There’s no doubt that you have dozens (or even hundreds) of apps installed on your smartphone. It’s important to understand what these apps do. As part of this, we monitor how much each app communicates with the outside world. I’ve previously written about how to check your data usage on your Android device, but here we’ll focus on the iPhone.
There are several reasons to monitor your phone’s data usage. First, keep in mind that while unlimited data plans are much more popular than they used to be, these plans often come with speed limits after a certain amount each month. Also, if you’re on a limited plan and an app exceeds your data allowance while you’re away from Wi-Fi, you may incur charges, especially if you’re abroad.
Then there’s the privacy aspect. If you take a closer look at your phone’s data usage numbers, you may find that some apps are uploading and downloading far more than they actually need given their functionality. This is another way to identify suspicious app activity that requires further investigation.
Before delving into these settings, it’s a good idea to review the details of your data plan to understand what your limits are. This is typically done through the web or an app. You should be able to confirm this with your carrier. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile all have useful online FAQ pages.
Check data usage of apps on iPhone
To see how much data an app uses on iOS, open Settings and select mobile phone. At the top right there is a toggle switch to turn cellular data on and off. If you turn this off, the app won’t be able to go online at all unless connected to Wi-Fi. (Calls and text messages will still work.)
- Tap cellular data options turn data roaming On or off. This affects your phone’s data access when you’re outside your carrier’s network (usually when you’re abroad).
- Back mobile phone Scroll down the screen to see how much cellular and roaming data you’ve used in the ‘current period’. That means since the last time you manually reset these statistics.
- Next to each installed app, you’ll see the amount of data uploaded or downloaded during this period. You will see that the apps that used the most data are listed at the top. Block mobile data access for specific apps using the toggle switch on the right.
- Tap system services Check data usage on your iOS system and cover activities such as push notifications and software updates.
Scroll down to the bottom of your list of apps to see when your data usage statistics were last reset. If you want to reset them (perhaps to monitor your daily or weekly usage), tap . Reset statistics.
Turn on low data mode on iPhone
In addition to blocking or completely turning off individual apps’ access to mobile data, iOS has other options you can use to limit data usage while away from Wi-Fi. . That’s “low data mode.”
Apple says this will pause automatic updates and “background tasks” while you’re away from Wi-Fi, but it doesn’t elaborate much on what those background tasks are. One trade-off specifically mentioned is the lower bitrate of FaceTime calls.
- From iOS settings, tap . mobile phone after that cellular data options.
- Tap data mode to find low data mode option.
Options displayed next to low data mode Depends on the network. For example, you may see an option to allow more data with 5G. This means your iPhone will use his faster 5G connection over his Wi-Fi (if available).
If you want to make sure your app isn’t transmitting data over your cellular network or Wi-Fi, always remember that there’s airplane mode. Swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen to reveal Control Center, where you can tap the airplane icon to enable or disable airplane mode.
