It’s true your usage rate and some settings on your device may contribute to data consumption. However, there are little things which are often overlooked but contribute to eating up our mobile data.
In this article, we’ll get to know some of these things and how to avoid them.
Some of them are;
- Being in too many WhatsApp groups/having too many WhatsApp contacts.
- Not disabling background data of apps.
- Music and video streaming.
- Not disabling Autoplay for apps
- Not getting sufficient data subscription.
- Poor network or Internet reception.
Being in too many WhatsApp groups/having too many WhatsApp contacts:
When you visit your WhatsApp application, mobile data is required to fetch information from your contacts. Information like messages, statuses, voice notes and other media. While you may choose not to download some media or not to view most WhatsApp statuses with the intent of saving data, you cannot prevent WhatsApp from receiving information from your contacts or groups.With too many contacts, many messages, statuses, and media will be received. Same thing happens if you belong to too many WhatsApp groups. This contributes to data consumption.
REMEDY:
Delete irrelevant WhatsApp contacts.
Exit groups where you’re no longer active in.
Disable Auto download of WhatsApp media.
Not disabling background data of apps we don’t need to work in the background. Mobile data consumed by an app when not in active use is referred to as background data consumed. Apps refresh themselves in the background when not in use thereby consuming data. Although you might need background data for some apps, for some others, you can do without it.
REMEDY
Disable background data of apps you don’t need to work in the background. Music and video streaming.We might want to enjoy our favorite music/videos online, but streaming these things use a considerable amount of data. This is because streaming apps use a lot of bandwidth to stream videos or music.
REMEDY
You can download music or video for offline use. This consumes less data.Not disabling Autoplay for apps.Watching or streaming videos online significantly contributes to data consumption. Some apps auto play videos when you scroll through feeds or time lines and this consumes data. An example is Facebook, Instagram, playstore…
REMEDY
Disable autoplay for apps.Not getting sufficient data subscription.You may be surprised this is in the list. When you get a data subscription lower than your Internet needs, you tend to use it up faster. Imagine visiting a web page that is 19mb in size and you have only 10mb left. The web page will load halfway using up the 10mb data you have and still not give you complete information. Now when you eventually top up your mobile data, you’ll be required to start afresh and this will still use up data again. Same thing applies when downloading media when you have Insufficient mobile data.Moreso, instead of buying 500mb (0.5gb) of data, it is advisable to get 1024mb (1.0gb) data. This is because when you split data subscriptions, vendors or service providers may not give you exactly half.
REMEDY
Get mobile data sufficient for your Internet needs.
Poor network or Internet reception.
Another surprising point. Lol. When there’s poor network or poor Internet reception, you may end up trying to access the Internet over and over again. You may also try to download the same media or information from the Internet several times. This will end up consuming more data than necessary. Most times up to two or three times the usual amount.
REMEDY
When you notice poor network, wait for some time before trying to access the Internet. Alternatively, you can reboot your phone or enable and disable flight mode.