IN last years Mobile data usage has skyrocketed. Applications have become more hungry and are constantly pushing new versions to update. Previously, web surfing was used primarily for text. Now, video streaming services have gained widespread popularity and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have also integrated video services as a mainstream. It's harder to reduce your data usage on Android.
Here we have collected some of the most effective ways saving Android data.
8 Best Ways to Reduce Data Usage on Android - Save Data on Android
Limit your data usage Android settings
Setting a limit for your monthly data usage is the most simple thing, which you can do to avoid using excessive amounts of data without your knowledge. You can limit mobile data usage on Android using the Settings app. Switch to settings and press " Usagedata">> Billing Cycle >> Data Limits and Billing Cycle. There you can set the maximum amount of data you are going to use in a month. Additionally, you can choose to automatically disconnect from the network once your data limit is reached.
Restrict app's raw data
Some applications continue to consume mobile data even when the smartphone is not in use. Background data allows you to monitor and update apps while multitasking or when the screen is off. But every app doesn't have to use background data at all times.
Go to " Settings >> data usage», and you can see the statistics for which the application is consuming most data.
Click on an application and you can see both foreground and background usage for that particular application. Foreground data usage is the data consumed by an application when it is actively being used by you when you open it. Background data is the data you consume when you are not using an app and the app is running in the background. It does not require action and occurs automatically. This could include things like automatic app updates or synchronization.
If you find that the background data is too high for the app and you don't need the app to be in the background all the time, click " Restrict app background". This ensures that the application will only consume data when it is opened and thus use less data.
Use data compression in Chrome to save traffic on Android
Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers for Android. It has a built-in feature that can significantly reduce data consumption on Android.
When data compression is enabled, all your traffic is sent through a proxy server run by Google. The data will be compressed and optimized before being sent to your phone. This results in lower data consumption and faster page loading times without making significant changes to the web content.
To use data compression, open Chrome, click the 3-dot menu in the top right corner, click " Settings" and scroll down to " Data store". There, you can click on the top right corner to enable the data saving feature.
Enabling the Save Data feature also implements Chrome's Safe Browsing system to detect malicious pages and protect against malware and harmful content. As you can see in the screenshot above, Chrome managed to retain 17% of data over a period of one month.
You can view this settings panel in Chrome to see how much data you have saved over a certain period.
How to save traffic on Android - Updating applications only via Wi-Fi
One of the most effective ways to reduce mobile data consumption is to turn off automatic app updates in Play Store. Go to Play Store and click " Menu" >> « Settings" >> « Automatic application updates." Make sure you select " Automatic app updates via Wi-Fi only" Alternatively you can select " Not fulfill automatic application updates", but this is not recommended since you need to remember app updates manually from time to time.
Limit your use of streaming services
Streaming music and videos are the hungriest for content, as well as high-quality images. Try to avoid them when using mobile data. You can choose to save music and videos locally in your storage or download them when you are connected to WiFi. When streaming on mobile devices, you can reduce the stream quality to reduce data usage. Youtube consumes a lot of data, so make sure you lower the video resolution when using mobile data on Android.
Keep track of your apps
Using data-dependent applications can have a serious impact on your mobile network data consumption. What you might not realize is that the Google Photos app can sync your photos in the background with every click. Social media apps like Facebook and Instagram consume a lot of data. Try to avoid watching videos and GIFs on these apps.
Try using alternatives to some apps that will still perform the required functions while consuming less data. For example, Facebook Lite is a very lightweight alternative for Facebook apps. Plus, it saves battery life and data usage. TweetCaster is a similar option for the Twitter app.
Cache Google Maps for standalone use
Did you know that you can save maps in the Google Maps app? Caching Google Maps For offline use, it can save both your time and data. Once the map is loaded, you can even navigate when your phone is offline simply by using your GPS. This turns out to be handy for daily commutes and commuting as you can never be sure if some places will have network coverage. This good idea to download a map of your home area and the regions you travel to frequently.
So, next time you're on Wi-Fi, open Google Maps, go to the menu and select " Offline Maps".» . There you can click " Choose your own card” and zoom in or out to select the area where you want to be offline.
