network_settings_state 0.1.1

Query whether Wi-Fi and mobile data are enabled in the device's system settings, independent of which network is currently carrying traffic. Complements connectivity_plus rather than replacing it.

Network Settings State

Query whether Wi-Fi and mobile data are enabled in the device's system settings — independent of which network is currently carrying traffic.

Published and maintained by The Little Hackers, a nonprofit organization.

Why this package exists

Packages like connectivity_plus answer the question "which network is active right now?". They do not answer "is this radio turned on in Settings?" — and the two are easy to conflate.

On Android in particular, when both Wi-Fi and mobile data are enabled, the system reports Wi-Fi only as the active transport. A naive check such as:

final result = await Connectivity().checkConnectivity();
if (!result.contains(ConnectivityResult.mobile)) {
  // "mobile data is disabled" -- WRONG. It may simply not be the active
  // transport right now.
}

produces a false positive: mobile data can be fully enabled and simply not in use because Wi-Fi is preferred. network_settings_state answers the settings-state question directly, using platform-native APIs, so apps that need to validate device configuration (parental control apps, MDM-style tools, connectivity troubleshooting flows, etc.) don't have to infer it from transport state.

Use connectivity_plus for reachability. Use network_settings_state for settings state. Most apps need both.

Platform support

Capability	Android	iOS
Wi-Fi enabled	✅ Reliable	⚠️ Best-effort (see below)
Mobile data enabled	✅ Reliable	❌ Not available (returns null)
Change notifications	✅ Wi-Fi only	⚠️ Best-effort

Android

• Wi-Fi: backed by WifiManager.isWifiEnabled.
• Mobile data: backed by TelephonyManager.isDataEnabled. On API level below 29 this requires the READ_PHONE_STATE permission; if the permission is not granted, the plugin fails open and returns true rather than blocking the user on an unrelated permission gap. Request READ_PHONE_STATE in your app if you need this to be reliable on older OS versions.

iOS

Apple does not expose a public API for either of these settings.

• Wi-Fi: approximated via NWPathMonitor, checking whether a Wi-Fi interface is among the available interfaces. This reflects interface availability, which is a close but not perfect proxy for the user-facing toggle in Settings — for example, it can briefly disagree with the toggle during state transitions. Treat it as best-effort.
• Mobile data: there is no usable proxy. CTCellularData only reports whether this specific app has cellular access, which is a different and narrower concept than the global device setting. Rather than return a misleading value, this package always returns null on iOS for mobile data. Design your UI to handle null explicitly — do not assume false or true.

Usage

import 'package:network_settings_state/network_settings_state.dart';

// One-shot reads
final bool wifiEnabled = await NetworkSettingsState.isWifiEnabled();
final bool? mobileDataEnabled = await NetworkSettingsState.isMobileDataEnabled();

if (mobileDataEnabled == null) {
  // Platform cannot report this (iOS). Don't treat as false.
} else if (!mobileDataEnabled) {
  // Confidently disabled.
}

// Combined snapshot
final NetworkSettingsSnapshot snapshot = await NetworkSettingsState.getSnapshot();

// Stream of changes (best-effort on iOS, Wi-Fi-only reliable on Android)
final subscription = NetworkSettingsState.onChanged.listen((snapshot) {
  print('Wi-Fi enabled: ${snapshot.wifiEnabled}');
  print('Mobile data enabled: ${snapshot.mobileDataEnabled}');
});

What this package deliberately does not do

• It does not tell you whether the device has internet access. Use connectivity_plus and/or your own reachability check for that.
• It does not guess at mobile data state on iOS via undocumented or per-app APIs. A null is more honest than a wrong guess.

Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome at https://github.com/the-little-hackers/network_settings_state.

License

MIT (©) 2026, The Little Hackers