How to reduce Internet traffic consumption. Where does the traffic go? How to find a “leak” using the simplest means

Watching streaming video, listening to music online, surfing websites, monitoring Email And social networks– those things that owners of modern gadgets cannot do without. However, the extensive capabilities of your phone sometimes come to naught, because mobile operators continue to introduce traffic restrictions in order to siphon money from subscribers. For this reason, saving expensive megabytes is not only possible, but even necessary!

Disabling auto updates

If you use 3G or LTE technologies for network access and want to save on mobile Internet, the first thing you need to do is turn off automatic update programs on your smartphone!

Android operating system:

• go to Google Play;
• swipe to open the left side panel;
• click "Settings";
• In the “Auto-update applications” column, select the “Only via Wi-Fi network” option.

iOS operating system:

• click system settings;
• open the AppStore item;
• Disable the “Cellular Data” button by first going to the “Updates” section in the “Automatic Downloads” menu.

Note! Phones operating without an operating system do not need this procedure, because software updates on such devices occur only by flashing them or by purposefully downloading installation files from the Internet. This also applies to subscribers who download network data via EDGE/GPRS. In this case, online markets will independently block application upgrades due to a slow connection.

Traffic limitation

In order to fully control the use of network traffic by system and third-party programs, you will need to set the required limit in accordance with the tariff plan.

On an Android smartphone, you can limit data transfer as follows:

• go to “Settings”;
• then select the “Data Use” sub-item;
• Click “Set limit” and indicate the allowed number of megabytes.

In turn, in order to perform similar manipulations on the iPhone, you will have to download a third-party application from the AppStore. Free utility Traffic Monitor is just one of these.

Removing widgets

Currently, the Android OS and a number of less popular mobile platforms are burdened with the problem of power-hungry widgets. However, it can be quickly resolved by simply deleting the information block from the desktop.

Statistics show that one-time views of the content of interest in the browser require significantly less traffic compared to requests from a widget that requires an uninterrupted Internet connection.

Refusal to sync

Again, regardless of how you access the network - LTE, 3G or legacy EDGE, your smartphone regularly synchronizes available applications with remote servers. In order to avoid this and save money accordingly, you just need to disable it:

• Android: " System Settings– Accounts – Turn off synchronization/Wi-Fi only”;
• iOS: step No. 1 “System settings – iCloud Drive – turn off Cellular data”, step No. 2 “System settings – iTunes, AppStore – turn off Cellular data”.

Compressing traffic via browser

How is traffic compression done? Everything is very simple. When you view web pages with the optimized data reception function, they initially undergo software reduction on the remote servers of the company of the browser you are using, and only then appear on your display. The process itself takes hundredths of a second, so there can be no talk of any freezes.

Google Chrome

To enable compression in the Google Chrome browser, you need to follow the following algorithm:

“Go to Chrome – Settings – Data Saver – On.”

Opera

Multiplatform browsers Opera and Opera Mini save up to 75% of network data - an absolute record for this market segment software. Traffic compression is set in them by default, so even the average user should not have any problems using the above web browsers. However, be prepared for the fact that it is not possible to watch streaming videos in the mini version, with the only exception being videos on YouTube.

Safari

Unfortunately, the Safari browser does not have a function that allows you to compress downloaded content online. But thanks to the Reading List option, you can save the sites you need while in Wi-Fi range, and then view the downloaded content anywhere and at any time convenient for you without using a mobile Internet connection.

However, keep in mind that you won’t be able to download videos this way, just like music.

TextOnly

The underground utility TextOnly is designed to remove text from a web page, allowing you to save more than 90% of expensive 3G traffic. However, it’s hard to call this full-fledged Internet surfing.

Obviously, TextOnly will be especially useful for students or schoolchildren who need to quickly download a cheat sheet without being distracted by third-party information.

Music and video

Today we can state the fact that most modern smartphones have at their disposal not even one, but several gigabytes. random access memory. As for ROM storage, 128 gigabyte has not been the ultimate dream for a long time. Why not take advantage of this?

Using Wi-Fi, download your favorite music, videos and other multimedia materials directly in the browser tab, then minimize and expand it when you have the opportunity to watch or listen to the saved content. In this case, you do not have to pay your mobile operator for access to the network.

Satellite positioning

Applications that navigate without using the Internet are expensive, and programs such as Yandex. Maps and Google Maps at first glance they cannot do without network traffic, but that’s the point, at first glance.

