Understanding and controlling the way your phone uses mobile data is a great way to save a few bucks on our phone bills. We understand that when we’re using our phones away from Wi-Fi, scrolling through our various media feeds, getting directions, and streaming music, we’re using up mobile data.
How our phones use mobile data when we’re not actively looking at the screen can be a mystery. Controlling and restricting background data on Android is a great way to save power and control how much mobile data your phone uses. It’s worth knowing that despite your best efforts, some apps continue to use data in the background even when you don’t open them. There are many Android apps that go without your knowledge and connect to your cellular network even when the app is closed.
Background data usage can burn through a fair bit of mobile data. The good news is that you can reduce data usage. Just turn off background data. We’ll show you how to limit background data on your Android phone and reduce persistent data usage. If you limit your data usage, you can stop paying more and choose a plan that gives you the data you need. If this is your goal, Ting Mobile is the perfect carrier.
How to stop apps running in the background:
Now that we have answered the question “What is background data”, let’s learn how to use it sparingly. The Data Usage section in Android Settings allows you to see the amount of data used by each specific app. If you notice that you’re using more background mobile data than you’d like (Snapchat comes to mind), you can block internet access until you return to a Wi-Fi covered area. If you want to conserve your bandwidth and lower that monthly phone bill, this feature is definitely worth checking out. Note that you will need to open the app to receive notifications as this will prevent background updates.
1 . Open Settings, tap Network & Internet, Data usage, App data usage. On Android 11, open Settings, tap Network & Internet, Mobile network, Data usage (on some phones) then App data usage.
2. Scroll down to see a list of your Android apps sorted by data usage. Watch out for heavy data users.
3. When you see an app you want to control background data on, tap it, then switch Background data to Off.
The usual suspects
Most popular apps will default to running in the background. Background data can be used even if your device is in standby mode (screen off), as these apps constantly check their servers over the internet for all kinds of updates and notifications. Check out Spotify, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat. If you don’t disable the ability of these apps, all these apps will run in the background.