Android – the difference between active scan and passive scan

access-pointandroidandroid-wifiwifi

What is the difference between mWifiManager.startScanActive() and mWifiManager.startScan().
What is the difference between active scan and passive scan?

Best Answer

Passive scanning listens to beacons sent by the access points. That means waiting for the beacon to be sent (usually a few seconds).

An active scanning will emit probes to those APs immediately.