Streaming at home off your WiFi connection is fast, convenient and uncapped. Streaming when you’re not at home is a whole different story. Streaming uses more data than you might think, so you’ll need to be careful that you don’t wipe out your data bundle.
Picture the scene: you’re on a road trip, and you’re a passenger in the back seat, watching videos on your phone while the great South African landscape passes by. If you thought ahead, you’ll have downloaded movies, series, podcasts or music before you left home. If not, you’ll have to stream your entertainment.
How To Minimise TikTok Data Usage
Fortunately, TikTok has a data-saving mode which you can activate in the in-app settings. It’ll also help if you switch off the background app refresh in your phone settings; this will stop TikTok from running when you’re not using it. TikTok is also pretty addictive (which is exactly why you love it), so most of its data usage comes from all the hours you spend watching those silly dance videos. Set a time limit on the app in your phone’s setting to prevent hours and hours of mindless scrolling!
Another option is to use TikTok’s data-friendly alternative app, called Tiktok Lite. Available on for free on Google Play and the App Store, it takes up less storage space and also limits your data usage.
Make YouTube Less Data Intensive
If you’re more into YouTube, a simple fix is to adjust the video quality. You’re watching on your smartphone, so you don’t need a 1080p high-definition picture. Lower video quality means that few frames are being processed at a time, which lowers your data usage… and you probably won’t even notice the difference.
Oh, and turn off YouTube’s autoplay feature (it’s in the in-app settings) to prevent videos from playing continuously if you happen to fall asleep!
Mainstream Streaming Services Can Also Be managed
The same video quality rules apply to movies, series and sports on platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and DStv. In the app settings, adjust the picture quality so that you’re using less data. As an indication of how much you’ll save, consider this: when you stream in low resolution (up to 360p) on DStv, you’ll use about 210MB per hour; medium-res picture (up to 576p) is about 720MB/h; high res (up to 720p) is 1.3GB/h; and the highest resolution (up to 1080p) is 2.3GB/h. The difference, then, between pin-perfect quality and a low-res picture is more than 2 GB of data per hour.
It's worth noting that Netflix lets you change the data settings per account, so different accounts can have different data usages.
Save On Spotify
If the soundtrack to your life is streaming via Spotify, remember to switch on data saving mode on the app – and definitely switch off autoplay so that random songs don’t start downloading when you reach the end of your playlist! You can also lower audio quality in the app to save those precious megabytes of data. For podcasts that offer a video, turn the “canvas” off in the in-app settings to stream the audio only, and not the video.
Finally, remember to download your entertainment via WiFi whenever possible. There may be times when you can’t – and for those times, use the tips we’ve shared above. For a secure home internet connection, check out Vodacom Fibre and home internet solutions.
