A program for monitoring traffic on a phone. How to save Internet traffic on Android. A few simple solutions

Mobile data usage has increased dramatically in recent years. Applications have become more hungry and are constantly pushing new versions to update. Previously, web surfing was used primarily for text. Now, video streaming services have gained widespread popularity and social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram have also integrated video services as a mainstream. It's harder to reduce your data usage on Android.

Here we have compiled some of the most effective ways to save Android data.

8 Best Ways to Reduce Data Usage on Android - Save Data on Android

Limit data usage in Android settings

Setting a limit for your monthly data usage is the simplest thing you can do to avoid using excessive amounts of data without your knowledge. You can limit mobile data usage on Android using the Settings app. Switch to settings and press " Usagedata">> Billing Cycle >> Data Limits and Billing Cycle. There you can set the maximum amount of data you are going to use in a month. Additionally, you can choose to automatically disconnect from the network once your data limit is reached.

Restrict app's raw data

Some applications continue to consume mobile data even when the smartphone is not in use. Background data allows you to monitor and update apps while multitasking or when the screen is off. But every app doesn't have to use background data at all times.

Go to " Settings >> Data Usage", and you can see the statistics for which app is consuming most of the data.

Click on an application and you can see both foreground and background usage for that particular application. Foreground data usage is the data consumed by an application when it is actively being used by you when you open it. Background data is the data you consume when you are not using an app and the app is running in the background. It does not require action and occurs automatically. This could include things like automatic app updates or synchronization.

If you find that the background data is too high for the app and you don't need the app to be in the background all the time, click " Restrict app background". This ensures that the application will only consume data when it is opened and thus use less data.

Use data compression in Chrome to save traffic on Android

Google Chrome is one of the most popular browsers for Android. It has a built-in feature that can significantly reduce data consumption on Android.

When data compression is enabled, all your traffic is sent through a proxy server run by Google. The data will be compressed and optimized before being sent to your phone. This results in lower data consumption and faster page loading times without making significant changes to the web content.

To use data compression, open Chrome, click the 3-dot menu in the top right corner, click " Settings" and scroll down to " Data store". There, you can click on the top right corner to enable the data saving feature.

Enabling the Save Data feature also implements Chrome's Safe Browsing system to detect malicious pages and protect against malware and harmful content. As you can see in the screenshot above, Chrome managed to retain 17% of data over a period of one month.

You can view this settings panel in Chrome to see how much data you have saved over a certain period.

How to save traffic on Android - Updating applications only via Wi-Fi

One of the most effective ways to reduce mobile data consumption is to disable automatic app updates in the Play Store. Go to Play Store and click " Menu" >> « Settings" >> « Automatic application updates." Make sure you select " Automatic app updates via Wi-Fi only" Alternatively you can select " Not fulfill automatic application updates", but this is not recommended since you need to remember app updates manually from time to time.

Limit your use of streaming services

Streaming music and videos are the hungriest for content, as well as high-quality images. Try to avoid them when using mobile data. You can choose to save music and videos locally in your storage or download them when you are connected to WiFi. When streaming on mobile devices, you can reduce the stream quality to reduce data usage. Youtube consumes a lot of data, so make sure you lower the video resolution when using mobile data on Android.

Keep track of your apps

Using data-dependent applications can have a serious impact on your mobile network data consumption. What you might not realize is that the Google Photos app can sync your photos in the background with every click. Social media apps like Facebook and Instagram consume a lot of data. Try to avoid watching videos and GIFs on these apps.

Try using alternatives to some apps that will still perform the required functions while consuming less data. For example, Facebook Lite is a very lightweight alternative for the Facebook app. Plus, it saves battery life and data usage. TweetCaster is a similar option for the Twitter app.

Google Maps cache for offline use

Did you know that you can save maps in the Google Maps app? Caching Google Maps for offline use can save both your time and data. Once the map is loaded, you can even navigate when your phone is offline simply by using your GPS. This turns out to be handy for daily commutes and commuting as you can never be sure if some places will have network coverage. It's a good idea to download a map of your home area and the regions you travel to frequently.

