Why megabytes of the Internet on the phone quickly leave. What is mobile phone traffic

Long gone are the days when Internet service providers everywhere kept track of the megabytes spent by users on the Web. Tariff plans for home Internet these days differ mainly in speed. But mobile operators are in no hurry to provide completely unlimited Internet and, as a rule, allocate only a certain amount of inexpensive traffic.

But today, not only people, but also smartphones themselves cannot live without the Internet: it happens that he himself will steal something there in the middle of the night, update a couple of applications, and in the morning there is no prepaid traffic left to download attachments from mail. Well, let's think about how you can deal with this and how to save on the Internet, which is still not cheap.

⇡ Traffic control by regular means of the operating system

First, let's see what we can do without installing additional applications. In the Android settings there is a "Traffic Control" item, with which you can separately monitor data transfer over Wi-Fi and through mobile networks. You can immediately turn off data transfer, that is, the use of mobile Internet.

The operating system displays a graph of traffic usage for a selected period of time (you can change it by moving the sliders along the graph) and shows which applications consume the most data. By clicking on an application, you can see the consumption graph generated specifically for it.

On the mobile Internet tab, you can also set a limit on traffic consumption for a certain period. The limit is set on the same chart, and a threshold is selected with a separate slider, upon reaching which the system will show a warning about the imminent limit exhaustion. If the traffic ends, the device will automatically turn off data transfer.

So many Android apps connect to the Internet in the background, and as a result, traffic is consumed even before the owner of the phone has time to wake up. To prevent this from happening, you can prevent individual applications from using mobile traffic in the background. To do this, click on the application name in the traffic consumption window and check the Restrict Background data box.

This feature can also be disabled globally. To do this, while in the "Traffic Control" section, go to the settings and check the box of the same name. Here you can turn off automatic data synchronization. However, with a global ban on downloading via mobile Internet, some important applications - such as an email client - may not work as you expect.

A lot of traffic is spent on app updates. So that downloading updates does not eat up expensive traffic, you can go to the settings Google Play and in the "Auto-update applications" section, select update only via Wi-Fi or (as an option) disable automatic updates altogether.

By the way, don't forget to check the settings of your favorite apps. In many, you can enable synchronization and data download only via Wi-Fi.

⇡ Traffic control in Google Chrome

The data compression function is also in mobile version browser Google Chrome. It works like this: the content of web pages is first sent to Google servers, where it is optimized and downloaded already in a compressed form. The quality of the images, of course, suffers, but much less traffic is consumed.

You can find and enable this option in the menu "Settings → Traffic control → Traffic reduction". Depending on the web pages you browse on your mobile device, the savings can be significant - up to 50%. True, data compression will be useless when loading web pages that use traffic encryption - such Google data will not be able to send to their servers. In addition, it should be borne in mind that compression will not be performed even when incognito mode is enabled in the browser.

To save mobile traffic in Google Chrome, it is also worth disabling the preloading of web pages. It is located in the same section of the "Traffic Control" settings. You can allow the browser to download pages in the background only when a Wi-Fi connection is active, or even disable downloads altogether.

⇡ Control over traffic consumption with the help of specialized applications

The main purpose of mobile traffic accounting applications is to help you save money. For this, both simple consumption statistics and restrictions on different periods time.

Perhaps the most simple program for traffic accounting - Internet Speed Meter Lite. It performs only the functions of monitoring and collecting statistics. The application monitors the consumption of mobile and Wi-Fi traffic in real time. The current data transfer rate can be seen on the notification panel, and if you open the notification menu, you can also see the name of the current network and the amount of traffic that was consumed today.

The application window shows how much traffic was used during last month by day, the sum of the last seven and thirty days, and total number from the beginning of the current month. Mobile and Wi-Fi traffic is counted separately.

