Are your favourite apps eating your data? Here’s what you need to do

Mobile data has become a necessity, especially if you have the latest smartphone.

Data can also be very costly and if you don’t monitor usage, you could spend hundreds or even thousands of rands to replenish those megs or even gigs.

Many people find themselves running out of mobile data before payday each month or needing to spend far more of their monthly budget than they’d like to?

Chances are that a few of your favourite apps are to blame for your high spending on mobile data.

However, the good news is that you can cut back without compromising your experience.

TCL shared a few tips for saving data on your Android smartphone.

What apps are killing your data?

Social media apps, including Facebook, Tik-Tok, Twitter, WhatsApp and Instagram are among the major culprits for using up your megs. They frequently refresh themselves in the background; they also often autoplay videos as you scroll through your feed.

Messaging apps such as WhatsApp can also be data hogs, especially if you send and receive a lot of videos and images. Online gaming sessions can use up loads of GB’s too.

Finally, music and video streaming apps such as YouTube, Spotify and Netflix can chew through enormous amounts of your data if you are not careful.

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What can you do to reduce consumption?

Remember to use Wi-Fi whenever you can

Be sure to connect to Wi-Fi, whenever it’s available. If you’re planning a long video call or want to download a lot of media, do so when you have access to Wi-Fi rather than using your mobile data. Always try to do more data-intensive tasks like updating or downloading apps or playing online games from Wi-Fi.

Download content while you’re on Wi-Fi

If you know you’re going to be away from a Wi-Fi connection, make sure to download the music and movies you want to enjoy. You can download high-quality without worrying about using up your data bundle or running up your costs.

Adjust media quality

Apps such as YouTube and Netflix allow you to automatically play media at a lower quality when you’re on a cellular connection. This will reduce your data consumption, although you will need to view your media at a lower resolution.

Turn off video autoplay

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram all have data-saver settings that allow you to turn off video autoplay. This can save you plenty of data you might otherwise waste on content you weren’t interested in viewing in the first place.

Disable background refreshes

Many apps constantly update themselves with new content in the background, no matter if you want them to or not. Go to your device’s settings to review which apps have access to this feature. Disable it for apps that you don’t use much or where real-time updates aren’t important.

Saver mode

To help you use less mobile data on a limited plan, you can turn on Data Saver. This mode lets most apps and services get background data only via Wi-Fi. Currently, active apps and services can use mobile data.

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