Once you decide the area, click " Download ».
Optimizing account sync settings
Your account settings are synced by default. Don't turn on automatic sync for data-dependent apps like Facebook and Google+, which use sync services to sync files like photos and videos, consuming a large number of data in progress.
Google constantly syncs your data when changes are made. Most of these synchronization services may not be required. This background synchronization affects both data consumption and battery life.
To configure the sync setting, open " Settings >> Accounts» . There you can configure synchronization settings for different applications. To optimize Google sync, Press Google and disable the options you don't need. For example, I don't need Google Fit data, Google Play Movies and Google Play Music for synchronization. So I switched them, leaving the other services in sync.
- Download large files when you are on Wi-Fi.
- Do not clear the system cache unless you have another way to free up space.
- If necessary, turn off mobile data.
- Turn off notifications for apps you don't want to notify.
- Set a longer refresh interval for home screen widgets that update frequently.
Have you found these ways to reduce data usage on Android to be useful and found the answer to the question - how to save data on Android? Share your feedback and suggestions in the comments below.
It happens that a month’s supply of Internet traffic “flies away” in a few days. Therefore, today we will tell you what to do to ensure that the traffic limit is not exceeded.
Why is it important to limit Android data transfer?
If you don't have unlimited internet on your phone or don't always have Wi-Fi at hand, it's very easy to exceed the monthly limit of your internet plan, which can lead to increased costs. In this article we will tell you how to reduce the amount of traffic consumed on Android to a minimum.
When choosing a tariff plan for a phone, the user cannot immediately predict how much data he will download. It's very easy to underestimate your Internet traffic consumption, especially since many devices have 4G support.
Traffic is lost not only when watching videos on YouTube or chatting on Facebook. Many applications run in the background and require a constant Internet connection.
- For example, e-mail, because the application may send a refresh request every few minutes to check for new messages.
- Application updates also eat up a lot of traffic, but in Google Play you can configure the download of updates only when there is a Wi-Fi connection.
I'm glad that applications that consume Internet traffic are easily monitored. Smartphones with the Android OS have tools with which you can make sure that you do not go beyond the limits of your tariff plan, and also set a limit on the Internet traffic used. Or you can turn off the Internet altogether. Today you will learn how to reduce Internet traffic consumption on your device to a minimum, and not go beyond the limits of your tariff plan.
How to make apps update only when connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi
how to save Internet traffic by disabling auto-update via mobile networkVery simple. You just need to launch the Google Play application, click on the icon in the form of three horizontal lines in the upper left corner, then go to “Settings”. Next, in “General”, find the item “Automatic application updates” and set it to “only via Wi-Fi”.
How to completely turn off your Internet connection
Go to “Settings”, click on the “Data transfer” item and near the line “Mobile traffic” change the position of the switch from on to off. Any existing Internet connection will be terminated.
Note: The Internet will still be available when connected via Wi-Fi, and you will also be able to use all online applications.
How to save the amount of traffic used
Those who need to set a monthly (or for any other period of time) limit on the traffic consumed by an Android smartphone, and also enable a notification when approaching the limit, will need to again follow the well-known direction: “Settings” → “Data transfer”. Here we set a limit on mobile traffic in accordance with the tariff package of your operator.
You can also look at the graph showing the amount of traffic used per month. We set the maximum allowable amount of data for a month, and if you approach the limit of the Internet traffic package, the system will notify you about this.
Reducing the amount of mobile traffic consumed
Those who simply want to reduce Internet traffic consumption on Android to a minimum will need to block background data transfer in the settings of each downloaded application.
Let’s again follow the well-trodden path, namely “Settings” → “Data transfer”, go down below and see the traffic consumption from applications.
To prohibit background data transfer, select the application and click on the “Limit background” option. Please note: Selected apps will now only update over Wi-Fi. For example, if you set such a restriction on WhatsApp, Facebook or Gmail, notifications about new messages will not be displayed until the application itself is launched.
