Developer has built an app that lets you see your WiFi signal in the air using AR technology

A developer has built an app that lets you see your WiFi signal in the air using AR technology, turning something normally invisible into a surprisingly cool visual map.

Called NetLens, the Android app uses the phone’s camera and ARCore tracking to show how strong your connection is as you move around a room.

Instead of wandering around the house wondering why Netflix suddenly decided to buffer, users can literally watch their WiFi coverage build up around them in loads of really cool ways.

It seems like an underrated secret that will save your bacon time and time again.

See your WiFi signal in the air with NetLens

NetLens is a clever piece of tech created by solo developer u/that_cant_be_right, who described the project on Reddit as a passion project that grew into a full app.

The headline feature is its AR heatmap mode where users hold their Android phone up and walk around a space while the app uses the camera and motion sensors to track where they are.

As they move, WiFi measurements are placed into the environment, creating a live heatmap showing where the signal is strongest and where it starts to fade.

The developer’s website explains that NetLens uses on-device ARCore visual-inertial tracking rather than Google’s Geospatial API or Cloud Anchors.

That means it does not need to upload visual information about the room to Google to figure out where the phone is.

There is also a Quick Scan mode that puts WiFi readings directly into the camera view, making it possible to get a quick idea of coverage without setting up a full survey.

For anyone dealing with a patchy home network, this could be much more useful than simply looking at the WiFi icon on a phone.

The app can do much more than show connectivity in the air

NetLens isn’t just a flashy AR experiment either.

Users can import a floor plan, sketch or screenshot and create a heatmap by moving around the property and recording measurements room by room.

The app can also filter results by individual access point or by WiFi band, including 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz.

There are plenty of more traditional networking tools built in too, including a signal meter, access point browser, channel graph, connection information and speed test.

That channel graph could be particularly handy for people living in apartment buildings, where a collection of neighboring routers can create a crowded wireless environment.

The app has also expanded beyond basic 2D heatmaps.

A recent update added a 3D Scan mode that can build a point cloud of the space as the user walks around, with individual points colored according to the WiFi signal measured there and it can even handle stairs and multiple levels.

Once a survey is finished, results can be exported as PDF, PNG or CSV files, making the app useful for everything from figuring out where to put a home router to documenting a much larger network.

Privacy is another interesting part of the project.

NetLens says WiFi scans, photos, notes, point clouds, and survey data stay on the device, with no account or cloud storage required and users can choose to export the information themselves when they want to share it.

The app is free to download with some limits, ads and watermarks, while a one-time Pro purchase removes those restrictions and unlocks additional export features.

There is no subscription, which is becoming an increasingly rare sight in the world of smartphone apps.

NetLens currently requires an Android device with ARCore support for its AR scanning features, so not every phone will be able to turn the invisible WiFi around it into a glowing digital landscape in the air.

But for compatible devices, it is a seriously fun way to see what your WiFi has been doing all along.