5 Ways to Save Up to 60% of your Mobile Data in Ghana
Did you just bundle internet data and soon you realise it's all gone? What's worse is that internet data is expensive in Ghana.
Here are 5 reasons why you run out of data and how you can save your data:
1. Videos
Watching videos on our phones has become very popular since the introduction of YouTube, WhatsApp, Snapchat and Instagram.
And we know video files are relatively larger and therefore consume more data than text and picture files. If you want to save data on videos, these are what you should do.
On WhatsApp, go to settings, tap Data and Storage Usage and under Media Auto-download, uncheck Videos when using mobile data.
On Facebook, open settings, go to App Settings, tap Autoplay and choose Never Autoplay Videos.
On Instagram, go to Options and under Settings tap Cellular Data Use and choose Use Less Data.
On Snapchat, go to Settings, tap Manage Additional Settings and enable Travel Mode.
2. Auto-Updates
Leaving your device to auto update apps and system can cause your data to quickly finish. You should turn your auto-update off if you don't want to wake up to find out that your data bundle is down to 0 MB.
If you want to save data, it is advisable to manually download your app updates when you have bought enough data or to download updates when you are connected to Wi-Fi.
To do that on your Android phone, open Google Play Store and under Settings choose Auto-update apps over Wi-Fi only.
On your iPhone, go to Settings, find iTunes and App Store and turn off Automatic Downloads.
Related: Buy Apps on Google Play Store Using MTN Mobile Money
3. Adverts
Adverts served on websites and apps consume a lot of mobile data. It's even more annoying when the advert has no relevance to you.
A typical example is seeing that Jumia advert over and over again asking you to buy that product you already purchased from their online store.
If you want to save data by avoiding most of these adverts on websites, you should download Opera Mini browser from your app store and make sure you enable the Data Savings by choosing either Automatic or Extreme. Remember also to enable Ad-blocking and Video Boost.
If you don't mind seeing those adverts, you should use Google Chrome browser. But you should go to Chrome's settings, tap Data Saver and enable the data saver mode.
4. Data Bundle Subscription
One big mistake some of us make is failing to subscribe for a mobile data bundle. It is always cheaper to subscribe for a data bundle than to use the internet using your normal credit.
All the mobile networks in Ghana provide the option for their customers to subscribe for data bundles. If you fail to subscribe for a data bundle and leave your mobile phone to run on your normal credit, chances are you are going to run out of your prepaid credit soon.
The mobile telecom operators know this and they advise customers to bundle internet data. If you forget the various network codes for data subscription you can check them out here.
5. Streaming Music and Videos
Streaming music and videos is also a major consumer of mobile data. Instead of streaming music all the time, you should rather download music onto your phone.
If you use Apple Music, you can save data by adding songs to your library, you can aslo download songs to your phone if you use Deezer.
YouTube's mobile app also allows you to download certain videos for offline viewing. You must be signed in first to download videos. Videos downloaded only last for 48 hours.
Extra
For Android users, you may switch to using Facebook Lite, Messenger Lite and Twitter Lite apps. These lighter versions will save you loads of data. Search and download the apps on Play Store.
Do you know any other way we often lose data and how to save data? Let us know.