The Data Usage application is interesting because it can count not only mobile, but also Wi-Fi traffic. And not only count, but also notify when the specified limit is exceeded, as well as block data transfer when a certain value is reached. Why might you need Wi-Fi traffic accounting? For example, some hotels practice providing free Wi-Fi access within a certain limit. If it is exceeded, you need to pay extra.

In the application settings, you can specify how much traffic (separately - mobile and Wi-Fi) is provided for a given period. Data Usage will not only collect statistics for the day, week and for the reporting period, but also calculate how much traffic you need to consume, ideally, so that the Internet does not exactly cost a penny. It also shows predicted consumption, separate statistics on received and transmitted data, and - most importantly - how much free traffic is left until the end of the reporting period.

Data on mobile Internet and Wi-Fi are shown on separate tabs, but you can view the total history of traffic consumption on a visual graph.

Data Usage can warn that prepaid traffic will end soon. And there can be three such warnings. The default is when using fifty, seventy five, and ninety percent, but this setting is configurable. In addition, the application can completely turn off the Internet when a certain value is reached (99% by default) and automatically turn it on when the next reporting period arrives.

Another traffic monitoring application that may be useful is My Data Manager - Data Usage. Its feature is the ability to set separate data usage plans for roaming and mobile Internet. You can set a traffic limit, as well as the date and plan start time.

As for the data received via Wi-Fi, it is impossible to set a traffic limit here, but you can specify when the amount of downloaded data is reached, the program should notify the user. "My Internet Manager" displays information about traffic consumption in a convenient way, with each type of connection placed on a separate tab.

A full report of the total data consumption can be seen in the graph. Also, information on the spent traffic is displayed on the notification panel.

The application also keeps a record of data consumption by different applications. This information can be presented as a chart or as a list.

To nice bonuses Applications include the ability to back up data to an SD card and quickly restore them.

⇡ Non-standard approach: not only control, but also traffic reduction

Even before the advent of smartphones, mobile browsers from Opera Software were very popular. And one of the most requested features of Opera Mini was traffic compression. Thanks to this, on the one hand, the loading of web pages on a slow connection was accelerated, and on the other hand, bills for mobile Internet were reduced.

The same compression technology that was used in the old products of the Norwegian company formed the basis of the Opera Max application for Android. It is currently being tested, but is already available for free download from Google Play in our country. The main difference between Opera Max and the corresponding function in the browser is that it works with all applications. That is, if Opera Mini compresses only the content of web pages, then Opera Max works with any browser, as well as applications for viewing video content, reading RSS, downloading photos, etc. In particular, with the help of Opera Max, traffic in the Vkontakte, Viber, and Odnoklassniki applications is significantly saved.

Opera Max is technically implemented through a VPN network. All network traffic from a mobile device passes through the Opera servers, where it is compressed whenever possible. Thus, the user downloads much less data.

How much data has been saved is shown in the application window. Detailed statistics by date and by application are also available. As our testing has shown, web pages and photos are best compressed, the situation is worse with video. But with Facebook and Twitter, the application does not work at all - this is because these social sites use an encrypted connection. Accordingly, the application cannot intercept this traffic in order to send it to the Opera servers. It is also worth bearing in mind that the application is useless for compressing web pages if you are using the Google Chrome browser with data compression enabled. In this case, saving even more is not possible. Also, Opera Max does not compress application updates and files downloaded to the device.

Opera Max only works with mobile Internet. As for Wi-Fi traffic, it is not taken into account and is not saved. But the app has convenient option to prohibit the use of mobile traffic for individual applications. This can be handy, as the Wi-Fi update option may not be found in all apps.

Finally, when using Opera Max, keep in mind that the app works offline for seven days. For his further work you need to “recharge”, that is, click on a special button on the corresponding tab of the application. So far (at the testing stage) it is free, but in the future, most likely, you will need to pay for the extension of the service.

However, if, nevertheless, Opera Max becomes paid in the future, then you should keep in mind that this application is not unique. The same features have been available to users of the lesser-known Onavo Extend program, which was taken over by Facebook in 2013, for more than two years now.

