Since the revolution of Smartphones, mobile data is all we care about. As without Internet, smartphone loses almost half its charm, isn’t it? And yes, not everyone is as lucky to use unlimited data plans or Wi-Fi all day long. Some of us even have limited data plans, because of which we’ve to monitor each and every move while using Internet on our device. If you’re wondering how to limit data usage on Android, you’ve come to the right place!
Majority of apps on your device require Internet connectivity, hence mobile data is one of the most essential fuel a smartphone needs. Especially, when you’re scrolling Facebook’s news feed or using any online music streaming app, we often get a little off track and exhaust almost entire data plan. There are a bunch of apps available which can monitor and track data usage on your device. But that still won’t limit certain apps from using mobile data in background.
To overcome this struggle, here are 5 most useful ways how you can limit apps from consuming mobile data on your Android device.
Set up Alerts and Limits
This is the first thing you can do to limit certain apps from sulking down your entire data plan at once. So, what you can do is set up a certain data limit, so that as soon it hits a threshold value you’ll be instantly notified. Head on to Settings > Network & Internet > Data usage > Mobile data usage > Settings. You’ll probably find the data limit feature here which you can use to set an alert. Simply enter a value in megabytes or gigabytes, so as and when that value will be crossed you can restrict your data usage on your device.
Restrict Background Data for Certain Apps
There are a lot of apps which constantly consume mobile data in background without your knowledge. What we recommend is that you should limit mobile data for individual apps to have a better control over data plan. Go to Network & Internet > Data usage > Mobile data usage. Here you’ll see a list of all the installed apps on your device, stop the background refresh for apps or turn off mobile data option. Simply toggle the “Restrict app background data” option for all the apps for which you want to limit the data consumption.
Update Apps Over Wi-Fi
This is one of the most effective ways to limit certain apps use mobile data of your device. There are a lot of times when apps automatically update without your knowledge. Here’s how you can manage this setting on your device. Head on to Settings>>Auto-update apps. And now make sure that you select “Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only.” In this way your mobile data will be preserved, and app will only be updated when your smartphone is connected to a Wi-Fi network.
Customize Account Sync Settings
In most cases, account settings are set as “Auto” on almost every Android device. A lot of apps like Gmail, Facebook and so on use sync services in background which consumes a lot of mobile data in process. To adjust your sync setting open the go to Settings>>Accounts. Here you can disable the options which you don’t require and adjust the account sync settings as per your preference.
Turn OFF Mobile Data
When nothing goes right, go left—they say! Even after restricting certain apps mobile data consumption, if your data plan is still being exhausted at a high rate then the last resort is to switch to Wi-Fi network and turn off mobile data completely on your Android phone. To do this, go to Settings > Network & Internet > Data usage and tap Mobile data. Hope this will answer your question on how to limit data usage on Android.
Here were the 5 most effective ways how you can limit certain apps from consuming surpass amount of mobile data on your Android device. By making these few tweaks in settings, you can save a considerable number of megabytes or gigabytes of your data plan.
Good luck!