How to Reduce Your Data Usage on Android
Increasingly sophisticated phones and data-hungry applications make it easier than ever to use up your internet data bundle…and sometimes incur needless Pay-As-You-Go charges. Read on as we show you how to manage your data.
Just a few short years ago it would have been almost unheard of to burn through multiple GB of mobile data. Now apps have ballooned in size (it’s not uncommon for apps and their updates to exceed 100 MB in size), and with streaming music and video becoming more popular, it’s easy to burn through your data in a matter of days.
Reduce your browser image setting to the lowest possible. Settings depend on each browser. Some browsers have the default image quality set to “High”. If yours is so, set the image quality to “Low”.
Also, you need to restrict data access for application you don’t need to give internet access to. Unknown to a lot of people, the apps installed on their phones connect to the internet (even when it’s not in use) and sometimes use up a bulk of data probably trying to get an update.
To put a stop to this, open Settings > Data Usage. The apps at the top of the list are the ones that use the most data.
Click on any app you want to disallow and press your options key. You should see “Restrict Background Data”, tap it. Do this for any other apps you want to disallow and you are on your way to having more internet data in your pocket.
Another thing you should put in mind is wherever legally possible, you should download videos instead of streaming online. Downloading medium resolution videos save data than downloading high definition videos. Instead of watching video tutorials, read a PDF or online article on the same topic. For example, if I wanted to learn web design, I would visit a website that teaches such in TEXT form, rather than watching a YouTube video on it. Also, try to download less stuff from the internet.
Turn off your data when you are not using it. Obviously you already know this but it just makes sense to put it in. Not only does it save your data, it also saves battery life for when it is needed.
You might also want to uninstall apps that you either don’t need or aren’t using. This will reduce the amount of apps that choke out your data. It’ll also increase your browsing speed (at least a bit).
At the end of the month, you’ll notice you have more data left than you usually do.