Instructions for downloading maps to implement satellite positioning offline:

• Yandex: “Yandex. Maps – Menu – Download map – Select city – Select map type – Download”;
• Google: “Google Maps – Menu – Your Places – Download Map Area – Select Map – Download.”

So, despite the abundance of opportunities to save traffic, perhaps the most effective way remains - turning off data transfer. Therefore, do not be lazy to turn off the Internet at those moments when you do not need it. After all, to do this, you just need to click on the corresponding icon in the control panel of your smartphone or uncheck the necessary box in the network settings menu of an ordinary phone.

In your mobile phone settings you can find a section called “Data Transfer” or “Data Usage”. This section calculates the traffic that the user spends on his phone.

But many users do not know what traffic is and what to do with the traffic values ​​that are displayed in the mobile phone settings. If you also have not yet figured out this issue, then we suggest that you read our article.

Traffic is the amount of information that a mobile phone sends and receives from the Internet. Traffic can be measured in packets, bits, or bytes. But in phones, bytes and their derivatives (kilobytes, megabytes and gigabytes) are usually used as a unit of measurement. Traffic counting is necessary so that the user can control his Internet expenses.

When traffic is counted, it is usually divided into several types. This can be incoming, outgoing, internal or external traffic. But the phone usually doesn’t have such detailed statistics about traffic usage. Instead, the phone simply shows the total amount of data that has been used over a period of time. In some cases, separate counts may be kept for mobile Internet (traffic transmitted via cellular communications) and Wi-Fi.

If necessary, traffic counting can be organized on any device that is connected to the network or the Internet. For example, if you need to count traffic on a computer with a Windows operating system, then you can use the following programs: TMeter, NetWorx, BWMeter or DU Meter.

How to view traffic on Android

In order to see traffic consumption on an Android mobile phone, you need to open the “ Settings" and find the section there " Data transfer" or " data usage" For example, on pure Android 8.0, to do this you first need to go to the “ Network and Internet", and then open the subsection " Data transfer».

Here you can see how much traffic was used for last month and take advantage of features that allow you to manage your mobile Internet costs. There is also information about the amount of information that was transferred via Wi-Fi.

If the information that Android provides is not enough for you, then you can install special applications for traffic counting. For example, you can use applications or.

How to view traffic on iPhone

There is a similar section with traffic information on the iPhone. If you have an Apple mobile phone, then you need to open the settings application, go to the " cellular" and scroll the screen to the item " Statistics».

Here you can see the total amount of data from the Internet, as well as data that was received while roaming. In addition, the iPhone gives exact value traffic for each installed application. This allows you to quickly identify the applications that access the Internet most often and increase your mobile phone costs.

If the information provided by the iPhone is not enough for you, then you can install special applications for counting traffic. For example, you can use applications or.

How to save traffic on your phone

If your Mobile Internet expenses seem too high to you, then you can take a number of measures to reduce the amount of traffic consumed:

• Turn off Mobile Internet when you don't need it. Simple but very effective advice. If you are severely limited in mobile traffic, then mobile Internet should be turned off at every opportunity.
  
• Explore your phone settings. Explore the settings available on your phone. You'll likely find many features and functionality that will help you reduce your data usage and control your mobile Internet costs.
• Use a browser with a saving feature. Many browsers have built-in bandwidth saving tools. For example, you can use the Opera browser. This browser passes all traffic through its own servers, where it is pre-compressed.
• Try to always connect to Wi-Fi. While you are connected to wireless Wi-Fi networks you transmit traffic through this network, while the mobile Internet is actually disabled.
• Explore application settings. In the settings of many applications there is an item “Only via Wi-Fi”; after enabling it, the application will only use the Wi-Fi network.

Cellular networks provide faster and faster access to World Wide Web, and traffic consumption by mobile devices is only growing. However, mobile Internet is still not a cheap pleasure: many people still use tariffs with a traffic volume of 4 GB, and many people travel, and the Internet while traveling is much more expensive.
In this article, we will look at seven ways to save mobile traffic, from the simplest ones available in the Android settings, to means of compressing transmitted data, a complete ban on data transfer, and completely unobvious approaches, such as installing an ad blocker.

1. Standard Android tools

A few simple steps can help reduce the amount of data transferred.

