Demo”: the roaming test, which the free version can run for 5 minutes in total, across all tests. Once they're used, the tile shows a lock.
- A shield and “Needs …”: Android hasn't given the app a permission the tool needs. Tap the tile to go straight to the permission.
At the bottom of the page, the line with the version number opens About, where you can send a bug report or feedback. If sending fails, the app offers to send it by email instead.
Watch your Wi-Fi activity
Tap the activity chart on the start page to open “Wi-Fi activity”. It shows this phone's download and upload per second over 1, 2 or 10 minutes, and “Air (channel) busy”: the share of time the access point hears its channel in use, by any network on it. Above about 50 % the channel is crowded.
Two limits: Android hides other devices' traffic, so only this phone's own traffic shows. And the channel figure comes from the access point's own report (BSS Load), which only some access points send. It updates when the phone scans, so it can be a minute or two old.
Permissions
On first start, SSIDekick asks for everything the tools need at once, with a line on why. You can tap “Continue without”; each tool asks again when you open it. The “Permissions” tile under Settings lists every permission, which tools use it, and whether it's allowed. Tap (i) beside a permission for the longer explanation.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
| Location | Android shows nearby Wi-Fi networks, your network's name and mobile cell details only to apps with location access. SSIDekick records your position only in a coverage log you start. |
| Nearby devices | Android's permission for Wi-Fi scanning (Android 13 and later). |
| Location services on | The phone-wide location switch. While it's off, Android returns no Wi-Fi scan results and no GPS, even with the permission. |
| Phone state | Cell, base station and network-type details for the Cellular tools. Never your number, calls, contacts or messages. |
| Local network | On Android 17 and later, Android asks before an app talks to devices on your own network. Every tool that pings or scans your network needs it; without it every device would look offline. |
| Nearby Bluetooth devices | The Bluetooth scanner. Declared to Android as never used for location. On Android 11, Bluetooth scanning needs location access instead. |
If you refuse a permission, Android won't show its question again. The Permissions screen then offers “App settings”, where you can allow it by hand.
The Permissions screen also holds an optional extra: the long-term roaming log.
Free and Pro
The free version has the tools that comparable apps give away, plus 5 minutes of the roaming test to try it. Pro is a one-time unlock through Google Play, with no subscription. Neither version shows ads.
The free version shows every Pro feature. Only the button that runs it is locked, with a short note, so you can see what you would get.
Pro tools: Bandwidth test, Latency monitor, the channel recommendation in Channels, and the Coverage log.
Pro parts of free tools:
- Save to file and reports (PDF, Markdown, text, CSV).
- The roaming test beyond the free 5 minutes, and the long-term roaming log.
- Cell survey, and cell watch (learned cells and fake-base-station alerts; the 2G warning is free).
- Twin watch (copies of your Wi-Fi networks) and tracker watch (trackers that move with you).
- Bluetooth: find a device by its signal.
- Ping up to 8 hosts side by side (free pings one).
- Host watch for up to 8 hosts (free watches one).
- New-device alerts (the device history itself is free).
- Wake-on-LAN favorites (free types the MAC each time).
- Adding a port forward on the router (checking and removing forwards is free).
- Hiding start-page tiles you don't use.
The “Upgrade to Pro” tile at the end of the start page lists the same things.
Privacy
SSIDekick has no account, no analytics and no tracking. Scans, measurements and saved results stay on your phone. Data leaves the phone only when a tool has to contact a server to do its job, such as the public IP lookup on the start page, the internet checkup, a speed test or a whois lookup, or when you export something yourself. The privacy policy lists every permission and every server the app contacts.