7 Proven Tips to Reduce High Data Usage on your Smartphone

In the midst of all the data wars going on among the different telecom networks that is seeing them revise their prices and offer newer attractive bundles, one question still remains – “Why did the bundle I subscribed for last a few minutes only?

Of course, confronting your Telecom provider about why your data runs out so quick even though you’ve only been WhatsApping will get you vague explanations and definitely won’t guarantee a refund.

The most important tip is to monitor and manage your data consumption. Check to see which apps or background services are using up the most of your mobile data. If your Android phone or tablet doesn’t have controls in the Settings for monitoring data usage and receiving alerts when you get close to your cap, try My Data Manager – Data Usage(free), which is the same app I recommend to iPhone and iPad users. It’s not perfectly automatic, but it’s very good. You have to manually enter key information about your billing cycle, billing dates, and data cap. My Data Manager will monitor your data and alert you at various usage intervals, like when you’ve gobbled through 50 or 80 percent of your allotment.

Remember that the faster the speed, the more data bundles are utilized.

So, here are some quick tips to ensure your data doesn’t get depleted

  1. Make sure that you restrict background apps as they may be ‘chewing’ your bundles.
  2. Disable auto downloads especially for apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
  3. Disable auto downloads for updates. You can instead update them more cost effectively using Wi-Fi.
  4. When browsing Facebook and Instagram be sure to note viewing of videos and high resolution images takes more data than just plain text.
  5. If you are unsure of the size of files you are sharing (like photos and videos) don’t send them using data. Instead wait for a Wi-Fi connection as sending videos and pictures consumes data bundles.
  6. When you are on Facebook, switch off ‘auto play’ so you get to choose the videos you want to watch and therefore save more data.
  7. Delete unused apps. These may be running despite you not using them.