Many of the apps we use on our phones need a connection, but there are actions you can take to avoid consuming too much data
Nowadays smartphones need an Internet connection to do almost everything. Most of the apps we install on our mobile device, in fact, can’t work without the Net. And there are also apps that consume our mobile data without warning us.
So we need to pay special attention to some specific apps to avoid running out of our monthly data plan prematurely. Social networks are obviously real Giga leeches, given the numerous multimedia contents they contain. Take Twitter for example. The microblogging platform by default starts GIFs and videos. This feature consumes our monthly subscription data exponentially. Fortunately, solving this problem is pretty easy. First we have to click on our profile photo that is located in the upper left corner.
This will open the menu and we have to go to the Settings and Privacy section. We scroll down the menu to the Data Usage item and here, under the video heading, we need to go to Video Playback Authorization. In the pop-up menu we select Wi-Fi only or Never.
Google Photos
Google Photos is definitely a useful service, which also allows you to back up your photos and videos. Without the right settings, however, the Google service can prove to be a real problem for the “gigs” of our phone subscription. To prevent the app from downloading images even with the data connection active we have to change the default functions of the service. To do this, go to the menu and select Settings. Then look for the Backup and Sync section and in the page that opens make sure that backup is disabled with the data connection active.
For Instagram the same precautions already mentioned for Twitter apply. The app by default allows us to watch videos automatically even with the data connection active. This is a convenient solution but one that consumes a lot of data. To prevent this from happening we need to go to Settings (the icon with three vertical dots) and look for the Mobile Data Usage section. In the page that opens we’ll see the check under the heading Standard, to consume less “giga” instead we’ll have to select the option ” Use less data”.
For Facebook, as you may have guessed, the speech already made for Twitter and Instagram applies. To disable videos automatically on the app of the famous social media we have to go to Settings. To find them we have to press on the icon with three vertical lines and then scroll through the menu until App Settings. Here in the page that opens we have to uncheck the item “Videos in the News section start with audio”. Done this we go then, always on the same page, to the section Auto Play. Here we select only with Wi-Fi, or Never play videos automatically.
Youtube
The problem with YouTube is mainly given by the quality of video playback. Obviously, the higher the resolution, the more data we consume. To avoid excessive consumption we can go to settings (the three vertical dots in the upper right corner) and select General. At this point we put the check under the item Limit mobile data usage (in practice we will see HD videos only with Wi-FI). We can also consider disabling automatic playback. On YouTube this function is used to start a recommended video after the movie we have chosen has finished.