How to make your mobile data last longer – from blocking notifications to switching up your social media settings
IT CAN be tough sometimes to stay within your monthly data allowance. As well as social media, you’ve got music and video streaming constantly eating away at your data, making it all-too-easy easy to stray over your allowance and rack up hefty a bill. We’ve put together a handy guide for smartphone owners below with […]
IT CAN be tough sometimes to stay within your monthly data allowance.
As well as social media, you’ve got music and video streaming constantly eating away at your data, making it all-too-easy easy to stray over your allowance and rack up hefty a bill.
We’ve put together a handy guide for smartphone owners below with five tips on how to stop guzzling data.
1) Switch up your social media settings
Social media is an absolute sponge when it comes to mobile data.
Scrolling through your feed means loading countless posts, photos and more – but video clips are the worst offenders.
Clips on Facebook and Instagram are are set to auto-play by default so even if you don’t stop to watch the videos, data is being used to buffer them.
This can be changed in the settings of both of the apps.
To switch off auto-play videos on Facebook hit Menu > Settings & Privacy > Settings > Media and Contacts > Videos and photos and set Auto-play- to either “On Wi-Fi Connections Only” or “Never Auto-play Videos”.
To do this on Instagram head to your profile then tap Menu > Settings > Mobile Data Use and enable “Use Less Data”.
2) Block push notifications
You might not realise your push notifications are using up data.
They don’t squeeze you for much, but some apps use data to ping notifications to your gizmo.
It’s worth turning these off for apps you don’t use much to cut back on your data usage.
To turn off push notifications on an iPhone go to Settings > Notifications and select the apps you want to disallow notifications for.
To disable push notifications on Android hit Settings > Apps & notifications > Notifications.
Under “Recently sent” you’ll find a list of apps where you can turn off all notifications for specific apps.
3) Download stuff on Wi-Fi
It may sound obvious, but getting into the habit of downloading movies and music before you head out is a huge data saver.
Going offline doesn’t mean an end to your streaming services. Both Spotify and Apple Music allow you to download music to your device to enjoy offline, and watching TV won’t be a problem too thanks to Netflix’s download capabilities.
If you’re a fan of podcasts and an iPhone user, simply tap on the + icon next to a podcast while connected to Wi-Fi and it will be downloaded to your phone.
On Spotify, you can download individual albums, playlists, podcasts and songs to build an offline library fit for your commute.
4) Restrict background data
Even when you’re not using your device, your apps can chomp through your allowance by reloading in the background.
Social media and news apps in particular are guilty of this, with their constant refreshes eating through a huge chunk of our data.
Although having updated apps may be convenient, the continuous, automated refreshing means that this is one of the worst culprits for both a battery and data drain.
Luckily, there’s an easy way to reduce this activity and save on your usage. Here’s how:
To restrict background activity on iPhone: Open Settings, go to General > Background App Refresh > Background App Refresh and choose either “Wi-Fi” or “Off”.
On Android: Go to Settings > Select Data Usage > Cellular Data Usage. Tap on the app you want to stop using background data and disable “Background data”.
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5) Keep an eye on how much you use
It may sound obvious, but keeping tabs on your data usage is essential if you often run short.
Most networks come with their own app where you can monitor your allowance and see when it will be refreshed.
This is particularly helpful for budgeting your data and ensuring you stay under your limit.
Alternatively, great third party apps like DataFlow and My Data Manager are available from the Google Play and App stores.
The list was provided by online smartphone shop Mobiles.co.uk.
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