topic Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data in Discussions & Feedback

Tips to make the most of your mobile data

Marjo — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 13:23:29 GMT

Hi everyone! I hope you're having a lovely day!

We often see questions on the community related to managing your mobile data usage. See below some tips on what kind of things you can try in case you tend to run out of data on your phone.

Please do add in the comments if you have any additional tips to share with the community or just want to discuss what you normally do to manage your data allowance - we'd love to hear about it and add your tips to the list too!

6 tips to managing your mobile data from O2:

You can turn off apps automatically downloading updates in the background
Turn off videos playing automatically when you scroll down e.g. on Facebook
Turn off location services, so e.g. Google maps doesn't use your data to pinpoint your location in the background
Use wi-fi whenever possible especially when you want to download your music and videos
Some phones have Wi-fi Assist which uses mobile data if your wi-fi access drops - this can be disabled
You can keep track of your data usage via My O2 (see also a guide from our member @gmarkj that details the Allowances section in My O2)

You can find more info on these tips in the video below:

Additional tips from our community members:

There are also apps you can install on your phone, such as 3G Watchdog on the Play Store, that can be used to monitor data usage in a widget on the home screen for Android phones (cheers for the tip @gmarkj!)
You might also find apps for iPhones for monitoring data usage, e.g. DataCare in the App Store (thanks @MI5!)

Check out also these other video guides from O2:

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

jonsie — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 14:53:11 GMT

Hope this helps everyone, especially those with iphones who seem to suffer most and a good tip to disable wifi assist.😀

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 15:06:58 GMT

Very useful @Marjo

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

Cleoriff — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 17:40:21 GMT

Thanks for the info @Marjo It's useful to have it in one place...:smileywink:

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

Glory1 — Wed, 18 Apr 2018 21:00:03 GMT

Thank you @Marjo very useful info, particularly Google Maps which I never thought of.

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

gmarkj — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 06:27:51 GMT

I have a widget on my homescreen that shows how much data I have used both in terms of Mb/Gb.
If you click it then estimates how much you will use until the end of the current period based on what you have used so far, and whether or not this is more or less than your allowance (if you set it up correctly).
The app is called 3G Watchdog, and is free for the basic version on the Play store.

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

Marjo — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 12:22:38 GMT

@gmarkj wrote:
I have a widget on my homescreen that shows how much data I have used both in terms of Mb/Gb.
If you click it then estimates how much you will use until the end of the current period based on what you have used so far, and whether or not this is more or less than your allowance (if you set it up correctly).
The app is called 3G Watchdog, and is free for the basic version on the Play store.

That's a good tip @gmarkj thanks for that! It's an Android app I'm assuming?

Edit: just saw you mentioned the Play Store so Android then. Anyone know any similar ones for iPhone?

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

MI5 — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 12:38:41 GMT

Something like this for iPhone https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/datacare-wireless-data-monitor/id785252393?mt=8 but widgets aren't supported on iOS so it won't be the same experience.

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

gmarkj — Thu, 19 Apr 2018 12:46:28 GMT

Yes it is an Android app @Marjo

Here is the home screen with the widget showing

And here is the detail of the app

The two bars at the top are the amount of data used compared to the time elapsed during the period.

So as the data line is slightly behind the elapsed time I am not likely to run out of data (based on current usage).

If the data line was in front then it would have lots of red on it showing that I will run out - either meaning I need to alter my usage or get a bolt on.

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

nansou — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 17:32:52 GMT

Thanks @Marjo very useful link from @MI5 in reply to a query I had.

Re: Tips to make the most of your mobile data

Marjo — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 10:18:24 GMT

I've added the tips you've replied with so far to the original post above - thanks a lot for those. I'd love to add more if any of you have any additional suggestions that might be of help to others?

@nansou Just saw your comment. Awesome to hear you found @MI5's suggestion helpful!