So, next time you're on Wi-Fi, open Google Maps, go to the menu and select " Offline Maps".» . There you can click " Choose your own card” and zoom in or out to select the area where you want to be offline.

Once you decide the area, click " Download ».

Optimizing account sync settings

Your account settings are synced by default. Don't turn on automatic sync for data-dependent apps like Facebook and Google+, which use sync services to sync files like photos and videos, consuming large amounts of data in the process.

Google constantly syncs your data when changes are made. Most of these synchronization services may not be required. This background synchronization affects both data consumption and battery life.

To configure the sync setting, open " Settings >> Accounts». There you can configure synchronization settings for different applications. To optimize Google sync, click on Google and disable the options you don't need. For example, I don't need Google Fit, Google Play Movies, or Google Play Music data to sync. So I switched them, leaving the other services in sync.

• Download large files when you are on Wi-Fi.
• Do not clear the system cache unless you have another way to free up space.
• If necessary, turn off mobile data.
• Turn off notifications for apps you don't want to notify.
• Set a longer refresh interval for home screen widgets that update frequently.

Have you found these ways to reduce data usage on Android to be useful and found the answer to the question - how to save data on Android? Share your feedback and suggestions in the comments below.

Cellular networks provide faster and faster access to the 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, a better solution would be to 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 “Anti-malware” checkbox would 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 program AdAway 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 permissions (and S-OFF on HTC) to run.

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 the latest versions, everything is fine (either Weather Underground changed something, or AdAway corrected the host addresses).

3. Save 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. This 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 article c 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 remains one of the fastest browsers. 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

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It happens that a month’s supply of Internet traffic “flies away” in a few days. Therefore, today we will tell you what to do to ensure that the traffic limit is not exceeded.

Why is it important to limit Android data transfer?

If you don't have unlimited internet on your phone or don't always have Wi-Fi at hand, it's very easy to exceed the monthly limit of your internet plan, which can lead to increased costs. In this article we will tell you how to reduce the amount of traffic consumed on Android to a minimum.

When choosing a tariff plan for a phone, the user cannot immediately predict how much data he will download. It's very easy to underestimate your Internet traffic consumption, especially since many devices have 4G support.

Traffic is lost not only when watching videos on YouTube or chatting on Facebook. Many applications run in the background and require a constant Internet connection.

• For example, email, since the application may send a refresh request every few minutes to check for new messages.
• Application updates also eat up a lot of traffic, but in Google Play you can configure the download of updates only when there is a Wi-Fi connection.

I'm glad that applications that consume Internet traffic are easily monitored. Smartphones with the Android OS have tools with which you can make sure that you do not go beyond the limits of your tariff plan, and also set a limit on the Internet traffic used. Or you can turn off the Internet altogether. Today you will learn how to reduce Internet traffic consumption on your device to a minimum, and not go beyond the limits of your tariff plan.

How to make apps update only when connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi

Very simple. You just need to launch the Google Play application, click on the icon in the form of three horizontal lines in the upper left corner, then go to “Settings”. Next, in “General”, find the item “Automatic application updates” and set it to “only via Wi-Fi”.

How to completely turn off your Internet connection

Go to “Settings”, click on the “Data transfer” item and near the line “Mobile traffic” change the position of the switch from on to off. Any existing Internet connection will be terminated.

Note: The Internet will still be available when connected via Wi-Fi, and you will also be able to use all online applications.

How to save the amount of traffic used

Those who need to set a monthly (or for any other period of time) limit on the traffic consumed by an Android smartphone, and also enable a notification when approaching the limit, will need to again follow the well-known direction: “Settings” → “Data transfer”. Here we set a limit on mobile traffic in accordance with the tariff package of our operator.

You can also look at the graph showing the amount of traffic used per month. We set the maximum allowable amount of data for a month, and if you approach the limit of the Internet traffic package, the system will notify you about this.

Reducing the amount of mobile traffic consumed

Those who simply want to reduce Internet traffic consumption on Android to a minimum will need to block background data transfer in the settings of each downloaded application.

Let’s again follow the well-trodden path, namely “Settings” → “Data transfer”, go down below and see the traffic consumption from applications.

