We want to present you with some tips that will help reduce data usage by unnecessary applications and a few tricks that will reduce traffic consumption to a minimum. These tips work on Sony, Samsung, HTC, LG, Motorola and other smartphones running the Android operating system.
Install Opera Max
Opera Max is a must-have application for those who have slow EDGE and GPRS Internet. It compresses all your mobile traffic, which is why applications that require the Internet work noticeably faster. In addition, thanks to proprietary features, it saves up to 50% of traffic. On my Samsung Galaxy S5 this figure was about 42%!
Turn off automatic updates
Automatic updates consume the largest amount of traffic, since many programs are installed on your smartphone and some of them are updated by developers regularly. So if you forget to turn off this option on your gadget, then the Internet will be used without your knowledge in the background.To disable automatic updates, go to Google Play -> " Settings" -> "Auto update app" and select " Never" or " Only via WiFi"depending on what you need.
Data compression in browsers
Using Chrome and Opera browsers, which provide data compression capabilities, you can significantly reduce traffic consumption, since websites will load photos in a compressed form, and the pages themselves will not execute all the JS code. This format reduces data consumption by up to 30%. Enabling this option in your browser settings will help you save traffic and not exceed your tariff limit.To enable compression for Google Chrome, go to " Settings" -> "Traffic control" -> "Reducing traffic" and move the slider to "Enable".
Data preloading and caching
On YouTube, for example, you can use the “watch later” feature. This allows you to download any content and videos over WiFi to watch another time. Google Maps has always helped us navigate unfamiliar cities and crowded streets without any problems. You can pre-download a route or map and view it without using mobile Internet any time you need it along the way. This will save the number of megabytes and also save battery power.
Turn off automatic sync
Social apps and other notes-type programs use automatic synchronization, which allows you to use the mobile Internet by running in the background when you have an update or the program needs to sync data with your account. By turning off the automatic synchronization option, you minimize traffic consumption, since applications will only update when you launch them, for example, while connected to WiFi.You can do this by going to " Settings" -> "Data transfer" and uncheck the box " Auto-sync".
Turning off mobile data and setting a limit
Turning off mobile data when you don't need it is a good way to save precious megabytes, as it will automatically stop all apps running in the background. If you are traveling, sleeping or attending an important meeting, turn off the Internet. You can set a limit on Internet consumption. This setting will warn you as soon as you approach your Internet consumption limit.This option is available in " Settings" -> "Data transfer" - > "Set limit". Move the red slider up or down to set the desired limit.
You can also install AdBlock Plus for yourself. After this, advertisements will no longer be shown in applications, and accordingly, precious megabytes will not be spent on them.
These few very simple steps can help you control your data usage and reduce your internet costs.
Now mobile Internet is relatively inexpensive, but this is not a reason to throw it away left and right. Full unlimited service still costs a pretty penny, and many operators, by the way, are already giving up such luxury.
Most of the available tariffs are conditionally unlimited, that is, they provide a certain and rather limited amount of traffic per day or month. If you exceed the limit, the speed will drop to the level of a dial-up modem and it will become impossible to use the Internet.
Perhaps you do not fit into the volume provided under the tariff or are dangerously close to the limit. Perhaps you want to save some traffic reserve so that you can use it when urgently needed. In any case, it is useful to be able to save megabytes, and now we will tell you how to do this.
Get rid of pest apps
Increased traffic consumption is not always related to your appetite. Often the unjustified gluttony of individual applications is to blame. Such scoundrels sit in the background and constantly transmit and send something. You can find them using a standard tool that is built into any current version of Android.
- Go to Android settings.
- Select Data Transfer.
- Select Mobile Data Transfer.
Here you will see a general graph of mobile traffic consumption, and below it - a rating of the most voracious residents of the system.
To curb the ardor of an individual application, tap on it and turn off the background mode. After this, the sly one will not be able to receive and send data in the background.
The problem is that in order to identify scoundrels, you need to understand what the normal Internet consumption is for a particular application. Obviously, the browser, music and video streaming services, as well as maps are capable of eating hundreds of megabytes, but offline-oriented and working with a small amount of data have nothing on this list.
Set up a warning and traffic limit
- Go to Android settings.
- Select Data Transfer.
- Select "Payment Cycle".
The billing cycle is the date when the subscription fee is charged. Usually a new Internet package is given on the same day. Specify it so that the system knows the date the traffic counter was reset.
- Enable "Alert Settings".
