When your Android phone starts dropping bars, a quick solution is to turn on airplane mode and then turn it off again. This can help refresh the connection and allow your phone to connect to the strongest signal available in your current location, especially if it’s connected to a weak or suboptimal signal point.

To access airplane mode on Android, swipe down from the top of the screen to open the notification shade, then swipe down again to access the quick settings panel. On some models, you can also access the quick settings by swiping down with two fingers. Look for the airplane mode toggle, which should be turned off. Tap it to activate airplane mode, wait 15 to 30 seconds, and then tap it again to turn off airplane mode. After a few moments, your phone should reconnect to the network with a stronger connection.

If toggling airplane mode does not resolve the issue, you can also try restarting your phone to fix minor bugs, including connection issues. Press and hold the sleep/wake button, then tap the restart option if it appears in the power menu. If a different menu appears, try holding down the sleep/wake and volume up key (on Google Pixel devices) or the sleep/wake and volume down key (on Samsung Galaxy devices).