1. Go to the Play Store settings and in the “Auto-update applications” option, select “Never”. Uncheck the box next to “Availability of updates”.
2. Go to Settings → Location and turn off Location History.
3. “Settings → Accounts”, “Menu” button, uncheck “Auto-sync data”. Internet usage will decrease noticeably, but mail and application notifications will stop coming.
4. Now go back to settings and go to “Data Transfer”. Click "Menu" and select "Limit background activity." As a result, the battery life of the smartphone will increase and Internet consumption will decrease, but notifications from instant messengers will no longer be received. Therefore more the right decision will go through the list, find not very important applications and limit their access to background data and/or data on cellular networks.
5. Open Google Settings and go to Security. I don’t recommend disabling “Check for security problems,” but unchecking the “Fight against malware" will be the right decision. At your own peril and risk, you can disable “Remote device search” and “Remote blocking”.
6. In the same “Google Settings”, go to “Data Management” (at the bottom of the list) and set “Application Data Update” to “Wi-Fi Only”.
7. Go back and open Search & Google Now. Go to the “Personal Data” section and turn off “Send statistics”. In the menu “Voice search → Offline speech recognition”, download the package for offline recognition and disable its auto-update or select “Only via Wi-Fi”. You can also go to the “Feed” section and turn it off. The Ribbon is the left screen of the Google Start or home screen of the Google app. Here you can disable “Screen Search” (Google Now on tap). Well, at the very bottom, turn off the “Recommended applications” item.
8. Don’t forget to turn off auto-checking and auto-downloading updates in “Settings → About phone.”

2. Get rid of advertising

Oddly enough, one way to reduce traffic consumption is to block ads. The indispensable AdAway program will help with this. It completely denies access to ad servers, blocking it at the system level. In other words, when an application accesses an address that is in its database, the request goes nowhere. By the way, activity tracking services (those that monitor user actions) are also blocked. The application requires root rights(and S-OFF on HTC).

When the blocking is enabled, problems may arise with the operation of some applications for making money from advertising (for example, NewApp, AdvertApp, CoinsUP - the latter did not show anything at all until recently). Other incompatibilities are also possible: six months ago, the Weather Underground application did not work due to AdAway. IN latest versions everything was fine (either Weather Underground changed something, or AdAway corrected the host addresses).

3. Saving using your browser

There are not so many browsers with a built-in data saving mode. I selected five and tested them by opening seven web pages.

Firefox

Used for benchmark testing. There is no saving mode here.

Consumption: 13.33 MB

Opera Mini

The most economical browser. Allows you to save up to 90% of traffic (on average up to 70–80%). The data is compressed so much that you can browse the Internet on Edge or even GPRS networks. It all works by using its own engine, which represents web pages not as text, but as binary code. And Opera servers are responsible for converting pages into this code. Plus a built-in ad blocker, video and image compression.

There is also a super-saving mode, which includes aggressive compression methods, which in some cases break pages. For example, the Eldorado store website did not open at all in this mode, YouTube opened in the WAP version, the map could not be viewed on the OpenStreetMap website, and the article from xakep.ru opened with distortions. With the super economy mode turned off, these problems disappear.

Consumption: 12 MB

Opera

It differs from the Mini version in a different interface and the absence of a super saving mode. But it works faster.

Consumption: 12.15 MB

Chrome

This browser also has a data saver, but no ad blocker. According to the developers, savings average 20–40% depending on the content. But in practice, in almost a month I saved as much as 4%.

To activate, you need to go to settings and enable the “Traffic saving” item. There are no settings, statistics on saved megabytes can only be assessed by traffic, there are no statistics on sites, there is no ad blocker and support for extensions (for installing the blocker).

The saving mode itself works completely unnoticed. The quality of the pictures does not suffer, and the page loading speed remains almost unchanged. That is, Chrome was one of the most fast browsers, so it remained. And he turned out to be the most gluttonous.

Consumption: 15.5 MB

Puffin

Desktop versions of YouTube and Play Store sites opened instead of mobile ones. But the savings are obvious.

Consumption: 5 MB

4. Lazy reading services

Pocket lets you save articles to read “for later.” And it has an interesting property that will help save traffic. When adding an article (no matter from a PC or mobile device), if there is a Wi-Fi connection, it is immediately downloaded to the device and becomes available for reading offline. Only the text and images from the article are saved, and all other garbage is deleted, and it becomes possible to change the font size and background.

Pocket has a competitor - Instapaper. In terms of functionality and quality of work, it is almost identical.

