IOS – How to turn off “Enable WiFi” alert message on iOS

The iPhone uses assisted GPS to improve the accuracy of the location system using GPS and cell towers. Wi-Fi networks are used to help determine the device's location; this is called a hybrid positioning system (XPS).

Prior to iOS 4 iOS tapped into the Skyhook Wireless database of Wi-Fi hotspots and their locations. Apple disclosed in April 2010 that they had switched over to their own proprietary database.

If Location Services is on, your device will periodically send the geo-tagged locations of nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to augment the crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower locations. In addition, if you are traveling (for example, in a car) and Location Services is on, a GPS-enabled iOS device will also periodically send GPS locations and travel speed information in an anonymous and encrypted form to Apple, to be used for building up a crowd-sourced road traffic database. The crowd-sourced location data gathered by Apple does not personally identify you.

For your security concerns, read this Apple press release.

Airplane Mode and Do Not Disturb perform different functions, neither of which are directly linked to push notifications, but can affect them.

Airplane Mode is a quick-fire way to turn off all the wireless radios (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS) on the iPhone. You can subsequently turn on the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios while still in Airplane mode by going to their respective settings toggles. If you have no data connectivity (i.e. cellular data or Wi-Fi), then you can’t receive any data, whether via push or pull. For more details, see Apple’s support article: iOS: Understanding airplane mode.

Do Not Disturb mode turns off the tones and vibrations from phone calls, SMS/iMessages, and any other push notifications that are set to alert you. However, depending on your settings, some calls may still get through. In the Do Not Disturb settings (Settings → Notifications → Do Not Disturb), you can configure some calls from a specific group of contacts (e.g. your favourites), and repeat calls (a second call within three minutes of the first) to bypass the block.

Do Not Disturb does not prevent your phone from receiving push notifications or pulling data, it merely silences any alarms about the data. It’s also worth noting that alarms set via the built-in Clock app bypass the DND setting.