Your cell phone data volume isn't enough at all? You don't necessarily have to spend a lot of money! We give you tips on how you can save your mobile data volume while on the go.
Saving mobile data volume: The most important things in brief
Stream some music, look at a few pictures of friends, send a few text and voice messages back and forth - and before the month is over, your internet speed will be throttled. Sound familiar? You can save a bit of mobile data volume with the following tips. Because your cell phone uses up a lot of things without you necessarily noticing it. Cloud services in particular can suck up a lot of volume if you don't prohibit the use of the mobile network.
Limit background updates for apps
By default, apps always want to be up to date. For example, the weather app can always show you the current temperature. To do this, it needs data, which will put a strain on your volume when you're on the go if you don't use WiFi. However, you can set most apps in your phone's settings not to allow them to use cellular data when you are not actively using them. On Android, you go to the settings and open the Apps menu item, tap on the respective app and then on “Mobile data connection” or “Data usage”. At Apple, open the iPhone settings and then go to “Mobile Network”. All apps are listed there and you can prohibit data usage for each one.
Limit background updates in general
On Android, you also have the option of blocking all apps from updating via the mobile network in one fell swoop. To do this, go to the settings of your cell phone and open the “Data usage” item. Depending on the Android version and cell phone manufacturer, it can also be in the menu item “Network & Internet” or “Connections” or something like that. Under “Data Usage” there is “Data Saving” or “Data Saving Mode”. You can activate this using the slider. If there are apps that you absolutely want to keep up to date, always and everywhere, you can share them individually. This can be useful for Messenger, for example, if you want to see new messages immediately.
With Apple, open your iPhone Settings, tap “General” and “Background Refresh”. Here you can make a setting for all apps and exclude individual apps.
Attention, podcasts on Apple
In the iPhone settings there is also the “Podcasts” item. They could also update in the background if you don't turn that off.
Turn off mobile data completely
The first two tips have the advantage that you can still actively use every app on the mobile network. As the name suggests, the only thing that is prevented is data exchange in the background, i.e. while you are not using the apps. Of course, there is also a radical method: turn off mobile phone data completely. To do this, tap on “Mobile network” (or similar) in the settings of your Android cell phone. At Apple, open the iPhone settings and tap “Mobile Network”. Then the apps can neither update themselves in the background nor send or receive data if you want to use them on the go without WiFi.
Be careful abroad!
If you use your cell phone abroad (this is called “roaming”), additional costs may apply. It gets particularly expensive on cruise ships or airplanes, for example. If you are not sure that you can surf for free abroad, turn off mobile data in roaming. We describe how you do this in the article about roaming and the two videos at the bottom of this page .
Disable automatic updates
In the app store of your operating system, you can set that apps installed from there are only allowed to receive updates when you are on WiFi. To do this in the Play Store (Android), tap on your profile picture in the top right, then on “Settings”, then on “Network settings” and then on “Automatically update app”. With Apple, you can tap “iTunes & Appstores” in your iPhone’s settings and turn off “Use mobile data” there.
Use offline functions
A navigation app is very practical when you're on the move, but of course it also sucks up data. However, many offer the option of downloading maps via WLAN and then using them offline on the go. They take up some space on your cell phone memory - depending on the size of the section, for example with Google Maps it is usually less than 100 megabytes.
Compress data
Many browsers can load websites with less data because they compress them. These are, for example, Google Chrome or Opera. For example, with other browsers, such as Firefox, you can set images not to load immediately. Only if you really want to see them can you have them reloaded. Such an image can be up to 6 megabytes in size.
Many websites also provide special versions for mobile devices that transmit less data. If you are asked when visiting a site whether you want to open the mobile version, agree.
Use hotspots
Public WLANs are of course also great for saving mobile data when you're on the move. But be careful: most of them are unprotected and your data is transferred unencrypted. Unless you use a VPN tunnel. VPN stands for “virtual private network” or in German: “virtual private network”. Stiftung Warentest, among others, explains more about it and directly evaluates various providers.
Without a VPN, you should not send passwords or private information on public WiFi. Important things like online banking should also be taboo!
Source: Checked4you
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