Like Opera Max, this free app works through a proxy server and compresses all mobile traffic from the device. When Wi-Fi is turned on, it will automatically turn off. In the application, you can see statistics on saved traffic for the week and for the month. And in the settings there is an opportunity to control the quality of graphics, as well as set the cache size for saved graphic elements. This is relevant if you are constantly loading the same web pages. Onavo Extend saves graphics from them, they are not re-downloaded, making the savings even greater.

⇡ Conclusion

I really hope that in five to ten years the demand for all applications for saving mobile traffic will decrease. Perhaps very soon they will become as rarely used as rare programs for monitoring traffic on a PC are now. And just as inexpensive Internet via cable came to our homes without taking into account traffic, so inexpensive unlimited access to the Web will come to our smartphones.

Saving traffic is necessary, since the two main problems that many Russian users face are low speed Internet and high fees for often unnecessary information. Let's take a closer look at how to save Internet traffic without losing the quality of the information received.

Choice of tariff plan and provider

Internet speed varies from provider to provider depending on the number of users and network bandwidth. When choosing a service provider, it is best to experiment and advice from friends. But in many small Russian cities special choice users do not.

A proven way to save Internet traffic on a computer is to work on the Web at certain times of the day. The highest speed is from 2 a.m. to 8 a.m. At this time, you can provide for downloading large amounts of information by setting the download manager accordingly.

With dial-up access, when choosing a service provider, you should pay attention to what is charged for:

During access. Beneficial for those who download large amounts of information (video or software).
for the information used. Convenient for those who simply surf the Web, looking through the pages.

Blocking unwanted content

Some of the information that comes from the World Wide Web is completely unnecessary for the user. Moreover, it increases the page load time and consumes the Internet, and therefore money. There are a number effective ways protection from inappropriate content.

Data caching

Some of the elements on each page do not change when the information is updated (logos, scripts, CSS), so it is unnecessary to download them from the web every time. This is provided by caching on the user's computer.

Browser cache. In modern browsers, in order to save money, it is hidden to save traffic, it is structurally incorporated efficient system cache. Downloaded pages are best viewed offline.
You can use a more efficient local caching proxy or DNS proxy to save money, while disabling the browser cache and freeing up hard disk space.

Savings in email

To do this, you need to clean mail from spam using mail services that cut spam already on the server. But you need to pay attention to the correct mail filtering settings so as not to lose important correspondence.

Some services (Bat, Outlook) can show only the header of the letter, after which the user himself decides whether to download it. It is possible to limit the size of letters or disable the download of attachments.

Compressing content with special services

Boost throughput lines, speed up downloads and reduce network traffic is possible with the help of gzip-compression (compression) of information. Text is compressed, while graphics, archives and executable files are downloaded directly. This allows you to speed up the opening of the page by about two times.

However, not all servers support gzip compression. Then you can use network services such as WebWarper, WebCompressor, TrafficOptimizer, Toonel.net, etc., which compress http content and other types of data (email and socks files).

The free use of these services is complicated by the addition of their own advertising or restrictions on the number of simultaneously working free clients, which can make it difficult to connect.

Using download managers

The usefulness of download managers is that they allow you to download the rest of the file in the event of a disconnection from the Internet, and not start downloading again. In addition, they allow you to view the contents of the archive before downloading and select the files you need.

Also, during the download process, you can view a video or listen to an audio file and decide on the need for its full download.

Disabling image loading

When opening some pages, images can take up to 80% of traffic. Therefore, if you need to download a text or any file, it makes no sense to wait for the download of large images, unless they contain necessary information. This feature is available in all browsers.

Web surfing without pictures is somewhat unusual, so you can experiment in this format for several days, and then decide whether you need it or not.

And even when there are no more problems with data transfer speed, before turning off traffic savings, it is worth considering whether everything that is transmitted from the Internet is necessary for the user. Perhaps some restrictions should be left.