Especially in order to save Internet traffic, social network Twitter recently introduced a lightweight version of itself - Twitter Lite, and also added a traffic saving mode to its application. It is claimed to reduce traffic consumption by up to 70% by blurring image previews.
Cellular networks provide faster and faster access to the World Wide Web, and traffic consumption by mobile devices is only growing. However, mobile Internet is still not a cheap pleasure: many people still use tariffs with a traffic volume of 4 GB, and many people travel, and the Internet while traveling is much more expensive.
In this article, we will look at seven ways to save mobile traffic, from the simplest ones available in the Android settings, to means of compressing transmitted data, a complete ban on data transfer, and completely unobvious approaches, such as installing an ad blocker.
1. Standard Android tools
A few simple steps can help reduce the amount of data transferred.
- Go to the Play Store settings and in the “Auto-update applications” option, select “Never”. Uncheck the box next to “Availability of updates”.
- Go to Settings → Location and turn off Location History.
- “Settings → Accounts”, “Menu” button, uncheck “Auto-sync data”. Internet usage will decrease noticeably, but mail and application notifications will stop coming.
- Now go back to settings and go to “Data Transfer”. Click "Menu" and select "Limit background activity." As a result, the battery life of the smartphone will increase and Internet consumption will decrease, but notifications from instant messengers will no longer be received. Therefore more the right decision will go through the list, find not very important applications and limit their access to background data and/or data on cellular networks.
- Open Google Settings and go to Security. I don’t recommend disabling “Check for security problems,” but unchecking the “Anti-malware” checkbox would be the right decision. You can disable at your own risk " Remote search devices" and "Remote blocking".
- In the same “Google Settings”, go to “Data Management” (at the bottom of the list) and set “Application Data Update” to “Wi-Fi Only”.
- Go back and open Search & Google Now. Go to the “Personal Data” section and turn off “Send statistics”. In the menu “Voice search → Offline speech recognition”, download the package for offline recognition and disable its auto-update or select “Only via Wi-Fi”. You can also go to the “Feed” section and turn it off. The Ribbon is the left "Google Start" screen or home screen Google apps. Here you can disable “Screen Search” (Google Now on tap). Well, at the very bottom, turn off the “Recommended applications” item.
- Don’t forget to turn off auto-checking and auto-downloading updates in “Settings → About phone.”
2. Get rid of advertising
Oddly enough, one way to reduce traffic consumption is to block ads. The indispensable program AdAway will help with this. It completely denies access to ad servers, blocking it at the system level. In other words, when an application accesses an address that is in its database, the request goes nowhere. By the way, activity tracking services (those that monitor user actions) are also blocked. The application requires root permissions (and S-OFF on HTC) to run.
When the blocking is enabled, problems may arise with the operation of some applications for making money from advertising (for example, NewApp, AdvertApp, CoinsUP - the latter did not show anything at all until recently). Other incompatibilities are also possible: six months ago, the Weather Underground application did not work due to AdAway. IN latest versions everything was fine (either Weather Underground changed something, or AdAway corrected the host addresses).
3. Save using your browser
There are not so many browsers with a built-in data saving mode. I selected five and tested them by opening seven web pages.
Firefox
Used for benchmark testing. There is no saving mode here.
Consumption: 13.33 MB
Opera Mini
The most economical browser. Allows you to save up to 90% of traffic (on average up to 70–80%). The data is compressed so much that you can browse the Internet on Edge or even GPRS networks. This all works by using its own engine, which represents web pages not as text, but as binary code. And Opera servers are responsible for converting pages into this code. Plus a built-in ad blocker, video and image compression.
There is also a super-saving mode, which includes aggressive compression methods, which in some cases break pages. For example, the Eldorado store website did not open at all in this mode, YouTube opened in the WAP version, the map could not be viewed on the OpenStreetMap website, and article c opened with distortions. With the super economy mode turned off, these problems disappear.
Consumption: 12 MB
Opera
It differs from the Mini version in a different interface and the absence of a super saving mode. But it works faster.
Consumption: 12.15 MB
Chrome
This browser also has a data saver, but no ad blocker. According to the developers, savings average 20–40% depending on the content. But in practice, in almost a month I saved as much as 4%.
