One of the best ways to keep your cell phone bill low is by controlling the amount of mobile data that you use per month. Luckily, there are a lot of nifty ways available which help users keep their data usage as low as possible.
Android Users
Keep your eye on the Data usage section inside Settings. Here, you can sort by Mobile or Cellular data vs Wi-Fi and view the amount of data used by each specific app. Tapping on an app lets you separate what’s being used in the foreground (when you’ve opened the app) and background (when data is being used without your knowledge).
If you notice any apps using more background data than you’d like, simply turn on the “Restrict app background data” toggle at the bottom of the page. Keep in mind that when “Restrict app background data” is enabled and you’re not on Wi-Fi, you’ll only be using data and seeing what’s new when you specifically open the app.
When you’re on Wi-Fi, your phone will still update in the background… but that’s not data use that you pay for. One thought to keep in mind is that Twigby Mobile wants to save you money and taking control of the mobile data used is a great way to save.
iOS (iPhone) Users
Keep your eye on the Cellular section inside Settings. Scroll down to manage which apps have access to your cellular data. Disable any apps that you don’t want to connect to the Internet while you’re on-the-go. These apps will stay dormant until you’re back within a Wi-Fi connection (even if you open them, they won’t connect to the Internet on a mobile network). If you don’t need up-to-the-second updates in Instagram, for example, it’s a worthwhile trade-off.
While iOS does not keep tabs on specific months of data usage (it only shows the total), you can restart this counter by tapping “Reset Statistics” at the bottom of the page. To get the best understanding of which apps are using your mobile data, you should wipe these statistics and during your first day of usage, periodically check the Cellular page to see which apps have been using your mobile data. While you’re not able to sort between foreground (when you’ve opened the app) and background (when data is being used without your knowledge) for each app like you can on Android, it’s still pretty easy to figure out. Just keep a mental note of which apps you’ve actually been opening and using, so you can find the culprits using cellular data without your approval and disable them so you don’t get charged later.
Managing App Usage
Many popular apps include built-in data saving toggles and features. It’s likely that several you’ve deemed important enough to access your cellular data can still reduce its data usage. For example, Google Chrome offers a compression setting that can reduce your data usage inside the app by up to 50%. Whether you like listening to music or podcasts, all the popular apps (including Spotify) include features to help you pre-download over Wi-Fi so you can have an identical experience without wasting mobile data on things that could easily be accomplished on your home or office (or coffee shop) wireless network.
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