Hello friends. Summer is in the yard, many people go on vacation, or somewhere far away from the city, and of course there is a problem, but what about the Internet? After all, somewhere outside the city it most likely will not be, and then what? Panic begins, tears and all that :).

Well, of course there is a way out, you just need to get mobile Internet. Can buy GPRS or 3G modem. In the first case, the speed will be lower, but most likely it will stably receive a signal almost everywhere. In turn, 3G technology will provide greater speed, but the signal will not be as stable and you may need to buy an antenna. I wrote about setting up 3G Internet in an article.

I switched to modems, but I wanted to write about how to save internet traffic. Well, of course, both GPRS and 3G Internet are not very cheap now, even expensive compared to the urban network. That is why I decided to write today's article. Since with the right approach, you can save a lot of Internet traffic and traffic is money.

All tariffs of mobile Internet operators have package restrictions or fees for spent Internet traffic, and in the first and second cases, tips on saving traffic will be useful.

First of all, I advise you to install a program on your computer that will measure the Internet traffic that you spend.

I recommend the program NetWorx. This program has a clear Russian interface, and can do a lot. You can measure traffic by hours, days, or as you like, you can set limits for a day or a month, and the program will warn you when your tariff plan ends, which will save you from unnecessary expenses, because traffic over the package is not very cheap.

Turn off the image

I remember when I was still using GPRS Internet through my phone, I always turned off displaying images in the browser. Graphics on web pages take a lot of traffic and this is very bad. It seems to me that surfing the Internet can be convenient even without pictures, but it’s a little not primary right away.

You can turn off the image in the settings of any browser. For example, in Opera go to “Tools”, “General Settings” tab “Web pages” and where the image is selected “No images” and click "OK".

Now you can try to use the Internet without images, by the way, this method also very effectively increases the speed of loading pages.

Cache saves bandwidth

Cache, these are the elements of a web page that the browser saves on the computer and the next time these elements are accessed, it does not re-download them from the Internet. The cache is really good at saving traffic when you visit the same site many times. For example, you once logged into Vkontakte, the browser downloaded an image of your friends and saved them to your hard drive.

When you visit this site again, the browser will not re-download these pictures and thereby save internet traffic.

Internet traffic saving service

Although I am a supporter of all sorts of services and add-ons, I can advise Toonel.net to save traffic. This service compresses Internet traffic well and allows you to save money. By the way, the service is completely free.

Advertising is the main traffic eater

Something, but there is enough advertising on the sites now, even I have a little, but what about, I want to eat :). But advertising takes almost half of your traffic. Flash advertising does this especially well. To disable ads, you need to use add-ons for different browsers. Just type in any search engine " how to disable ads in opera(or other browser).

Separately, I would like to note an excellent feature in the Opera browser. Turbo mode helps save traffic and increase the speed of loading Internet pages with a not very fast connection. All traffic that you will request will pass and be processed through Opera's servers, and arrive on your computer already in a compressed form.

Activating Turbo mode is very simple. Go to the browser and find the button in the form of a speedometer at the bottom left (above the start button).

Click on it and select “Turn on Turbo mode”, the button will turn blue and the turbo mode will start working.

Offtopic: Just in a couple of days I'll pass the last exam and go home for the summer. Of course, I take the computer, but the Internet ... I decided to take the Internet from Intertelecom, I will buy a modem and most likely I will have to buy an antenna.

So these tips will also come in handy for me, although 1000 MB for 5 UAH. per day, it seems to me not very bad, we'll see what speed it will be. Good luck!

Browser

To save mobile traffic when browsing websites, we recommend that you use a special browser that has a data compression function. This possibility exists, for example, in Chrome and Opera browsers. At the same time, all data on the way to you is pre-compressed on a special intermediate server, which can significantly reduce their volume.

