5 ways your smartphone chews through data
There’s nothing worse than receiving a text that you’ve used all your data allowance on your phone for the month when there’s still another fortnight to go till it rolls over. While there are a plethora of reasons why you may be using all your data quickly, a number of culprits appear on the “data chewers” list regularly. Here are five of the worst.
1. Social media
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can work though up to 90MB of data in an hour if you’re browsing over a cellular network. The solution? Curb your social media scrolling unless you’re hooked up to a wifi connection.
2. Watching video content
If you’re watching video content regularly while not connected to wifi, you’ve identified your biggest data drain. Video streaming services use about 1GB of data per hour which can make a significant dent. Your best to download your favourite shows or wait till you’re connected to wifi.
3. Music streaming
While not as detrimental as video, streaming music on your smartphone can still chew through data with most estimates finding it uses around 50MB per hour.
4. Maps
A surprising edition to the list, using a mobile mapping service can churn through your data very quickly. It’s one of the reasons many people on holidays find their data quickly diminishing. While some maps might have a cached version, travelling new routes means that the app needs to continuously load info which can use up to 1MB a minute. The solution? Go back to basics with an actual physical map or use your phone sparingly.
5. Browsing the internet
While some sites won’t use a huge amount of data, others that are packed with images/video/music/sound can use up to 20MB per hour. Stick with text-based sites when and where you can.
Do you find yourself running out of data before the month ends? What is the biggest culprit in your household?
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