To activate, you need to go to settings and enable the “Traffic saving” item. There are no settings, statistics on saved megabytes can only be assessed by traffic, there are no statistics on sites, there is no ad blocker and support for extensions (for installing the blocker).
The saving mode itself works completely unnoticed. The quality of the pictures does not suffer, and the page loading speed remains almost unchanged. That is, Chrome was one of the most fast browsers, so it remained. And he turned out to be the most gluttonous.
Consumption: 15.5 MB
Puffin
Desktop versions of YouTube and Play Store sites opened instead of mobile ones. But the savings are obvious.
Consumption: 5 MB
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In your mobile phone settings you can find a section called “Data Transfer” or “Data Usage”. This section calculates the traffic that the user spends on his phone.
But many users do not know what traffic is and what to do with the traffic values that are displayed in the mobile phone settings. If you also have not yet figured out this issue, then we suggest that you read our article.
Traffic is the amount of information that a mobile phone sends and receives from the Internet. Traffic can be measured in packets, bits, or bytes. But in phones, bytes and their derivatives (kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes) are usually used as a unit of measurement. Traffic counting is necessary so that the user can control his Internet expenses.
When traffic is counted, it is usually divided into several types. This can be incoming, outgoing, internal or external traffic. But the phone usually doesn’t have such detailed statistics about traffic usage. Instead, the phone simply shows the total amount of data that has been used over a period of time. In some cases, separate counts may be kept for mobile Internet (traffic transmitted via cellular communications) and Wi-Fi.
If necessary, traffic counting can be organized on any device that is connected to the network or the Internet. For example, if you need to count traffic on a computer with operating system Windows, then for this you can use such programs as TMeter, NetWorx, BWMeter or DU Meter.
How to view traffic on Android
To see the traffic consumption for mobile phone with Android you need to open the application " Settings" and find the section there " Data transfer" or " data usage" For example, on pure Android 8.0, to do this you first need to go to the “ Network and Internet", and then open the subsection " Data transfer».
Here you can see how much traffic was used over the last month and take advantage of the functions that allow you to manage your mobile Internet expenses. There is also information about the amount of information that was transferred via Wi-Fi.
If the information that Android provides is not enough for you, then you can install special applications for traffic counting. For example, you can use applications or.
How to view traffic on iPhone
There is a similar section with traffic information on the iPhone. If you have an Apple mobile phone, then you need to open the settings application, go to the " cellular" and scroll the screen to the item " Statistics».
Here you can see the total amount of data from the Internet, as well as data that was received while roaming. In addition, the iPhone displays the exact traffic value for each installed application. This allows you to quickly identify the applications that access the Internet most often and increase your mobile phone costs.
If the information provided by the iPhone is not enough for you, then you can install special applications for counting traffic. For example, you can use applications or.
How to save traffic on your phone
If your Mobile Internet expenses seem too high to you, then you can take a number of measures to reduce the amount of traffic consumed:
- Turn off mobile Internet when you don't need it. Simple but very effective advice. If you are severely limited in mobile traffic, then mobile Internet should be turned off at every opportunity.
- Explore your phone settings. Explore the settings available on your phone. You'll likely find many features and functionality that will help you reduce your data usage and control your mobile Internet costs.
- Use a browser with a saving feature. Many browsers have built-in bandwidth saving tools. For example, you can use Opera browser. This browser passes all traffic through its own servers, where it is pre-compressed.
- Try to always connect to Wi-Fi. While you are connected to wireless Wi-Fi networks you transmit traffic through this network, while the mobile Internet is actually disabled.
- Explore application settings. In the settings of many applications there is an item “Only via Wi-Fi”; after enabling it, the application will only use the Wi-Fi network.
Long gone are the days when Internet providers everywhere kept track of megabytes spent by users on the Internet. Tariff plans for home Internet these days the difference is mainly in speed. And here are the operators cellular communication They are in no hurry to provide completely unlimited Internet and, as a rule, allocate only a certain amount of inexpensive traffic.