Video

Watching videos is the most dangerous activity for your tariff megabytes. Just one short video good quality can exhaust the entire monthly limit, so it’s better to take care of savings in advance. Since the YouTube service is mainly used to watch streaming video, it is this application that usually appears in the list of the main traffic consumers. Open the settings of this application and enable the option “Limit mobile data”.

Music

If your music collection is in the clouds and you don't want to lose access to it even if you don't have a high-speed connection, then you will have to do a few things to save traffic. In almost all music applications that download data from the network, you can select the quality of the broadcast. For example, in Google Play Music, you need to go to the settings and check the option “Download over Wi-Fi”, which will prevent the use of a mobile connection for caching music. In addition, here you can also select the sound quality over the mobile network or generally prohibit data transfer through this connection.

Cards

Data loading by mapping programs is another problem, which, moreover, often occurs at the very moment when you are somewhere abroad, that is, in roaming. It is very easy to solve this problem if you take care of caching the desired section of the map in advance. This feature is available in the most popular programs in this category. Google Maps and Yandex.Maps.

In addition, there is always the opportunity to use one of the programs that were specially created to work without an Internet connection, such as OsmAnd or.

Use Opera Max

While the methods listed above allow you to minimize only individual consumption items, Opera Max approaches the issue more globally. This program lets you know which apps are consuming the most data and can compress videos, photos, and other images in almost every app on your phone. With Opera Max, you can save up to 50% of bandwidth, which means that instead of the 1 GB provided by your tariff plan, you can get 1.5 GB.

AT last years mobile data usage has skyrocketed. Apps have become hungrier and are constantly pushing new versions to update. Previously, web surfing was predominantly used in text. Now video streaming services have gained wide popularity, and platforms social networks, such as Facebook and Instagram have also integrated video services as a mainstream. It's harder to cut data usage on Android.

Here we have collected some of the most efficient ways to save Android data.

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

Limit data usage in Android settings

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

Restrict app source data

Some apps continue to consume mobile data even when the smartphone is not in use. Background data allows you to monitor and update apps while you multitask 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 stats for which app is consuming most data.

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

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, tap " Restrict App Background Image". This ensures that the application only consumes data when it is opened and thus uses less data.

Use data compression in Chrome to save data on Android

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

When data compression is enabled, all your traffic is sent through a proxy server performed 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 without significant changes to 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 turn on the save data 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 save 17% of the data over a period of one month.

You can view this settings panel in Chrome to see how much data you have backed up in a given period.

How to save data on Android - Update applications only via Wi-Fi

One of the most effective ways to reduce your mobile data consumption is to turn off automatic app updates in the Play Store. Go to the Play Store and click " Menu" >> « Settings" >> « Automatic app updates. Make sure you select " Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only". Alternatively, you can choose " Not fulfill automatic app updates”, but this is not recommended as you need to manually remember app updates from time to time.

Limit your use of streaming services

Streaming music and videos are the hungriest 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. While streaming on mobile devices, you can reduce the quality of the stream to reduce data usage. Youtube consumes a lot of data, so make sure you lower your video resolution when using mobile data on Android.

Keep track of your applications

The use of data-dependent applications can seriously affect data consumption on your mobile network. You may not realize 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 in these apps.

Try to use alternatives to some applications 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 to google app Maps? 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 by simply using your GPS. This proves handy for daily commutes and trips, as you can never be sure if some places will have network coverage. it a good idea to download a map of your home area and the regions you travel to frequently.

So, the next time you're on Wi-Fi, open up 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 you want to be offline.

After you decide the area, click " Download ».

Optimizing account sync settings

Your account settings are synced by default. Don't enable automatic sync for data-dependent apps like Facebook and Google+ that use sync services to sync files like photos and videos by consuming a large number of data in progress.

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

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

Download large files when you're on Wi-Fi.
Do not clear the system cache unless you have another way to free up space.
Turn off mobile data if necessary.
Turn off notifications for apps that you don't need 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.