How To Stop Streaming Apps from Sucking Away Your Data?

Sadly, streaming HD content and even listening to music online can eat up your data allowance if you’re not careful. You could have the most affordable internet connection with Cox, just dial Cox telephone number to get the best service right now. It can help you stay on track with data loss in regular internet connections. We are talking about overage fees, the money involved in purchasing extra data packets and not to mention, bandwidth hogging.

Is there a way to avoid this pain and continue to stream? Of course, that’s why you are here. Yes, it’s possible and not, the answer doesn’t include “change your streaming habits.” There is a lot more that can be done to not run out of data. Let’s have a look at these tricks and save yourself the trouble once and for all:

1: Change the Resolution

When you’re on the go and would like a little video streaming, there is no charming in switching to 1080p since it takes a lot less bandwidth than 4K streaming.

For Netflix

Here is how you can change the resolution in your Netflix app:

1. Go to your profile or avatar
2. select App Settings and then tap Cellular Data Usage.
3. Click on Save Data for compressed video when you are streaming over a cellular connection

For Amazon Prime

1. If you’re using Amazon Prime Video, repeat the following steps:
2. Go to My Stuff, then click the cog symbol
3. Choose Stream & Download from the options
4. You’ll have three or four options for tweaking streaming quality: Best, Better, Good,
5. If you’re on Android, you will see the option called Data Saver
6. Click on it and this way, you will be able to save data

Depending on what streaming provider you use, explore the settings, and see how you can reduce the resolution when using cellular data. They always have an option.

For YouTube

When using YouTube here are the steps to follow for reducing resolution:

1. Go to Settings and choose the Video quality options
2. then select your profile image (top right)
3. Choose Data saver for low data usage
4. Save the settings and you are done.

2: Set Data Usage Limit on Your Phone

Let’s be real, when you are watching a cat video or a clip of your favorite show on Facebook, it’s easy to lose not just track of time but the data that’s being consumed. To remind yourself that you’re on cellular data, all phones have a setting for data warning and usage limit.

Here is how you can set this on your phone:

1. Go to your phone’s settings
2. Choose network and internet
3. Select data usage
4. Hit data warning and limit option
5. Move to data limit
6. Here, set a data warning by entering the value
7. Save the changes

Once you have set the data limit, your mobile data is immediately turned off when your consumption hits the limit you have specified. The data alert simply informs you that your data usage has exceeded the limit.

3: Stop AutoPlay

Videos are among the most data-hungry things, and many of them have the tendency of playing them even when you aren’t looking.

As you read through a feed or timeline, social media platforms, and even streaming platforms, the auto-play option keeps on playing new videos. This again makes you lose track of how much data you’re consuming. A simple solution is to turn off auto-play, which is pretty easy to do. Most streaming apps have this option in the settings.

For instance, in Facebook, go to Settings & Privacy,” hit the “Settings,” tab and choose “Media.” From there, find the auto-play option and turn it off.

4: Optimize the Music Apps You Use

Do you listen to music every day during commute to work or while running errands?

If so, you better change the audio quality for playing music on mobile data. In Spotify for instance, under the audio quality setting, you can choose mobile data to reduce the quality and save your data allowance.

Whatever music app you use, be sure to explore its settings to make sure it is configured in the most data-efficient way.

5: Download Content In Advance

The only way to keep yourself from not steaming content on mobile data is to download it in advance. If you have a YouTube premium account, take advantage of it, and download videos that you can watch offline.

In other words, if your streaming service allows you to download content to view offline, go ahead, download it, and won’t have to stream on mobile data again!

6: Download the Lite Version of Apps

Many companies have created scaled-down versions of apps, which are specifically engineered to utilize less bandwidth without compromising on quality. Switch to the lite version and save the mobile data that was otherwise being consumed in the background. This way, you will have more bandwidth available for streaming.