How to change wifi device name on Android 7? How can I change the device name of an unrooted Android 7.0-based Gigaset GS170 smartphone so it appears with a meaningful/readable name e.g. in a router's list of connected wifi devices?

Various resources (e.g. this or this) suggest I should find a line saying Device Name in the About Phone section of the phone settings. However, I can see no such line there (images before and after scrolling down):




As the device is set to German, here are the translations of the items in their order of appearance:


System Updates
Status (Phone number, signal, etc.)
Legal notes
Model type number
Android version
State of security updates
Baseband version
Kernel version
Build number
Adapt creation version


Is there somewhere else I could look for that option, or is it something only supported by specific devices?

There are a few questions about this on this site (e.g. this and this), but those were posted several years ago, when early versions of Android with some "childhood diseases" (read: lack of basic features) were still the state of the art.
AFAIK it's possible that a phone manufacturer hide that option from UI on their products, and I guess your phone it's one of them. My phone OnePlus 5, however, does allow changing it from Settings app.

So, if root access is available, try this in a rooted terminal environment:

setprop net.hostname "Whatever You Like"


Mount /system partition as R/W, head for /system/build.prop. Find this line and if it exists, change it (this line may not be present on Android 5 or lower):

ro.display.series=Same As Above


Reboot is required. After that the new name should have effect. Before modifying build.prop consider making a backup of it (and have a means of restore, e.g. via recovery-mode): if the file is "broken", your device won't boot up properly.