But today not only people, but also smartphones themselves cannot live without the Internet: it happens that he himself downloads something in the middle of the night, updates a couple of applications, and in the morning there is no more prepaid traffic left to download attachments from mail. Well, let’s think about how we can deal with this and how to save on the still expensive Internet.
⇡ Traffic control using standard operating system tools
First, let's see what we can do without installing additional applications. In the Android settings there is a “Traffic Control” item, with which you can separately monitor data transfer over Wi-Fi and through mobile networks. You can also turn off data transfer altogether, that is, the use of mobile Internet.
The operating system displays a graph of traffic usage for a selected period of time (you can change it by moving the sliders along the graph) and shows which applications consume the most data. By clicking on an application, you can see a consumption graph generated specifically for it.
On the mobile Internet tab, you can also set a limit on traffic consumption for a certain period. The limit is set on the same chart, and a threshold is selected using a separate slider, upon reaching which the system will display a warning about the imminent exhaustion of the limit. If the traffic ends, the device will automatically turn off data transfer.
Many Android applications communicate with the Internet in the background and, as a result, traffic is consumed even before the phone owner has time to wake up. To prevent this from happening, you can prevent certain applications from using mobile traffic in the background. To do this, click on the application name in the traffic consumption window and check the Restrict Background data box.
This feature can also be disabled globally. To do this, being in the “Traffic Control” section, go to the settings and check the box of the same name. You can also disable automatic data synchronization here. True, with a global ban on downloading via the mobile Internet, some important applications - for example mail client- may not work as you expect.
A lot of traffic is spent on application updates. To prevent downloading updates from eating up expensive traffic, you can go to Google settings Play and in the “Automatic application updates” section, select updating only via Wi-Fi or (as an option) disable automatic updating altogether.
By the way, don't forget to check the settings of your favorite applications. In many, you can enable synchronization and downloading of data only via Wi-Fi.
⇡ Traffic control in Google Chrome
Data compression function is also available in mobile version Google Chrome browser. It works like this: the content of web pages is first sent to Google servers, where it is optimized and loaded in a compressed form. The quality of the images, of course, suffers, but much less traffic is consumed.
You can find and enable this option in the “Settings → Traffic Control → Traffic Reduction” menu. Depending on what web pages you view on your mobile device, the savings can be significant - up to 50%. True, data compression will be useless when loading web pages that use traffic encryption - Google will not be able to send such data to its servers. In addition, it is worth keeping in mind that compression will not be performed even if you enable incognito mode in the browser.
To save mobile traffic in Google Chrome, you should also disable the function of preloading web pages. It is located in the same “Traffic Control” settings section. You can allow the browser to download pages in the background only when there is an active Wi-Fi connection, or disable downloading altogether.
⇡ Control over traffic consumption using specialized applications
The main purpose of mobile traffic accounting applications is to help you save money. For this purpose, both simple consumption statistics and restrictions on different periods time.
Perhaps the simplest traffic metering program is Internet Speed Meter Lite. It only performs monitoring and statistics collection functions. The application monitors mobile and Wi-Fi traffic consumption in real time. The current data transfer speed can be seen in the notification panel, and if you expand the notification menu, you can also see the name of the current network and the amount of traffic that was consumed today.
The application window shows how much traffic was used over the last month by day, the amount for the last seven and thirty days, as well as total number from the beginning of this month. Mobile and Wi-Fi traffic is counted separately.
The Data Usage application is interesting because it can count not only mobile, but also Wi-Fi traffic. And not only count, but also notify when a specified limit is exceeded, and also block data transfer when a certain value is reached. Why might you need Wi-Fi traffic metering? For example, some hotels practice providing free Wi-Fi access within a certain limit. If it is exceeded, you must pay additionally.
In the application settings, you can specify how much traffic (mobile and Wi-Fi separately) is provided for a given period. Data Usage will not only collect statistics for the day, for the week and for the reporting period, but also calculate how much traffic should be consumed ideally so that the Internet does not cost a penny. It also shows predicted consumption, separate statistics on received and transmitted data and, most importantly, how much free traffic is left until the end of the reporting period.
