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On Android, when both WiFi and Cellular Network are available, WiFi has higher priority and cellular network will be deactivated automatically. This can be verified by the results of ifconfig/netcfg commands, also possible by checking the route table.

To do some experiments, we need to activate both WiFi and Cellular Network Interface at the same time. To the best of our knowledge, one way to achieve this so far is based on MultiPath TCP: first, boot the MPTCP image (sadly, the latest support is for Nexus 5 Android 4.4), second, join the "Multipath Control app Testers" and install their Multipath Control apk.

We verified the above method on Nexus 5 and it works well for Kitkat. However, we do need the dual activation on newer Android phones and later API levels (e.g. Marshmallow or even Nougat). We did a thorough survey online but the only solution is the one I mentioned above based on MPTCP. Any solution (kernel or application levels) to achieve the dual network interface activation is appreciated. It's fine if the method requires rooting.

Thank you.

Max Li
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1 Answers1

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Finally, we got the answer after buying the latest Pixel.

We verified that it is much easier to activate both the WiFi and cellular interfaces on Pixel with the Android Nougat:

Just go enable Developer Option, there is a new option "Cellular data always active". As long as you enable this, the two interfaces can be active at the same time. I do not know at which API level was this option introduced, at least not on Nexus 5 with KitKat.

Hope this helps.

Max Li
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  • It is now the distant future, and for those who find this post, enabling "Mobile Data" does not guarantee you are able to use both WiFi and Mobile Data at the same time. Our test on a Pixel 6: set the WiFi on an ESP32 hosting a non-internet enabled Access Point, and attempt to connect to the web using Mobile Data. This fails outright, there is no Mobile Data connectivity. Reading the literature, it seems routing traffic is now a feature of the App, not the phone. – dixon1e Mar 24 '23 at 18:03