To prohibit background data transfer, select the application and click on the “Limit background” option. Please note: Selected apps will now only update over Wi-Fi. For example, if you set such a restriction on WhatsApp, Facebook or Gmail, notifications about new messages will not be displayed until the application itself is launched.

Especially in order to save Internet traffic, the social network Twitter recently introduced a lightweight version of itself - Twitter Lite, and also added a traffic saving mode to its application. It is claimed to reduce traffic consumption by up to 70% by blurring image previews.

Cellular networks provide faster and faster access to the 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, a better solution would be to 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 “Anti-malware” checkbox would 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 permissions (and S-OFF on HTC) to run.

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 the latest versions, everything has become ok (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 and remains one of the fastest browsers. 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 you add 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 offline reading. 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'll never have to download files to your smartphone over the mobile network if you forgot to do so 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.

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. 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 full-fledged 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 really 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 to save traffic is to 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.

The Internet has become an integral part in our time, and many people cannot imagine their life without mobile Internet. But there are problems with the Internet.

Almost all users of Android devices (devices) are wondering why Internet traffic runs out so quickly? This is especially noticeable for those users who switched to Android from other operating systems.

Why does this happen to Internet traffic in Android? This system constantly works on the network, it is oriented and configured for such work. Almost all applications are aimed specifically at using the Internet, and this is the Android mobile Internet. This focus is an obvious advantage of this system.

Although this plus works mainly where there is cheap or free and accessible mobile Internet, for example, where there are free Wi-Fi networks. In reality, everything is somewhat different; free Wi-Fi is not available everywhere, and mobile operators are in no hurry to reduce the price for Internet access. For this reason, there is a question of saving Android traffic.

Let's try to figure out what leads to a constant decrease in Internet traffic, and how to prevent it.

1 Applications in the background

In my opinion, the main reason for the rapid loss of traffic in Android is Internet applications running in the background. Many background programs do not require the Internet, but they constantly contain advertising that is loaded from the Internet. This leads to unplanned traffic consumption. How to prevent some applications from working with the Internet?

Let's look at this using Android version 4.4.4 as an example.

1.1 How to disable Android mobile Internet

Rice. 1 Android Settings

To disable mobile Internet in Android version 4.4.4:

• you need to go to “Settings” (1 in Fig. 1),

• in “Settings” select “Data Usage” (2 in Fig. 1),

• uncheck “Mobile data” (Fig. 2) (completely prohibit the use of Internet traffic from the mobile operator).

Rice. 2 Disable mobile Internet in Android 4.4.4

By disabling the mobile Internet, we completely disconnect Android from the mobile Internet. There will be no traffic consumption, but there will also be no opportunity to work with the Internet and Internet applications on Android in the absence of Wi-Fi networks.

These restrictions apply only to mobile Internet. Everything will work fine on free Wi-Fi networks once you connect to them.

1.2 Traffic limitation in Android

Instead of completely disabling the mobile Internet, sometimes it is better to simply limit it so as not to completely exclude the possibility of working with the mobile Internet in the absence of free Wi-Fi networks (see Fig. 3):

Rice. 3 Limit mobile traffic

In “Settings”, return the checkbox next to “Mobile data” (Fig. 3) to return the ability to work with the mobile Internet.

To set restrictions, do the following. On the graph (Fig. 3), we move the yellow bar for limiting the amount of data used, for example, to 2 GB, if, say, our tariff from a mobile operator provides a maximum volume of 3 GB per month, and check the “Mobile data limit” checkbox. Then we will receive a warning when the traffic reaches 2GB.

1.3 Restrictions for Internet applications

You can not check the “Mobile data limit” checkbox (Fig. 3), but you can manually set restrictions for each application. This will limit the Internet traffic of each individual Android application.

Rice. 4 Traffic for Internet applications

To do this, click on the application icon (for example, Google Drive) on the “Data Usage” page (Fig. 4). In the window that opens, check the “Limit background data” checkbox (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5 Limiting mobile Internet for applications

From now on, the Google Drive app will only access the Internet when Android is connected to Wi-Fi (assuming by default that Wi-Fi is free for the user).

