5 ways to reduce your WhatsApp mobile data usage
Pretty much everyone and their grandmother is on WhatsApp these days, with the Facebook-owned IM app accruing one billion users earlier this year.
We’ve already covered some nifty tips and tricks for the service, but what about reducing mobile data usage? We’ve got a few pointers for you.
Disable auto-download of videos
WhatsApp allows you to automatically download videos, photos, voice notes and documents over WiFi or mobile data. WiFi isn’t a problem, but you’ll want to save your precious mobile data, so visit the settings menu, then choose “data usage”.
From here, you’ll want to scroll to the “media auto-download” field and tap the “when using mobile data” option. You can then choose what gets automatically downloaded over mobile data. You’ll want to definitely turn off videos, as this is the easiest way to blow your mobile data allocation away.
Unless you’re viewing tons of images a day, you shouldn’t really worry about disabling “photos” from being automatically downloaded. Me? I do it anyway, as group chats can often get out of control with people posting images.
Reduce the voice call quality
Under “settings” and “data usage”, you’ll also find a toggle called “low data usage”, related to call settings.
By enabling this box, your WhatsApp Call quality will be reduced a tad but, in exchange, these calls won’t consume as much data.
