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Comment by sumuyuda | Hacker News Reader

Funny that the article doesn’t call out that the disconnect Bluetooth button in control center is a dark pattern designed to get you to leave Bluetooth on.

I had to create a shortcut to turn off Bluetooth so I don’t have to go through the Settings app.

Apple also re-enables Bluetooth on every iOS update.

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Fully disabling BT is a niche feature imo, for me the button does exactly what i want: disconnect bt devices. I still like airdrop to work etc.

So, I think this is exactly how it should be. If you for some reason want to fully disable BT, which is weird for avarage users, you need to put it some effort

I don't use an iPhone, so does the option say 'disconnect' or 'disable'. On Android the switch says Bluetooth On/Off. I would expect this setting to turn off completely Bluetooth if set to off. Not some oh, it's off but not really off if you get what I mean setting.

When you press the BT button in control center it shows a message saying "Disconnecting Bluetooth Devices Until Tomorrow"

iOS has both. The one in the control panel says it’s disconnecting Bluetooth devices until the next day. Airplane mode and the toggle in the settings app fully turn it off.

Does Apple have an interest in Bluetooth always being on? Is this meant to ensure that Airtags work well (even if the phone's owner does not use one)?

I also don’t like the fact how the toggles work but yes apple has an interest in bluetooth/wifi beeing always on - the apple watch for example. Not so tech savvy people would disable bluetooth/wifi not realizing that this also disconnects the watch. There are probably way more features in the apple ecosystem relying on bluetooth/wifi

Mostly for the Apple Watch.

And AirPods, AirDrop, Apple TV Remote, carkit etc. I think we’re well past the point of Bluetooth being optional.

They do, they collect metadata of Bluetooth devices and other wireless SSIDs to report back to [redacted]

This but also don’t forget AirTag , find my network, and watch is still connected even when the button is greyed out.

The watch works even if the phone is in another state, as long as both have WiFi. I have no idea about AirTag.

The Watch has a number of integrations which depend on Bluetooth - it uses less power and most people do not live with continuous perfect Wi-Fi coverage.

This is a conspiracy theory. In the absence of evidence, it’s just a distraction from the topic of this thread.

Unfortunately the evidence exists. It's from [Location Services & Privacy - Apple](https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/data/en/location-service...):

> Location Services uses GPS and Bluetooth (where those are available) along with crowd-sourced Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations to determine your device’s approximate location.

> If Location Services is on, your iPhone will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers (where supported by a device) in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for augmenting this crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations.

> The crowd-sourced location data gathered by Apple does not personally identify you.

That’s not what the original poster was alluding to.

What’s the "dark pattern"?

Do you think more people would be surprised if hitting that button disconnected their Apple Watch, or left it connected?

And what is your reason for needing to turn Bluetooth all the way off?

It wastes battery when I have no BT devices. It is also a privacy and security threat.

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