Similarly, you should manually set restrictions for all applications that, in the opinion of the Android user, should not consume paid mobile Internet traffic.

This is not done quickly, but it gives a good effect. After this, only the remaining applications, for example, only Google Chrome, will be able to use mobile Internet traffic under the control of the Android user.

1.4 Disabling data while roaming

In order not to waste very expensive Internet traffic while roaming, you need to uncheck the “Data Usage” - ... - “Data in Roaming” box (Fig. 6).

Rice. 6 Disable data usage while roaming

In this case, for example, abroad, Android is guaranteed not to use the Internet traffic of an expensive foreign mobile operator, and not for any applications.

2 Widget updates

Another reason for the consumption of Internet traffic is updates to widgets that use the Internet for this. Of course, if your desktop is strewn with various widgets, such as weather, reminders, news, etc., then traffic leakage cannot be avoided.

These applications are automatically updated using the Internet, which leads to increased traffic. Therefore, it is simply recommended to remove all unnecessary things from the desktop, and this will already lead to savings.

You can also use the above recommendations for limiting traffic for each individual widget (Fig. 4) and (Fig. 5).

3 Android updates

The Android system itself is also updated automatically. Updates are important, so you don't need to disable them completely.

But you need to make sure that updates are installed only when working on a free Wi-Fi network.

Rice. 7 Looking for where Android Updates are located

To configure the use of Internet traffic for Adroid updates, go to “Settings” – “About device” (Fig. 7) – “Software update” (Fig. 8) – uncheck “Auto-update”, check “Wi-Fi only” ( Fig. 8).

Rice. 8 Update Android only when Wi-Fi is available

From now on, our Android will receive and install updates only when it is on a free Wi-Fi network. Mobile traffic will remain untouched; it will not be wasted on fairly frequent updates.

4 Android market

The Android market also consumes a lot of traffic, especially after the automatic update function has recently appeared there. It can also be controlled by disabling the “update automatically” feature. However, it remains possible to make updates manually when you have access to a free Wi-Fi network.

To prevent unnecessary advertising from wasting your traffic, before installing any new applications, you should check for advertising in these applications. This often occurs in paid versions of applications. If possible, it is better to disable advertising.

Some people put an Internet shutdown widget on their desktop. To do this, download from the Android market, for example,

• APN Switch
• or APN OnOff,
• APNdroid.

With their help, it is easier to control Internet traffic without going to the Settings menu.
Sometimes, again instead of standard Android settings, they use an application

• 3G WatchDog.

It allows you to avoid unplanned waste of traffic by controlling it and setting a limit on Internet use. But I prefer Android's default Settings menu over similar apps.

5 Unlimited Internet

And of course, the easiest and most reliable way is to purchase unlimited Internet. For example, a mobile operator provides this opportunity. Also, many well-known operators offer tariffs for 150 rubles and more with fairly high traffic restrictions from 500 MB to 3-5 GB or more.

This helps you save a lot on mobile Internet, and, equally important, control your traffic costs. It is also important here that, as a rule, the options offered by cellular operators also work in intranet roaming. This means that when moving from place to place (for example, from one region of the Russian Federation to another), you can continue to use the provided traffic without additional payment. This is very convenient for mobile users who go on business trips or vacations.

6 Useful habits

It is important to make it a rule to connect to the Internet only in free Wi-Fi zones, especially if you plan to download a large amount of information (downloading new applications, watching videos, etc.)

And further. When installing any new attractive application, you need to pay attention to how much Internet traffic this application will require to operate. All kinds of “useful” applications about weather forecasts, horoscopes, taxis, etc. require constant updating and pumping of new relevant data. And this will happen at the expense of the Android user’s traffic, at the expense of the money of the user who installed these applications on his smartphone (tablet).

By adhering to these rules, you can significantly reduce your Internet traffic consumption and save on the Internet.

In general, mobile Internet is far from the most expensive in Russia. Those who have had experience using mobile Internet abroad simply dream of such options as mobile Internet for a fixed fee, or generally unlimited mobile Internet traffic, for example from Yota. Analogues of such services are difficult to find anywhere else.

P.S. Perfect for this article:

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