- Select Alerts.
- Specify the amount of traffic upon reaching which the system will notify you about it.
If you want to strictly limit traffic consumption, enable “Set traffic limit” and specify the value, upon reaching which the system will turn off the mobile Internet.
Disable app updates via mobile network
- Go to the Google Play app store settings.
- Select Auto-update apps.
- Select the "Wi-Fi Only" option.
Enable data saving in Android
- Go to Android settings.
- Select Data Transfer.
- Select Data Saver.
After enabling traffic saving mode, the system will prohibit background data traffic for most applications, which will significantly reduce overall traffic consumption. To allow data sharing in the background for individual applications in economy mode, tap on the appropriate item.
Save data with Opera Max
In fact, the Opera Max application does the same thing as the traffic saving mode built into Android, that is, it blocks background data, but it looks a little nicer and more visual.
Enable data saving in individual applications
Any normal developer, if his application works with potentially large amounts of data, can optimize traffic consumption using settings. For example, almost all Google tools can save precious megabytes of mobile Internet.
Google Chrome
- Go to Google Chrome settings.
- Select Data Saver.
In addition to Google Chrome, a traffic saving mode is provided in the Opera browser.
YouTube
- Go to YouTube settings.
- Select General.
- Turn on the “Traffic Saving” mode.
Google Maps
- Go to Google Maps settings.
- Turn on “Wi-Fi only” and follow the “Your offline maps” link.
Offline maps allow you to save hundreds of megabytes of traffic. Be sure to download the area where you live and don’t forget to add areas you plan to visit in the near future.
- Click Other Area.
- Use pan and zoom gestures to select the area to download and click "Download".
- Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the Downloaded Areas menu.
- Select "Download Settings" and select "Wi-Fi Only".
Google Press
- Go to Google Press settings.
- Select Data Saver Mode and select On.
- In the "Download" section, turn on the "Wi-Fi only" mode.
Google Photos
- Go to Google Photos settings.
- Find the “Use mobile internet” section and disable the option for photos and videos.
Google Music
- Go to your Google Music settings.
- In the Playback section, lower the quality when streaming over a mobile network.
- In the “Downloading” section, allow downloading music only over Wi-Fi.
If necessary, allow music playback only over Wi-Fi.
Google Music can save albums for offline listening. You can download music to your device if you have Wi-Fi and play it without an Internet connection.
- Go to the artist's album list.
- Click on the vertical ellipsis icon in the lower right corner of the album and select “Download” from the menu that appears.
Google Movies
- Go to Google Movies settings.
- Under Mobile Network Streaming, turn on Show Warning and Limit Quality.
- In the Downloads section, select Network and select Wi-Fi only.
Monitor your carrier's rates and options
Often a person overpays for communications simply because he is on an outdated tariff. Find out what's new with your operator. It's possible that you can get more internet for less money.
1) If your smartphone supports 3G or 4G/LTE technologies, the first thing you need to do is disable automatic software updates.
Many programs download updates in the background, meaning you may not even know about it. Allow updates only to those that you really need on a regular basis.
Android OS owners need to go to the “Settings - Data transfer - MegaFon” section. You can also see in detail which application consumes how much over a selected period of time. When you click on each of them, detailed settings for a specific program open. We need to “Limit background traffic”, and if you wish, you can also disable auto-update of data. You can do this on iOS in the “Settings - General - Content Update” section.
2) Set a traffic limit.
To control Internet traffic consumption, set the required limit in accordance with your tariff plan or option directly on your smartphone. On Android, you can limit data transfer as follows: go to “Settings - Data Usage - Set Limit”. On iOS you will have to download a third-party application from the AppStore. The free Traffic Monitor utility is just one of these. By the way, you can check the remaining traffic using the command *558#.
3) Refuse synchronization.
Regardless of which network you access the Internet on - 4G/ LTE, 3G or EDGE/ 2G, the smartphone regularly synchronizes available applications with remote servers. In order to avoid this and, accordingly, save money, you just need to disable such synchronization. On Android - go to "System Settings - Accounts - Turn off synchronization / Over Wi-Fi only." In iOS, you will need to do two steps: first go to “System Preferences - iCloud Drive - turn off Cellular Data”, then to “System Preferences - iTunes, AppStore - turn off Cellular Data”.
4) Remove widgets.
One of the features of Android is widgets. Statistics show that a one-time Internet surfing in a browser consumes significantly less traffic compared to widget requests that require an uninterrupted Internet connection.
