Five Apps that Will Destroy Your Data Limit

If you are among the many who go to their smartphones for everything - communication, news updates, information, and entertainment - you may find yourself in a monthly wrestling match with your data limit. Some apps have particularly voracious appetites for data. Here are five of those apps along with tips to help you minimize the damage.

Netflix

If you can’t wait until you get home and plop down in front of that big screen to veg out in front of a movie or feed your Doctor Who habit, you might turn to your phone as an alternative. Netflix is one of the worst culprits when it comes to data consumption. An article at PCWorld offers this frightening statistic: 10 minutes of viewing on Netflix can use between 100 and 200MB of data. This means that less than one hour of Netflix awesomeness can about to an entire gigabyte of dates - yikes!

The best way to avoid going over your data limit is to cut movie and video streaming altogether from your smartphone usage. If you can’t resist, however, try to settle for snippets and not full-length episodes and movies. The article mentioned above points out that ten minutes of YouTube viewing per day can consume close to 1GB in a month - definitely an improvement over Netflix.

Spotify

If you’re a teenager, you might belong to the throngs who foster a music addiction. You might listen to music on the bus, at school, while you’re doing your homework, and while you’re pretending to clean your room. However, as PCWorld points out, If you choose to stream music at the ‘medium’ bit rate of 160 kilobits per second, listening to Spotify for an hour a day for a month will cost you about 2.1GB of data.

Of course, if you aren’t super concerned about sound quality, you can choose a lower bit rate to save on data. Pandora is another option; listening to it for an hour per day will amount to roughly 1.76GB in a month.

The best choice is not to use any data at all. Download your favorite songs to your device and save the streaming for when you’re at home and have a reliable Internet connection.

Google+ Hangouts

Video conferencing is a staple of many business dealings, so if you run your own business or have to have face-to-face chats over the Internet often, it could be killing your data limit. Google+ Hangouts uses about 30MB in two minutes. Contrast that with the 5MB in two minutes used by Skype, and you know which app is the smarter choice when you’re away from Wi-Fi hotspots.

Google+ Hangouts is still a handy app, however. A reliable Internet connection at home helps you take full advantage of it. Check out deals on Internet service in the state where you live. Residents of the Peach State should take a few minutes to investigate options for Georgia dsl service.

Games

There is not one game in particular that takes the data consumption cake, but it’s the great looking games with multiplayer modes that push your limit. These games are tough to resist while you’re killing time on your lunch break or sitting on the bus during your daily commute. Try to opt for simple games that don’t require an Internet connection. You think you can rekindle your Sudoku obsession?

Navigation

You know how to get to work and the grocery store, but if you live in a big city, chances are you need turn-by-turn help once in a while. An article at Gizmodo states, turn-by-turn navigation uses an average of 5 megabytes of data for every hour it’s operational.

Granted, that seems like nothing compared to some of the other apps considered above. It still won’t hurt you to rely on printed or e-mailed directions. Having a buddy in the car to read directions and help you navigate, while not always possible, is a good idea so you can keep your eyes on the road.

How does your monthly data consumption look? With a good Internet connection at home, common sense, and a dash of self-control, you can keep your limit untouched.