5. Auto-sync files over Wi-Fi

If you often use Dropbox and other services to access your files from your smartphone, pay attention to
FolderSync. It can synchronize selected folders with a smartphone immediately when files are changed and only when connected to Wi-Fi. So you never have to download files to your smartphone using mobile network, if you forgot to do this while at home.

6. Completely disconnect applications from the Internet

AFWall+ allows you to disconnect selected applications from the Internet. You can unlink both installed applications and system services, such as ADB. Unlike the built-in restrictor in Android, AFWall blocks access not only in the background, but also in the active mode. You can also use it to give Internet access to only one application in the system. This feature will certainly appeal to users who pay per megabyte (hello, roaming!).

In CyanogenMod 13, you can restrict network access through “Settings → Privacy → Protected Mode.” This feature has not yet been added to CM 14.1.

AFWall+: A True Firewall for Android

7. Data compressors

The market has several very unique applications. They create a VPN tunnel, compressing traffic along the way. Two striking examples: Opera Max and Onavo Extend. Their developers promise up to 50% savings. But we won’t take their word for it and will conduct our own test.

So, the amount of transmitted traffic without savers:

• Websites: 14.62 MB (five pieces)
• YouTube 173 MB (1080p video)

The changes became noticeable immediately: the time it took to open sites increased due to some pause after clicking on a link. And the pages themselves began to load a little longer. The video on YouTube (more precisely, the advertisement before it) took a very long time to load. Moreover, the download speed was almost zero. But what’s most interesting is that Opera Max itself consumed 12.5 MB.

• Websites: 11.59 MB
• YouTube 3 MB (video did not start)

Onavo Extend

The situation here is almost the same. Everything became slower, although not as much as in the case of Opera. And the video started without problems in 1080p. Total:

• Websites: 14.73 MB
• YouTube 171 MB

We track and control internet consumption

The standard traffic manager in Android (Settings → Data transfer) is very convenient and quite functional. For most users who use tariffs with a monthly Internet limit, this will be enough. However, I recommend that others use the analogue from the Play Store. Yes, and third-party applications show much more useful information. - Xposed module showing data transfer speed. It can be perfectly customized and consumes virtually no battery power.

Are unlimited tariffs so unlimited?

The line of postpaid tariffs “Everything” from Beeline, “Unlimited Black” from Tele2, “Smart Unlimited” from MTS and some other tariffs, according to the operator, offer a full unlimited Internet on a smartphone. Is it possible to blindly believe these loud promises? Is everything really so rosy and the Internet will soon become completely free?

It's actually not that simple. Everyone knows about restrictions on torrents and using a smartphone as an access point, and in addition, often after reaching a certain amount of data received, the speed is limited.

As a study of many forums has shown, almost all operators with so-called unlimited speeds reduce the speed after reaching 30 GB in 3G networks (up to 512 Kbps), and in 4G it’s different for everyone. However, people downloaded 700 GB per month (you have to try...) from some companies without cutting the speed.

The author on Tele2 used about 170 GB of 4G Internet last month and there were no restrictions. And after reaching the 100 GB threshold, almost any operator will probably begin to analyze your traffic and apply restriction methods if you use the Internet too intensively. Long questions and pestering of the operator actually confirmed this: “When a subscriber creates a large load on the network, the speed may be limited until the day the statistics on the server are reset.” But they seem to have an honest unlimited limit.

Conclusion

As you have already seen, the most effective way save traffic - buy a more expensive tariff. And all super compressors not only degrade the quality and make the Internet more sluggish, but they also don’t always save as much as possible. But if there is no way out, then they will help you save something.

Last updated by at February 9, 2017.

Cell phones are increasingly using mobile traffic. Read on and we'll show you how to manage your data.

Just a few years ago, it was almost unheard of to be able to transfer several GB of mobile data. Now apps weigh more (it's not uncommon for apps and their updates to be over 100 MB in size), and streaming music and video is becoming more popular and with all this, you can easily use up your data limit in a matter of days.

An hour of watching a video on YouTube and you no longer have several gigabytes of traffic. And if you watch videos in HD format, then the traffic flows like water... Do you use streaming music services such as Google Play Music or Spotify? You can spend about 120 MB per hour. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but imagine using these services every day for an hour, in a week you already get 840 MB. An hour a day for a month and you will already have spent about 3.2 GB. If you are using tariff plan with a 5 GB traffic package included, then in a month you will spend 65% of the limit only on music.

Of course, you can buy traffic with extra money, but who wants to pay? Before you pay for a more expensive plan or additional data package, we offer a few tricks to reduce your data transfer (and control).

