Going over your monthly data allowance?

That awkward moment when you hit your data limit for the month and its only the 12th... The rest of the month is spent begging for WiFi passwords and trying to stay on top of your Snapchat streaks, post your selfies to Instagram and keep up with Facebook and Twitter. Bad times, as they say...

In the UK 56% of 16-24 year olds say they use their phone "too much". Average monthly data usage is on the rise, from 500MB per month in 2010 to 2GB at the start of this year. Experts forecast this to rise to over 5GB p/m in the next few years. We all know the pain of not having any data left, so we wanted to share with you some useful tips and tricks that can help you eek-out your GB's for a few extra days on your iPhone or cellular iPad.

Manage the most data-hungry apps

You can stop specific apps from using mobile data. Simply head to Settings > Mobile Data and scroll down to see specific apps and how much data they've used. A good suggestion would be to turn off mobile data for the App Store. This will only allow automatic updates of your apps and content from the App Store, whilst you’re on a WiFi connection. When the Facebook app is nearly 300MB and a single Office app like Word is nearly 1GB, you can very quickly burn through your data cap if these are downloading whilst you are on a 3/4G connection.

Mobile data

Use WiFi where possible

Maybe obvious based on the point above about app updates, but still one of the most effective. If you can, use WiFi where possible. That said, exercise a bit of caution when using public WiFi hotspots by reading our blog on how to keep your data private and secure.

Download mobile network applications

The major UK cellular networks (3, Vodafone, EE & O2) now have their own apps. These apps can help you manage the details of your plan and see exactly how much data you have remaining.

You can download each of them from the following links:

Turn off Wi-Fi Assist

Wi-Fi Assist enables you to stay connected to the internet, even when you have a poor WiFi connection. With this setting enabled, if you’re using an app that requires an internet connection, but the connection you’re on is poor, your mobile data will be automatically used to improve connectivity. Although, in principle, this sounds useful, you can easily use a lot of data without knowing about it.

To switch this off, go to Settings > Mobile Data and scroll past the list of apps and their data usage to find a toggle labelled "Wi-Fi Assist". If you experience connectivity issues after toggling this to off, you can always switch it back on and helpfully, there's a data indicator that tells you how much data this feature has used in the current period (or since your last reset).

Reset your data usage

In the mobile data section of the settings menu, you will find current period. This shows you how much data you’ve used, in the period since you last reset it. This might be a large number, but don’t panic, the likelihood is you’ve not reset your statistics in a while (if you've ever reset it at all..). When your monthly allowance renews, reset this to keep an eye on how much data you use each month.

Mobile data

Turn off your data altogether

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you’re concerned about going over your data cap and getting charged extra or needing to buy more data, turning off mobile data altogether can be a good last resort. Apps which require an active internet connection won’t work, of course, but there are apps such as Spotify, Apple Music, and Podcasts that allow you to download music to use offline. Similarly, Netflix now allows you to download and store selected films, TV shows and documentaries for offline viewing, so you can feed your next mobile binge-watch by downloading your shows whilst you still have a good WiFi connection.

Even Google Maps now has the capability to allow you to download maps of an area to your device so you can still find your way around a new or strange place, without the worry of eating up your mobile data allowance. This is especially useful if you are travelling abroad and roaming charges for data can be extreme!

Remaining connected and available via our smartphones is, or can be incredibly important to many people. We hope that these tips can help you remain connected for longer.

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