Website Offers Insight Into Data-eating Smartphone Apps
By Chelsea Karnash
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Data plan disappearing before your eyes each month? Now, a new website aims to tell you which apps are hogging your data.
KnowMyApp.org, created by CTIA – The Wireless Association, is a new website that provides information on how some of the most popular mobile apps use your data.
Along with Intertek Testing Services North America, the organization says it tested tons of apps available for both iPhone and Android and compiled data usage estimates for many of them. Netflix, Google Maps and Snapchat are all among those listed on the site, along with info on exactly how the apps were tested.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out some of the most popular applications eat up a lot of data. While three 10 minute sessions daily of the addictive game Candy Crush Saga uses only 8.11 mb of a 2GB monthly plan (or 0%), watching just nine minutes of a television show and perusing functions offered in the Netflix app twice daily will put a user way over the limit, eating 206% of that 2GB plan.
According to CTIA, there are ways that smartphone users can conserve data and still enjoy a stimulating round of Words with Friends every now and then. Suggestions include switching from cellular to Wi-Fi service when it's available, minimizing unused apps and using the settings in your apps to disable or minimize updates so that they only operate on Wi-Fi.
Of course, you could always steer clear of downloading the latest version of Fruit Ninja, or binge-watch "Orange is the New Black" on your television. But with most people reaching for their cell phone within 15 minutes of waking up in the morning, that seems a little unrealistic.
