Oreo WiFi Connectivity

Question

I am working on an IoT app in which there is an on boarding process where the user connects to an access point, which has not internet connectivity, configure the device and then connects to his home Wifi network.

Android 8 devices have been causing some problems, disconnecting from the access point and reconnecting to a previously configured network. I am assuming this is related to the connectivity update which was introduced in Android 8, from section Seamless Connectivity in this link:

On compatible devices, automatic activation of Wi-Fi when a high quality saved network is nearby.

My question is how to disable this behaviour as I need to stay connected to the access point, without internet connectivity, and finish the on Boarding process.

Answer 1

I am currently facing the same issue right now for the newer phone with Android 8.+. I am using WifiManager call bindProcessToNetwork here this will allows data traffic go through the wifi with no internet access,

here how I connect my phone to the access point

//Method to connect to WIFI Network
public boolean connectTo(String networkSSID, String key) {
    WifiConfiguration config = new WifiConfiguration();
    WifiInfo info = wifi.getConnectionInfo(); //get WifiInfo
    int id = info.getNetworkId(); //get id of currently connected network

    config.SSID = "\"" + networkSSID + "\"";
    if (key.isEmpty()) {
        config.allowedKeyManagement.set(WifiConfiguration.KeyMgmt.NONE);
    }
    int netID = wifi.addNetwork(config);

    int tempConfigId = getExistingNetworkId(config.SSID);

    if (tempConfigId != -1) {
        netID = tempConfigId;
    }

    boolean disconnect = wifi.disconnect();
    wifi.disableNetwork(id); //disable current network
    boolean enabled = wifi.enableNetwork(netID, true);
    boolean connected = wifi.reconnect();

if (((Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M))
                    || ((Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP)
                            && !(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M))) {

                final ConnectivityManager manager = (ConnectivityManager) context
                        .getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
                NetworkRequest.Builder builder;
                builder = new NetworkRequest.Builder();
                //set the transport type do WIFI
                builder.addTransportType(NetworkCapabilities.TRANSPORT_WIFI);

                manager.requestNetwork(builder.build(), new ConnectivityManager.NetworkCallback() {
                    @Override
                    public void onAvailable(Network network) {
                        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
                            manager.bindProcessToNetwork(network);
                        } else {
                            ConnectivityManager.setProcessDefaultNetwork(network);
                        }
                        try {
                        } catch (Exception e) {
                            e.printStackTrace();
                        }
                        manager.unregisterNetworkCallback(this);
                    }
                });
            }

after connecting to the access point created by the device, it will constantly drop off from it.