Ignore the haters: Wi-Fi Assist is the best new feature in iOS 9

The setting is the whipping boy of the new operating system. But iPhone users should give it a go before writing it off

My favourite new feature of iOS 9 is Wi-Fi Assist, a smart new setting - on by default on the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system - which allows the phone to gracefully fall back to cellular data when the Wi-Fi in the area flakes out. Admittedly, the fact that it's my favourite says as much about the nuts-and-bolts nature of iOS 9 (and my own lack of desire to bother with Siri and Spotlight), but there it is.

In my own daily use of the operating system, on both an iPhone 6 and 6S, it's closed a number of black spots in my daily routine. As I'm leaving work, for instance, my phone stays connected to the Guardian's wifi network until I'm about 100m down the road, but that connection's too weak for real use almost immediately.