Connection guide
Am I online on my phone?
Phones flip between Wi-Fi, cellular, VPNs, private relay, and captive portals. Sometimes all in the same minute. That makes "am I online?" harder than the signal bars suggest.
Signal bars only tell part of the story
Strong Wi-Fi or full 5G does not guarantee working internet. Your phone may be on a router with no uplink, stuck behind a login page no one ever taps through, or on a network that blocks one specific app.
Check Wi-Fi and cellular separately
Run OnlineCheck on Wi-Fi. Turn Wi-Fi off and run it again on cellular. Compare latency, reachability, and what the browser reports as the effective connection type. Two readings is usually enough to pin the blame.
Use the share summary
When the issue follows one network, copy the diagnostic summary out of the check page. Support teams can read it in one paste, with no need to take screenshots of every settings screen.
Common phone-specific traps
Low data mode, VPN profiles, private relay, work security software, and captive portals can all make a phone look connected while quietly blocking specific traffic. A browser-side check is how you confirm the phone can reach ordinary web destinations.
When to blame the app
If OnlineCheck shows good latency and every reachability target answers, but one app insists you are offline, the issue is probably inside that app, its account, or its own backend. Look at the service-status panel and try the app on a different network before you start changing device settings.