Smartphone applications are increasingly advanced, are increasingly large, update frequently and often work in the background by continuously downloading data. In the end, those data plans signed with mobile internet providers such as TIM, Vodafone Tre and Wind, often limited to 3, 2 or even worse a single GB of data usage per month, are increasingly insufficient with the serious risk of ending it before time.
Those who keep the phone always connected to the internet, those who love to send photos with friends, those who listen to streaming music, those who view videos on Youtube and use Facebook and Instagram frequently, must therefore be careful not to exceed the internet traffic threshold set by the plan subscription.
Speaking of Android smartphones, in order not to stop using the internet, it is therefore necessary to change some settings and use some applications with the aim of minimizing the possibility of exhausting internet data on a cellular network .
Some of these recommendations are general, others are to be taken seriously when the traffic threshold approaches, when the GB available during the month, week or day are about to run out.
1) Monitor data usage
In Android, in the general settings, under Data Use, you can check the daily consumption of internet traffic with a data connection and also know which apps are consuming the most.
Tapping on an app will open a details screen with the option to limit background traffic on the cellular network.
In this section you can also set a warning of exceeding the threshold and set a limit, after which it will no longer be possible to connect to the internet.
READ ALSO: 5 apps to control data consumption on Android phones
2) Configure apps not to use the data network
Many applications such as Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Photos and others that use the internet to upload data, have an option in the settings to exclude the internet connection on consumption.
Even Facebook has, in the application settings, the ability to disable automatic playback of Facebook videos.
Whatsapp allows you to activate, in the call settings, the reduced data consumption during phone calls and to disable the automatic download of photos and videos received if you use the cellular network.
In Twitter, tap the dotted icon and select Settings -> General settings to disable image previews.
The same thing can be done in Gmail, to disable the automatic download of photos and images.
3) Offline maps
Using apps like Google Maps on the go consumes a lot of traffic.
If from home, using a wifi connection, you download the maps of the surrounding area or the one where you plan to go, you will save a lot of internet traffic that would otherwise be used by the data connection while we are on the street.
In another article, the guide to use Google Maps offline without internet connection.
4) Use Chrome with option to reduce data on cellular network
We have already talked about this important option to reduce data consumption on Chrome.
5) Disable automatic updates of apps on data connection
Open the app of the Play Store, go to settings (from the left menu), press on automatic app update and make sure it is set to " only via Wifi ".
6) Google Datally
In case you have a very limited cellular network plan, maybe even with daily thresholds (like Super Internet di Tre) or when you arrive near the end of the month and the available traffic is running out, it is worth activating Datally .
It is a secure VPN, from the same that develop the Opera browser, which once installed and activated filters the traffic to compress it to the maximum and decrease the consumption of the cellular network.
The app works in the background and works with everything, including Youtube videos and the web browser.
Datally does not work only for file downloads and connection to https web pages.
7) Attention to the hotspot function
If you want to use your cell phone as a modem to connect your computer to the internet, you need to be really careful because a PC could download heavy updates and load much more data from websites than the cell phone would.
In another article it is written how to navigate using as little bandwidth and data traffic as possible on PC
8) Disable background data
If we have almost finished the available traffic, it is better to disable the synchronization of data in the background permanently (at least until you decide to reactivate it) by going to Settings -> Data usage, by touching the menu button.
The option is called Limit background data and prevents apps from downloading data from the internet in the background.
The consequence is that you will no longer receive messages on Whatsapp and notifications from apps such as Facebook and Gmail.
You can also go to Settings -> Accounts and disable synchronization for one of the Google services or a specific account, without limiting all the apps.