Data on mobile Internet and Wi-Fi are shown on separate tabs, but you can view the total history of traffic consumption on a visual graph.
Data Usage can warn you that your prepaid traffic is about to expire. Moreover, there may be three such warnings. The default is when using fifty, seventy-five and ninety percent, but this parameter is configurable. In addition, the application can completely turn off the Internet when a certain value is reached (99% by default) and automatically turn it on when the next reporting period arrives.
Another traffic monitoring application that may be useful is “My Internet Manager” (My Data Manager - Data Usage. Its feature is the ability to set separate data plans for roaming and mobile Internet. You can set a traffic limit, as well as the date and plan start time.
As for data received via Wi-Fi, it is impossible to set a traffic limit here, but you can specify when the number of downloaded data is reached, the program should notify the user. “My Internet Manager” displays information about traffic consumption in a convenient form, with each type of connection located on a separate tab.
A full report of total data consumption can be seen in the graph. Also, information on consumed traffic is displayed on the notification panel.
The app also keeps track of the data consumption of different apps. This information can be presented in chart form or as a list.
Pleasant bonuses of the application include the ability to backup data to an SD card and quickly restore it.
⇡ Non-standard approach: not only control, but also traffic reduction
Even before the advent of smartphones, mobile browsers from Opera Software were extremely popular. And one of the most popular features of Opera Mini was traffic compression. Thanks to this, on the one hand, the loading of web pages on a slow connection was accelerated, and on the other hand, mobile Internet bills were reduced.
The same compression technology that was used in the Norwegian company's older products forms the basis of the Opera Max application for Android. It is currently being tested, but is already available for free download from Google Play in our country. The main difference between Opera Max and the corresponding function in the browser is that it works with all applications. That is, if Opera Mini compresses only the content of web pages, then Opera Max works with any browser, as well as applications for viewing video content, reading RSS, downloading photos, etc. In particular, with the help of Opera Max, traffic in the VKontakte, Viber, and Odnoklassniki applications is significantly saved.
Technically, Opera Max works through a VPN network. All network traffic from mobile device passes through Opera servers, where it is compressed where possible. Thus, the user downloads much less data.
How much data has been saved is shown in the application window. Detailed statistics by date and by application are also available. As our testing has shown, web pages and photos are best compressed; with video, the situation is worse. But the application does not work with Facebook and Twitter at all - this is because these social sites use an encrypted connection. Accordingly, the application is unable to intercept this traffic in order to send it to Opera servers. It's also worth keeping in mind that the app is useless for compressing web pages if you're using the Google Chrome browser with data compression enabled. In this case, you cannot save even more. Opera Max also does not compress application updates or files downloaded to the device.
Opera Max only works with mobile Internet. As for Wi-Fi traffic, it is not taken into account and is not saved. But the application has a convenient option for banning the use of mobile traffic for individual applications. This can be handy since the Wi-Fi update option may not be found in all apps.
Finally, when using Opera Max, it's worth keeping in mind that the app works offline for seven days. For its further operation, you need to “recharge”, that is, click on a special button on the corresponding tab of the application. For now (at the testing stage) it is free, but in the future, most likely, you will have to pay to extend the service.
However, if Opera Max becomes paid in the future, it is worth keeping in mind that this application is not unique. The same functions have been available for more than two years to users of the lesser-known Onavo Extend program, the developers of which came under the wing of Facebook in 2013.
Like Opera Max, this free app works through a proxy server and compresses all mobile traffic from the device. When you turn on Wi-Fi, it turns off automatically. In the application you can see statistics on saved traffic for a week and a month. And in the settings you can control the quality of graphics, as well as set the cache size for saved graphic elements. This is true if you constantly load the same web pages. Onavo Extend saves the graphics from them, they are not re-downloaded, resulting in even greater savings.
⇡ Conclusion
I really hope that in five to ten years the demand for all applications for saving mobile traffic will decrease. Perhaps very soon they will become as rarely used as programs for monitoring traffic on a PC are now rare. And just as inexpensive internet via cable came to our homes without taking into account traffic, so our smartphones will receive inexpensive unlimited access to the Internet.
