Increasingly sophisticated phones and data-hungry applications make it easier than ever to blow through your cellphone plan's data cap…and incur nasty overage charges. Read on as we show you how to manage your data use.
This will help immensely in the steps below. If you know which apps are using the most data, you know which apps to focus on fixing.
Android 7.0 Nougat introduced a much more granular way to take the reins on your mobile data with a new feature called Data Saver.
Basically, this allows you to limit background data used by apps, but whitelist anything that want to have unrestricted access. This means background data is disabled for every app by default, then you can pick and choose where to grant unlimited access.
To get started, pull down the notification shade and tap the cog icon to jump into the Settings menu.
Under the "Wireless & Networks" section, tap the "Data usage" entry.
Just beneath the Cellular Usage section you'll find the "Data Saver" option. This is where the fun starts.
The first thing you'll need to do toggle this bad boy on using the little slider at the top. A new icon will show up in the status bar as well—to the left of the other data icons (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Cellular, etc.).
Keep in mind that once you turn this on, background data access will be restricted for all apps. To change that, tap the "Unrestricted data access" box.
And that's all there is to it. It's worth keeping in mind that this only applies to mobile data—all apps will remain unrestricted while on Wi-Fi.
If you don't have Android Nougat, you have a few other options.
Google recently released a new app called Datally designed to track data usage, block it on an app-by-app basis, and even help you find free public Wi-Fi.
When you first open the app, it'll ask you for a bunch of permissions, ask you to allow usage access, and ask if you want to send Google your app data and SMS's to improve Datally. You'll need to grant the first two permissions, but you can skip the third if you want.
Datally's home screen shows you how much mobile data you've used today, and which apps are using the most. You can tap "Find Wi-Fi" to find free Wi-Fi networks near you, which is pretty handy.
Once you allow that, you'll see a persistent notification showing that Datally's Data Saver is on, and it's blocking background traffic for most of your apps.
Note that, due to the way Datally works, you won't be able to use other apps with Accessibility Services or VPNs while using Datally in this way.
You can also choose which apps to block and unblock from Datally's "Manage Data" page.
Overall, Datally is a slightly more advanced version of Nougat's Data Saver in the form of a separate app, which is good if you want to keep a constant eye on how much data certain apps are using. For most people, Nougat's built-in settings are probably fine, but Datally is another good option (especially if your phone doesn't have Nougat).
If you'd rather not use another app to perform these tasks, you can do a lot of manual settings tweaking yourself to reduce data.
To start, go back to your home screen and open one of the apps that's using too much data. See if it has any settings designed to restrict data usage. Rather than use Android to restrict Facebook's data use, for example, you can jump into the Facebook app and turn down the frequency of push notifications or turn them off altogether. Not only does turning off notifications and constant polling cut down on your data use but it's great for extending your battery life.