This guide will give you tips on how to manage your mobile data and ensure you’re not always running out of internet when you need it most.
What do I need to follow this guide?
A mobile device connected to the internet.
What is Data & How do I manage it?
Your mobile service provider will usually give you a certain amount of ‘mobile data’ for each new bill cycle or every time you recharge. Depending on your provider and the credit amount purchased you might get between 1GB and 10GB’s of mobile data per month.
Everything from viewing and sending an email, browsing news websites, acessing social media, downloading apps and streaming movies and music will contribute to using your mobile data.
Unfortunately 2GB of data won’t give you much in the way of downloading apps and streaming movies and music, but that doesn’t mean you can’t ever do it. Here are some tips on how to stretch your mobile internet and make the most of free wifi and other data saving methods.
Data Management 101
- Watch out for wifi hotspots: Save all of your data eating activities for when you are connected to a wifi network, which can be found in schools, workplaces, libraries, community centres and even some public spaces, cafes and restaurants, like McDonalds. Keep the following internet activities to wifi connections only: Downloading apps, games, music and podcasts. And music and video streaming such as Youtube, Netflix, Stan, Presto, Spotify etc.
- Set email attachments to manual download: your email settings should be set to ‘manual downlod’ as this will ensure any large files sent to you are not automatically download when you open the email. You can update this via your email settings.
- Disable push notification: Most applications are set to enable ‘push notifications,’ which notify you of any changes or updates within the application. For example, a red circle with a number will appear on your Facebook app if you have had some account activity. To save apps from constanlty updating and using data, you can turn off ‘push notification’ via the individual app settings.
- Turn off location data: ‘Location data’ drains data and is often running in apps when it’s not always necessary. This beomes a data munching problem if you accidentally leave the app open without shutting it down completely.
- Shut down apps: Simply tapping out of an application does not mean you have closed the app and it’s likely still running in the backgroud, using valuable data bit by bit. It’s always a good idea to shut down an application completely when you’re done to ensure no data is being wasted.
Other things to think about
Try to be mindful of which applications use the most data. This information is available online but can also be found with the help of ‘data management’ apps. Onavo Extend is an application available for Apple and Android phones which helps minimise data by restricting image and video downloads and also measures application data usage so that you can see first hand which application is eating up most of your data. That way you can make better choices on how to manage your data and keep you online for longer.
Summary
Good data management relies on being midful of which applications you are using, how often you are using them and when you are using them. Tweaking the way you use your mobile data can make a big difference in how long that data will last.