Most smartphone tariffs include data, for browsing the web, updating Facebook or using YouTube on the go. Allowances can range from 250MB to 1GB, but unless you are on an unlimited data tariff like T-Mobile’s The Fully Monty or Three’s The One Plan, go over your data allowance and you’ll incur charges – something that 10 per cent of the population do.
There are some apps that can reduce data consumption. One example is Onavo and another is Snappli. Snappli works by compressing 3G data by (the company claims) up to a quarter, it does this by making modifications to the font and picture resolution. The less data you use, the less likely you are to go over your monthly allowance and incur charges.
Snappli is a free app available for iOS, once downloaded you install an APN profile, which authorises your phone to send data to Snappli, it doesn’t take very long to install and then you can start saving data.
We’ve been using Onavo for the last year on an iPhone and we prefer Snappli’s user interface, not only is it slicker and more colourful, but the app use breakdown is far more detailed. Snappli
You can view how much data you’ve saved from apps used in the last 30 days, Today or All Time (above) and some apps It’s interesting to see that Snappli didn’t save any data when we used BBC iPlayer, however data saving with iTunes was 41 per cent and Podcasts 53 per cent.
Snappli also provides more control over data compression than Onavo. with sliders for adjusting Video and Image compression settings from 0 to 100 per cent (above right) – the higher the compression, the more data you’ll save. In fact the app is the first to data compression app to compress video, saving 30%.
Enter your tariff details, data limit and price and Snappli will let you know how much you are spending and there’s a roaming calculator if you go abroad.
Snappli also includes a feature called Speed Boost technology, designed to speed up loading times, according to the graph our speed increase was around 9 per cent (above) although we didn’t notice much difference.
With Onavo we were saving on average 287MB a month, a significant saving from our 750Mb allowance. We’ve been using Snappli for a week now and seen similar results, saving around 48MB, although we’d like to try if for a prolonged period of time.
If you’re an iOS user with a limited data allowance, then downloading Snappli is a no-brainer – especially if you accidentally go over your data allowance each month. It’s easy to use, free and genuinely can save you money
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