5 Ways to Save Mobile Data on Your Android Phone

Phone Tips & Tricks
Avator By Jonathan Owen
Marketing Manager
Published 29th January 2016
Last modified 25th May 2022
loveit? shareit!
Taking a photo with a smartphone

From identifying songs to managing your thermostat, yes our phones can do more than they used to, but this “doing more” takes up more of our data too. And that can lead to nasty surprise bills; something nobody needs in January. If your Android device is gobbling up more mobile data than you can afford, then give these tips a try.

Set a limit on your data

Some contracts will simply cut off your mobile data when you reach your monthly allowance, and while this can be annoying, at least your phone bill won’t suffer.

Other contracts however, don’t stop you, and some may even charge you a higher rate for this extra data! If yours doesn’t cut you off, you can set your own limit by going to Set Mobile Data Limit and dragging the red line to your required limit. You can also use the grey line to create a warning that you’re close to approaching your limit.

Compress Chrome pages

Using Data Saver allows you to compress web pages before loading them into your browser.

Whilst it does slow things down a little, it can be well worth it, saving between 30-35% of your mobile browser data consumption. Simply launch Chrome, tap on the three dots in the top right and corner, go to Settings, then select Data Saver.

Restrict background data

One of the biggest drains on your mobile data (not to mention your battery), are apps which access the internet while running in the background.

Facebook is one of the worst culprits for this. Luckily you can easily restrict which apps use your mobile data connection in the background by heading to Settings and selecting Data Usage- your apps should be listed by how much data they use. From here you can select Restrict App Background Data on the biggest offenders.

Make sure apps aren’t auto-updating

Apps which automatically download updates- even when you aren’t connected to Wi-Fi- can be a nightmare for your mobile data allowance.

Again, this is an avoidable situation. Go to the Google Play Store and open up the menu. Go to Settings- Auto-update Apps and select Auto-update Apps Over Wi-Fi Only.

Use apps offline

It is possible to use some apps offline, such as Google Maps, and even Spotify, by saving music and playlists to your phone, so you can listen to them without streaming.

Tags: