How To Reduce Smartphone Data Consumption

Whatever your plan, it makes sense to conserve data. And what’s the easiest way to do that? Connect to Wi-Fi wherever and whenever possible. Sure, it takes a few extra taps to connect to a network in, say, a coffee shop or airport lounge, and you may feel like it’s not worth the hassle if you’ve got five 4G bars showing.

Depending on what you are planning to do with your phone, however, it may absolutely be worth it. Here are five of the biggest data hogs you want to avoid (or at least reduce) when there is no Wi-Fi available:

1. YouTube uploads
Depending on settings and various other factors, each minute of high definition video you shoot can be as large as 200MB.

So, if you upload just five one-minute videos per month;that will eat a full gigabyte of your data allotment. Wait until there is Wi-Fi!

2. Video chats
Stop the Skyping and the FaceTiming, and all the other video calling if you want to save data. Though the rate of consumption varies depending on the app you use and the resolution of your chat, a Jetsons-style phone call can cost you up to three megabyte per minute.

3. Online gaming
If you must save data, then online gaming is just one thing you must stop.

4. Music streaming
It’s so easy (and awesome) to plug into Pandora or Spotify when you are riding in a car or relaxed on a couch, but you may not realise what it is doing to your data plan.

October 18, 2016