It’s quickly becoming a problem of modern life: you run out of data near the end of your billing cycle. If you upgrade next month, you’ll get locked into paying for more than you need each month. So, what do you do? Many people choose to go over their data allotment and pay the overage charge “just this once.” This will never be the case with Twigby! Not only do we not lock you into a contract, we also don’t force you to accept overage charges. This is done by providing you with the option to turn on our free overage protection! You might be wondering how that helps if you’re still running out of data each month. Read on for tips about how to get the most out of your smartphone data plan.
How Much Data Am I Really Using?
The first step to utilizing your smartphone use is knowing what you’re using your data on. Here is a breakdown of approximate data usage for common activities from Informr:
- 1 Email w/o Attachments = 5 kilobytes (KB) to 25KB
- 1 Email w/ Photos Attached = 350KB to 5MB
- 1 Email w/ Office Documents Attached = 300 to 800KB
- 1 Email w/o Attachments = 5 kilobytes (KB) to 25KB
- 1 Email w/ Photos Attached = 350KB to 5MB
- 1 Email w/ Office Documents Attached = 300 to 800KB
- 1 Web Page with Standard Images = 150KB to 3MB
- 1 Minute of Streaming Audio = 500KB to 2MB
- 1 Image Uploaded to Social Media = 1MB to 2MB
- 1 Minute of Streaming Video = 2MB to 10MB
- 1 App or Game Download = 4MB to 100MB
These common activities would approximately use 1GB of data:
- Receive 500 to 1250 emails with typical sized (800KB to 2MB) PDF attachments
- Download 166 basic apps
- Download 16 basic game apps
- Download 2 high-quality, 3D games
- Stream music with high quality for up to 7 to 14 hours depending on settings
- Stream NetFlix for 3 hours at Low Quality
- Stream NetFlix for 1.4 hours at Medium Quality
- Stream NetFlix for 20 minutes at High Quality
- Upload 500 to 2000 images to Instagram
- Browse images on Facebook for 51 hours
- Use Google Maps Navigation for approximately 100 hours
- Send 34,000 WhatsApp text messages
- Video Chat on Skype for 4 hours
- Watch 68 videos on YouTube at SD quality
Now that you know how much data is required for most uses, you can better decide which ones of these actions you might need to cut back on a little bit. This will help you get the most our of your smartphone data plan.
It’s also important to know how much data you’re using throughout the month. With Twigby’s Self Care, you can do just that! We don’t want you to pay for more data than you need.
Make Your Data Last Longer By Using WiFi
The easiest way to make your data last longer is to use WiFi whenever possible! If you have home internet, we recommend staying connected anytime you’re home. In addition to your home, WiFi is available in most coffee shops, libraries, and even stores in the mall. You can browse the internet, stream songs, and scroll through social media with no fear of using up your plan’s allotted data amount when you’re connected to WiFi.
Make sure to plan for those times you won’t have WiFi available. If you’re going on a long road trip, download that new album from your favorite artist using WiFi before you leave. Some smartphone apps are helping users in this way by pre-loading some content. For example, YouTube will download videos from your subscriptions while connected to WiFi. This helps you save your data for more important things.
Many Twigby users rely mostly on WiFi for their data needs, and we would never expect them to pay for data they don’t want to use! Twigby is one of very few service providers that has no minimum data package with your smartphone. In addition to saving data on WiFi, visit our App Garden to see some apps we recommend for WiFi calling. You can choose a smaller calling package and call via one of these apps when you’re connected to WiFi across the globe. This is just one of the many ways we let you customize your plan to your needs!
Stop “Using” Background Data
Did you know that even when you aren’t using an app it might still be using data? Many of them do, actually. There are two ways to combat this issue on your smartphone. First, make sure to fully close all your apps when you’re done using them. On an Android, open your recent applications menu (how to do this will vary a bit between devices), then swipe them to the right to “kill” them. On an iPhone, double click your home button, and then swipe up on the app(s) you want to “kill.” This will stop background data from being used, and it will help keep your phone running quickly.
Another way to stop using background data is to restrict it entirely. On an iPhone, open the Settings app, then click “General,” and then “Background App Refresh.” From here, you can turn it off for specific apps or for all of them. With an Android, open your settings, tap Data Usage, and select the app(s) you want to turn off background data for. At the bottom of each app’s page will be a checkbox to restrict background data.
Keep WiFi in mind here as well! Remember that when connected to WiFi, any of this background data will not count towards your usage. So be sure to leave your WiFi connection turned on whenever you can! Also, your phone will not use any data when turned off or in “airplane mode.” Try turning your phone completely off when you are not using it.
Customize Your Data Speeds in Twigby Self Care
With the progression of data speeds has come an increase in data consumption. To put it simply, utilizing faster data speeds uses up data quicker. Although the highest speeds are convenient, they are not always the best option. At Twigby, we recognize that sometimes making your data last is more important than getting your Google search to load in a nanosecond.
Twigby is unique in allowing users to change and choose their data speeds. You can choose to customize your data to 7 different speed settings which vary between 2G and 4G speeds. When set to Max, your phone will connect at the highest speed available based on your connection. If you’re willing to slow down your speed from time to time, you can save quite a bit of money!
You’re always connected with Twigby.
Many might worry about running out of data, making you want to consider a plan that includes unlimited data. We have found that the majority people do not use enough data though to justify the extremely high prices associated with unlimited data plans. If you’re stuck somewhere in the middle on a choice like this, remember that with Twigby, you’re always connected!
When you reach your allotment of data each month (with Overage Protection ON), you still have access to data at 2G speeds. Then you can decide if you would like to move to the next data tier or not. If you want to stay at faster speeds, just leave Overage Protection OFF, and you will simply be bumped up to the next data tier, only paying the difference between the two tiers.
You can rest easy knowing that your data can last you the whole month without paying for more than you need at Twigby.