5) Pre-load. Yandex navigator applications. Maps and Google Maps can actually work offline. You just need to download the maps first. In Yandex this is done like this: “Yandex. Maps - Menu - Download map - Penza - Select map type - Download.” And in Google it’s like this: “Google Maps - Menu - Your places - Download map area - Select map - Download.”
Bonus from MegaFon: an interesting trick
The “MegaUnlimit” option will allow the most resourceful MegaFon subscribers connected to “All Inclusive” tariffs to use absolutely unlimited Internet. Another convenience is that payment is daily and you can activate it at any time and for any period. Connection - *105*1153#. Subscription fee - from 0 to 10 rubles. per day. Now you know all the secrets.
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How much traffic do users spend on average, how to calculate the required amount of mobile Internet, which applications consume the most data and how can you save megabytes?
In a partnership article with Yota, Bumaga explains how to choose a tariff for mobile Internet and how much traffic Facebook, Instagram and VKontakte take.
How to understand how much mobile Internet you need?
First, analyze how much traffic you spend on average and what it usually goes for. In any smartphone, there is a section in the settings that shows the total amount of data you have spent. In addition, there you can see which applications consume the most traffic.
How much internet do users spend on average?
Now users, depending on their region of residence, spend on average 10-15 GB of mobile traffic per month, Yota says. According to the operator, a year ago 10 GB was the upper limit, but now it is rather the minimum amount that smartphone users spend.
According to the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications, in the first quarter of 2017, Russian subscribers transferred 1.36 billion GB of data via mobile networks. This is 85% more than in the same period last year.
Where does the most traffic go?
First of all, for downloading and sharing media files on social networks and instant messengers. For example, sending one photo to WhatsApp will take about 3-5 MB of traffic. Text weighs the least - a simple text page on the Internet will require about 60-70 KB.
Which apps take up the most traffic?
Some of the most traffic-intensive applications are streaming applications (for example, online games, YouTube) and social networks (Instagram, VKontakte). Each month, if actively used, each social network takes about 2-3 GB of traffic.
The size of the application itself and updates for it will partly depend on the phone model: applications for modern smartphones tend to be heavier. Additionally, newer smartphones with higher camera specs may spend more bandwidth on file sharing as the image or video quality will be higher (unless you compress the files before transferring).
How much traffic is consumed when you sit at a laptop via mobile Internet?
If you distribute the Internet to your computer to check email, send files or chat on social networks, then your traffic consumption will not increase significantly: you perform all the same actions on your smartphone. However, if, for example, you have automatic software updates enabled on your laptop, then they can “eat up” a lot of mobile traffic.
How to reduce the amount of internet you use?
You can limit the amount of traffic you spend, for example, through your smartphone settings. You can disable data transfer for specific applications so that they do not update and thus do not waste extra megabytes.
Make sure that automatic app updates are only allowed when connected to Wi-Fi. In addition, you can also disable autoplay of videos on social networks (this feature is available, in particular, on Facebook and Twitter) when you use the application via the mobile Internet. But, for example, if you simply close applications and put them out of the background, this will not lead to serious traffic savings.
How to use unlimited applications and save on mobile Internet?
Mobile operators offer different options for those who regularly need mobile Internet. For example, Yota subscribers can activate an unlimited tariff for individual applications: for example, if you spend 3 GB per month on Facebook or instant messengers, you can activate the options for unlimited social networks. Then, even if you spend a large amount of traffic on social networks, you will not go beyond the 5 or 10 GB package.
You can also use applications unlimitedly if you connect to the mobile Internet via a laptop. In addition, in case of unexpected large expenses, you can add an additional 5 GB to the total package: this can be done through the operator's application an unlimited number of times.
Mobile phones are increasingly using mobile traffic. Read on and we'll show you how to manage your data.
Just a few years ago, it was almost unheard of to be able to transfer several GB of mobile data. Now apps weigh more (it's not uncommon for apps and their updates to be over 100 MB in size), and streaming music and video is becoming more popular and with all this, you can easily use up your data limit in a matter of days.
An hour of watching a video on YouTube and you no longer have several gigabytes of traffic. And if you watch videos in HD format, then the traffic flows like water... Do you use streaming music services such as Google Play Music or Spotify? You can spend about 120 MB per hour. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but imagine using these services every day for an hour, in a week you already get 840 MB. An hour a day for a month and you will already have spent about 3.2 GB. If you use a tariff plan with a 5 GB traffic package included, then in a month you will spend 65% of the limit only on music.
