In the digital age, traveling does not mean disconnecting from our smartphone. It doesn’t matter that we have a Android or a iPhone, it is almost imperative to carry our active smartphone everywhere we go, particularly if we leave the country. However, mobile data consumption can increase considerably during our stay abroad.
To avoid surprises on the bill when paying our monthly data plan and keep control of consumption in order, here are some tricks that will help you save mobile data when traveling.
The order of appearance of each tip or tip in the list does not indicate a particular weight of relevance. But we strongly recommend paying attention to the first one and then paying special attention to the rest. If we follow each one in the end we will see that our bill to pay will be much more sensible.
The golden rule: disable automatic operating system updates
Automatic app updates can consume a genuinely ridiculous amount of data. To avoid surprises, disable them or set them to only occur when you are connected to a network Wifi which, obviously, is not one of some second smartphone of our property that we enable as HotSpot.
If, on top of that, at some point a security patch or an update to our mobile operating system is released, data consumption will skyrocket considerably. So we strongly recommend disabling that default setting now.
Download series, movies and music to avoid streaming
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify, Disney Plus and practically any streaming app allows you to download content in advance in its paid version. So before embarking on your trip, we recommend downloading your favorite movies, series and songs.
With this we can enjoy hours and hours of entertainment without consuming a single byte of our mobile data while traveling abroad or even in national territory.
Do the same but with your map apps to see them offline
Platforms like Google Maps either waze Fortunately, they allow us to download offline maps of the cities or regions we will visit. In this way, we can navigate and find our route without needing an internet connection.
This is a vital survival tip that will save you substantially. Since spending mobile data with map applications in the long run becomes something brutal when it comes to reviewing the billing receipt.
Disable data roaming for unnecessary apps
iOS is a little more complicated for this, but Android, especially in the layers of manufacturers like Samsung, OPPO and similar, allows you to configure the blocking of data roaming app by app.
Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and X They consume a ton of data in the background when you’re not using them. So it’s best to disable that.
Furthermore, both Android as iOS They have a data saving function that limits the consumption of background applications. Activate this mode to reduce mobile data usage during your trip.
Use Wi-Fi whenever possible and monitor every megabyte of data consumption
Take advantage of Wi-Fi networks available in hotels, restaurants, cafes and other public places to surf the internet. At the same time, we recommend always being attentive to data consumption, which will help us identify which applications consume the most and take measures to reduce their use in real time immediately.
It is vital to be aware of data consumption at all times and avoid at all times those activities that require consuming too many browsing resources. For example, watching videos or listening to music should be considered prohibited unless offline.
Extra bonus: sign up for an international data plan if you have questions
If you travel abroad, it doesn’t hurt to consider the possibility of contracting an international data plan with your mobile operator. In some cases, outside Mexico and Chile, The operators offer attractive and not so expensive plans.
But if our trip will be for a long time, sometimes the best alternative is to get a local SIM card from the place where we are going. You will be surprised to discover the cheap which may be the cost of mobile browsing outside Latin America.
