Solved Phone Wi-Fi Analyser apps do not provide objective RSSI figures

For a long time I have been under the delusion that I could use my phone with a Wi-Fi analyser app on it as a useful tool to find objective RSSI figures at various locations but I have discovered that isn’t so. What the phone analyser app sees is only what the phone receives, not what any other device would receive at the same location. This means that I can’t use my phone’s analyser app as a tool to see what RSSI other devices would receive.

As a result Wi-Fi analyser app usefulness is limited to the device it is installed on.

Just curious to know if there are others using Wi-Fi analyser apps under the same delusion as I was?

Wi-Fi analyzer applications are indeed useful for obtaining basic signal strength examples for those signals that ARE seen by the device on which the app is installed. (Usually for developing a general understanding of one's own Wi-Fi deployment in your home.)
You are correct that these apps are not true spectrum analyzers.
To really "see" the RF spectrum around an area, one needs a Spectrum Analyzer which typically costs several thousand dollars. Example: Rohde & Schwarz CMW500 (1201.0002K50) | Wideband radio communication tester | Electro Rent - Rental, New & Used Test Equipment

wiganken said:

Just curious to know if there are others using Wi-Fi analyser apps under the same delusion as I was?

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I knew about this as I too discovered the same thing 6 years ago. I still use the phone apps though because the wifi chips in phones have gotten to be really good, and I find them to be helpful enough to know when a signal is weaker in a certain area.

I think they can still be useful, but of course proper business like planning is best done with the real thing.

Or you can do what I do and just connect an AP or router and take the intended devices around, wait a few minutes in one spot and look at the admin panel and see how good the signal is. But I try to ethernet everything.