How to view the amount of data being transferred

First of all, you need to check how much data is being transferred. If you don’t know how much traffic you use, it will be unclear how you need to change your data consumption structure.

The easiest way to check your data usage is through your cellular provider's web portal. If you never use up your limit, it might be worth upgrading to a cheaper plan. If you never fit into your allotted traffic package, then you should definitely read the article further.

You can also view data consumption statistics on Android device. Go to Settings -> Data Transfer. You will see a screen something like this:

If you scroll down, you will see the mobile data usage of the apps, as seen in the second screenshot above. It's important to note that these graphs only show data sent over a cellular data connection, not over a Wi-Fi connection. You can always “hang” on YouTube while connected to Wi-Fi, but this will not appear in the statistics. If you want to see statistics on data usage via Wi-Fi, then press the menu button and select “Show Wi-Fi traffic”.

It's worth noting that you will need to enter your billing cycle here in order to accurately calculate your data usage. Since your data will be reset on the first day of the new cycle, it will not matter what you used the month before, so the result will not be distorted.

In addition to the graphs, you can set a traffic limit at which a warning will be shown to you, or set a limit by adjusting the slider on the graph at which transmission mobile traffic will be disabled. Don't forget to enable the "Mobile traffic limit" option.

Once the limit is reached, mobile traffic will not be transmitted until you turn it on again.

How to control your data usage

There are two types of traffic consumed: when the user is using the application and knows that it is running over the Internet, and data usage in the background. When watching a video or downloading a new album, you consume a traffic package if you use mobile transmission data, not Wi-Fi Internet. Obviously, in order to use less data you need to stop streaming content and downloading files.

A less obvious data transfer is "background transfer" which uses a large number of traffic. Checking new messages in the VKontakte application client or checking new letters in email and other background processes constantly consume traffic. Let's figure out how to reduce background data consumption.

First, find out which applications are consuming data

First, let's figure out which apps actually use a lot of bandwidth. Go to Settings -> Data Transfer and see the apps using data. Click on one to see more information. Here we see normal data transfer and work in the background:

Now that you know which applications use the most data, you know what to optimize.

Using data saving in Android Nougat

Android 7.0 Nougat has a new feature with the self-explanatory name “Traffic Saving”. It allows you to limit the consumption of background traffic and provides the ability to conduct " White list» applications that are allowed to use data in the background.

To get started, pull down the notification panel and tap the gear icon to go to the settings menu.

In chapter " Wireless network» Click on the item “Data transfer”.

Under the traffic used, you will find the “Traffic Saving” option. This is where the fun begins.

The first thing to do is turn on the switch that is located at the top right. The new icon will appear in the status bar, as well as to the left of the other data icons (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, cellular etc.).

Remember that once you enable this, background data access will be restricted for all applications. To change this, click on "Unlimited data access."

After this a list of all installed applications on your phone. Using the slider next to applications, you can add them to the white list, allowing background data transfer.

It is worth keeping in mind that this only applies to mobile traffic and will not affect the Wi-Fi connection in any way.

Limit background data transfer

If you don't have Android Nougat, then you have other options.

Open an app that uses a lot of bandwidth. Look at the settings of this application, it may be worth reducing the number of notifications (for example, VKontakte) or disabling them completely. This will have a great impact not only on the traffic consumed, but also on battery drain.

True, not every application has such settings. There is another way...

Go to Settings -> Data transfer and click on the application. Turn on the "Limit background activity" switch.

Disable all background data transfer

If that's not enough, you can also turn off all background data with a single switch - this will reduce data usage in most cases, but it can also be inconvenient. From the data transfer item, click on the menu and select “Limit background. mode". This will turn off background data for all applications.

Disable background app updates

Google understands how valuable mobile data is, so app updates will only happen automatically when you're on Wi-Fi by default. To check this, open the Google Play Store. Go to the settings and make sure that “Only via Wi-Fi” is selected in the “Auto-update applications” item.

Buy frequently used apps (to remove ads)

Applications are often offered in free version with advertising and paid version. The thing is, not only are ads annoying, but they also use up traffic. Therefore, if you want to reduce your traffic consumption, you can buy a paid version of a frequently used application.

Now mobile Internet is relatively inexpensive, but this is not a reason to throw it away left and right. Full unlimited service still costs a pretty penny, and many operators, by the way, are already giving up such luxury.

