It's hard to imagine the modern world without the Internet, isn't it? It seems that every day more and more processes are moving into a virtual space. Communication, business, work, education, shopping, movies, music, books, entertainment, and other spheres are all online. Not so long ago, web surfing was mostly text-based, but now things have advanced greatly. And since the Internet has become more accessible, its consumption has increased significantly. Unlimited internet access is not cheap, so very often we have to monitor the use of mobile data.
In this article, we'll look at the main reasons for high data consumption and provide you with possible solutions to this problem.
Switch to Wi-Fi
This solution seems obvious, but we very often forget to do it. Switching to home Wi-Fi is definitely not the first thought that comes to mind when you come home tired after work. If you have the opportunity to connect to free Wi-Fi, do so. This is a good alternative to help you save on mobile traffic. But be careful! Avoid insecure connections. For starters, you can set yourself a reminder until switching to Wi-Fi becomes a habit.
Check which apps use mobile data the most
Applications can use incredibly large amounts of data and you won't even know about it. To check how much data a particular app uses, follow our instructions.
- For iOS users:
- Open "Settings".
- Go to the Cellular section.
- Select "Mobile Data" or "Cellular Data".
- Scroll down to see how much data is used.
Please note that "Current Period" is not a billing period. You only see the data used since the last reset. To update this information, scroll down to the bottom and select "Reset Statistics". After that you can see how much data a particular application uses for the selected period, starting from the moment of reset.
- For Android users:
- Open "Settings".
- Go to "Network Internet".
- Select "Mobile Network".
- Finally, press "App Data Usage".
Now you will see a graph showing the amount of data used over the last month and which applications consume it the most. Here you can also set a monthly data usage limit and a warning about exceeding the set limit.
Please note that these are general recommendations. Section titles and steps may vary on different devices
Update apps only via Wi-Fi
Almost all applications receive updates from developers. This is necessary in order to fix errors, introduce new ideas, features, designs, upload new content, etc. Very often, but not necessarily, such patches can be very large. But one way or another, you shouldn't update your apps using mobile data. To avoid uncontrolled usage of data, disable automatic application updates in the settings.
- For iOS users:
- Open "Settings".
- Tap Your Name.
- Go to "iTunes App Stores".
- Find the "Cellular Data" section.
- Disable "Automatic Downloads".
To block background data usage, open "Settings" and disable "Background App Refresh" in the "General" section.
- For Android users:
- Open Google Play.
- Go to "Settings".
- Select "Auto-Update Apps".
- Finally, choose "Over Wi-Fi Only".
Configure app settings
Some popular apps, fortunately, have useful options that help users reduce their data usage. Most likely, you noticed that such applications as Facebook or Instagram have an auto-playing video feature. Sometimes it's convenient, sometimes not. But anyway, watching videos takes a lot of mobile data. You can completely disable this function in the application settings, or switch to the "Wi-Fi only" option. Another little tip: change the video quality. Need to watch a video on YouTube? Remember, the higher the quality of the video, the more data is required to view it. What about audio apps? Although listening to a song or podcast does not require as much data as videos do, but one after the other, and you will not notice how mobile data ran out. In this case, you can pre-download playlists, podcasts, or audiobooks to your phone before leaving and listen to them offline. And one more important note - if you use services such as Google Photos, iCloud Photos, or Dropbox, make sure to switch to Wi-Fi before uploading files or backing up. We also recommend that you check in the application settings if the file transfer is set to only over Wi-Fi.
Change a cell phone plan
And finally, our friendly advice. If you spend a lot of time on the Internet, look through the available operators, and find a cell phone plan that offers favorable terms for using the Internet. Pay attention to virtual mobile operators, since they offer fairly good terms for affordable prices.s
We hope that this article will help you reduce mobile data usage. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact us.
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