How to check and manage data usage on your phone
Find yourself going over your phone’s data limit? Thankfully, it’s easy to monitor your data use on your smartphone. Here’s how to check, manage and limit your data usage.
iPhone
1. Go to “Settings” app and then click “Cellular”
2. Scroll down “Cellular Data Usage” which will tell you exactly how many MB of data you’ve used since the last time you have reset the statistics. You can check the last time you reset the statistics as well as reset it again by scrolling right to the bottom of the page and clicking “Reset Statistics”.
3. To see exactly how much data each app has used, below “Cellular Data Usage” is a list of all your installed apps with the amount of data used. This is a good way to pinpoint if a particular app has been sneakily using data in the background. You can stop certain apps from using data by sliding the bar next to the name. If you reset your statistics when your data plan renews, you can monitor just how much data your phone and apps use.
Android
1. Go to “Settings” and tap “Data Usage” near the top.
2. You now have the option to enable or disable mobile data. You will also see a graph that shows you exactly how much data you’ve consumed day-by-day. You can select a specific date range by clicking on “Data usage cycle”.
3. Scroll down to see a list of apps that have been using your data, organised in order of apps who’ve used the most data to the least.
4. If you want to restrict your data, drag the orange warning line on your graph to the limit you want. Once your data hits this line, you will get a message warning you are about to reach your limit.
Top tip: Ask your phone provider to notify you with text messages or emails when you’re approaching your data limit.
Related links:
How to crop photos on your smartphone
How to use your smartphone for wifi
Phone charging tips for when you’re short on time