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The problem is that a wireless (802.11) interface can only join one SSID, and work in one of the modes (ad-hoc, wifi, AP) at one time. If like current phones on which there's only one wireless interface, when people are connected to Wifi, they won't be able to use ad-hoc.

I've been hoping there's a company coming out with a phone/tablet with two 802.11 interfaces, so I can stay on Wifi and at the same time join an ad-hoc network :-)

EDIT: typo

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I'm not exactly sure how the adhoc stuff works on android but there's a specific api for it which is usually used for local gaming. In any case the use case for this app is that the Internet is shut down in your location so you probably don't want to connect to it anyway.

I'm not sure how far Android goes to sandbox you, but you might be able to write an app that runs in the background to detect/manage/switch-between network interfaces depending on what the intent of the user is at that moment. It'd be a handy little tool if it worked.

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