Most of the available tariffs are conditionally unlimited, that is, they provide a certain and rather limited amount of traffic per day or month. If you exceed the limit, the speed will drop to the level of a dial-up modem and it will become impossible to use the Internet.

Perhaps you do not fit into the volume provided under the tariff or are dangerously close to the limit. Perhaps you want to save some traffic reserve so that you can use it when urgently needed. In any case, it is useful to be able to save megabytes, and now we will tell you how to do this.

Get rid of pest apps

Increased traffic consumption is not always related to your appetite. Often the unjustified gluttony of individual applications is to blame. Such scoundrels sit in the background and constantly transmit and send something. You can find them using a standard tool that is built into any current version of Android.

1. Go to Android settings.
2. Select Data Transfer.
3. Select Mobile Data Transfer.

Here you will see a general graph of mobile traffic consumption, and below it - a rating of the most voracious residents of the system.

To curb the ardor of an individual application, tap on it and turn off the background mode. After this, the sly one will not be able to receive and send data in the background.

The problem is that in order to identify scoundrels, you need to understand what the normal Internet consumption is for a particular application. Obviously, the browser, music and video streaming services, as well as maps are capable of eating hundreds of megabytes, but offline-oriented and working with a small amount of data have nothing on this list.

Set up a warning and traffic limit

1. Go to Android settings.
2. Select Data Transfer.
3. Select "Payment Cycle".

The billing cycle is the date when the subscription fee is charged. Usually a new Internet package is given on the same day. Specify it so that the system knows the date the traffic counter was reset.

1. Enable "Alert Settings".
2. Select Alerts.
3. Specify the amount of traffic upon reaching which the system will notify you about it.

If you want to strictly limit traffic consumption, enable “Set traffic limit” and specify the value, upon reaching which the system will turn off the mobile Internet.

Disable app updates via mobile network

1. Go to store settings Google applications Play.
2. Select Auto-update apps.
3. Select the "Wi-Fi Only" option.

Enable data saving in Android

1. Go to Android settings.
2. Select Data Transfer.
3. Select Data Saver.

After enabling traffic saving mode, the system will prohibit background data traffic for most applications, which will significantly reduce overall traffic consumption. To allow data sharing in the background for individual applications in economy mode, tap on the appropriate item.

Save data with Opera Max

In fact, the Opera Max application does the same thing as the built-in Android mode saving traffic, that is, it blocks background data, but at the same time it looks a little nicer and more visual.

Enable data saving in individual applications

Any normal developer, if his application works with potentially large amounts of data, can optimize traffic consumption using settings. For example, almost all Google tools can save precious megabytes of mobile Internet.

Google Chrome

1. Go to settings Google Chrome.
2. Select Data Saver.

In addition to Google Chrome, a traffic saving mode is provided in the Opera browser.

YouTube

1. Go to YouTube settings.
2. Select General.
3. Turn on the “Traffic Saving” mode.

Google Maps

1. Go to Google Maps settings.
2. Turn on “Wi-Fi only” and follow the “Your offline maps” link.

Offline maps allow you to save hundreds of megabytes of traffic. Be sure to download the area where you live and don’t forget to add areas you plan to visit in the near future.

1. Click Other Area.
2. Use pan and zoom gestures to select the area to download and click "Download".
3. Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the Downloaded Areas menu.
4. Select "Download Settings" and select "Wi-Fi Only".

Google Press

1. Go to Google Press settings.
2. Select Data Saver Mode and select On.
3. In the "Download" section, turn on the "Wi-Fi only" mode.

Google Photos

1. Go to Google Photos settings.
2. Find the “Use mobile internet” section and disable the option for photos and videos.

Google Music

1. Go to your Google Music settings.
2. In the Playback section, lower the quality when streaming over a mobile network.
3. In the “Downloading” section, allow downloading music only over Wi-Fi.

If necessary, allow music playback only over Wi-Fi.

Google Music can save albums for offline listening. You can download music to your device if you have Wi-Fi and play it without an Internet connection.

1. Go to the artist's album list.
2. Click on the vertical ellipsis icon in the lower right corner of the album and select “Download” from the menu that appears.

Google Movies

1. Go to Google Movies settings.
2. Under Mobile Network Streaming, turn on Show Warning and Limit Quality.
3. In the Downloads section, select Network and select Wi-Fi only.

Monitor your carrier's rates and options

Often a person overpays for communications simply because he is on an outdated tariff. Find out what's new with your operator. It's possible that you can get more internet for less money.