Of course, you can buy traffic with extra money, but who wants to pay? Before you pay for a more expensive plan or additional data package, we offer a few tricks to reduce your data transfer (and control).
How to view the amount of data being transferred
First of all, you need to check how much data is being transferred. If you don’t know how much traffic you use, it will be unclear how you need to change your data consumption structure.
The easiest way to check your data usage is through your cellular provider's web portal. If you never use up your limit, it might be worth upgrading to a cheaper plan. If you never fit into your allotted traffic package, then you should definitely read the article further.
You can also view data consumption statistics on your Android device. Go to Settings -> Data Transfer. You will see a screen something like this:
If you scroll down, you will see the mobile data usage of the apps, as seen in the second screenshot above. It's important to note that these graphs only show data sent over a cellular data connection, not over a Wi-Fi connection. You can always “hang” on YouTube while connected to Wi-Fi, but this will not appear in the statistics. If you want to see statistics on data usage via Wi-Fi, then press the menu button and select “Show Wi-Fi traffic”.
It's worth noting that you will need to enter your billing cycle here in order to accurately calculate your data usage. Since your data will be reset on the first day of the new cycle, it will not matter what you used the month before, so the result will not be distorted.
In addition to the schedules, you can set a traffic limit, at which you will be shown a warning, or set a limit by adjusting the slider on the schedule, at which the transmission of mobile traffic will be disabled. Don't forget to enable the "Mobile traffic limit" option.
Once the limit is reached, mobile traffic will not be transmitted until you turn it on again.
How to control your data usage
There are two types of traffic consumed: when the user is using the application and knows that it is running over the Internet, and data usage in the background. When watching a video or downloading a new album, you consume a data package if you use mobile data rather than Wi-Fi Internet. Obviously, in order to use less data you need to stop streaming content and downloading files.
A less obvious data transfer is “background transfer”, which uses a large amount of traffic. Checking new messages in the VKontakte application client or checking new letters in email and other background processes constantly consume traffic. Let's figure out how to reduce background data consumption.
First, find out which applications are consuming data
First, let's figure out which apps actually use a lot of bandwidth. Go to Settings -> Data Transfer and see the apps using data. Click on one to see more information. Here we see normal data transfer and work in the background:
Now that you know which applications use the most data, you know what to optimize.
Using data saving in Android Nougat
Android 7.0 Nougat has a new feature with the self-explanatory name “Traffic Saving”. It allows you to limit background traffic consumption and provides the ability to maintain a “white list” of applications that are allowed to use data in the background.
To get started, pull down the notification panel and tap the gear icon to go to the settings menu.
In the “Wireless Networks” section, click on “Data Transfer”.
Under the traffic used, you will find the “Traffic Saving” option. This is where the fun begins.
The first thing to do is turn on the switch that is located at the top right. The new icon will appear in the status bar, as well as to the left of the other data icons (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, cellular, etc.).
Remember that once you enable this, background data access will be restricted for all applications. To change this, click on "Unlimited data access."
After this, a list of all installed applications on your phone will appear. Using the slider next to applications, you can add them to the white list, allowing background data transfer.
It is worth keeping in mind that this only applies to mobile traffic and will not affect the Wi-Fi connection in any way.
Limit background data transfer
If you don't have Android Nougat, then you have other options.
Open an app that uses a lot of bandwidth. Look at the settings of this application, it may be worth reducing the number of notifications (for example, VKontakte) or disabling them completely. This will have a great impact not only on the traffic consumed, but also on battery drain.
True, not every application has such settings. There is another way...
Go to Settings -> Data transfer and click on the application. Turn on the "Limit background activity" switch.
Disable all background data transfer
If that's not enough, you can also turn off all background data with a single switch - this will reduce data usage in most cases, but it can also be inconvenient. From the data transfer item, click on the menu and select “Limit background. mode". This will turn off background data for all applications.
Disable background app updates
Google understands how valuable mobile data is, so app updates will only happen automatically when you're on Wi-Fi by default. To check this, open the Google Play Store. Go to the settings and make sure that “Only via Wi-Fi” is selected in the “Auto-update applications” item.
Buy frequently used apps (to remove ads)
Applications are often offered in a free version with advertising and a paid version. The thing is, not only are ads annoying, but they also use up traffic. Therefore, if you want to reduce your traffic consumption, you can buy a paid version of a frequently used application.
