"You have exhausted your bundle. Please dial *131# to renew your data plan or *131*200# to browse ¡ N10.24/MB."
This is the painful message I often get whenever my Facebook bundle expires. Most annoying is that I don't even know how my data always expire when it hasn't been long since I subscribed to the plan. Renewing the plan is another hassle especially if I don't have anymore credit and that includes the recent hike of mtn social media plans.
We've all experienced situations like this not just with mtn, but with glo, airtel and 9mobile. We usually feel cheated and robbed, but there's nothing we can do about it. So we just have to vent our rage quietly.
But do you know that the fault may not fully lie on the mobile network provider but on the way we may be using social media apps?
Now that's something you'll probably vehemently disagree with, but it is true. Most of the popular social media apps we use a lot like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp can really suck the data off your phone if you aren't careful in how you use them.
Below are 3 simple tricks I discovered and which you can do to save your phone data when using these social media apps. They can save you needless stress and money.
3 Ways To Save Data When Using Social Media
1. Restrict Apps Background Data
The first rule known for saving data is to turn off background apps.
You may probably have a huge collection of apps on your device which to some extent might seem cool. But how often do you use them all?
Many apps tend to run in the background even when they are not in use. And most times, you may not even be aware that the apps were running. This can be a constant drain to internet data as many of them depends on the Internet.
To solve this problem, you need to go to your phone settings and look for data usage. Every apps have a setting for managing data usage.
In the phone setting, you'll see every apps that has been using data. Select which apps you want to disable and a screen for the app will open where you'll see an entry labeled "Background data" or "Restrict Background data" with a switch or a box beside it. Turn this switch Off or checkmark the box to restrict the app from using data. You'll need to do this for each app you want to check. Note that by turning this feature off, you won't be able to receive any messages or notifications from the apps unless you're running them. But still this can be a huge lifesaver.
If however you don't feel comfortable with this method or you find doing it too complicating, you could simply put the apps to sleep using third-party apps like Greenify or Clean Master.
2. Limit The Number Of Times You Stream Videos
You probably already know that streaming videos can take a lot of Internet data. But many people tend to waste their time and data viewing unnecessary videos. If you really want to save your data, then you'd better watch videos once in a while. If your data connection isn't too strong, buffering will definitely eat up a lot of data. Instead of streaming videos, why don't you just download them? There are many third-party apps at Google play Store that can help you do this easily.
3. Use App's Lite Version
Some popular apps such as Facebook, Messenger, Twitter and Skype have Lite versions. These types of apps are aptly considered lightweight because they are smaller and don't use up a lot of data. The apps were actually developed for those with 2G connections and those living in poor network coverage areas. Though apps like these can save you a whole lot of data, they have their limits. For example, with Facebook lite, you would not be able to upload videos to your post, unlike the main version. If you're not comfortable with the Lite version of Facebook, you can always turn on the Facebook data saver feature.
So these are the 3 ways you can save and monitor your data usage. Trying them out can help you control how much data you use each month. That's a great way to only pay for the data you use versus paying for nothing!
I hope you enjoy the post. Please do share it with others.
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