We all love Instagram, don’t we? All those incredible photos of food, fun, and frolic! Where would be without all the social validation it brings, right? However, this preoccupation with Instagram comes at a price, and that price is data!
Instagram consumes an incredible amount of data — a problem that has only compounded with every new feature they launch. Autoplaying videos and the Snapchat like “stories” all consume huge amounts of data.
By and large, there is nothing you can do to alter the data-hogging nature of the app. However, there are a few tweaks here and there that can help you restrain this data monster from completely devouring you 4G balance!
The very best method to save data is to disable auto-playing the videos in the app. Unfortunately, that option is no longer available since the iOS 7 update. That’s a major setback for those looking to preserve their data on the move. So the next best alternative is to manually rapid scroll through the screen at the first hint of a video! You can watch them later in the sanctuary of your home’s wifi.
Apart from this technically sound (but practically worthless) piece of advice, we do have some substantial, valuable input. Here’s what you gotta do:
- Fire up Instagram on your iPhone and head over to the Profile tab.
- Go to Settings.
- Scroll and find the option that reads “Cellular Data Use”.
- Flick the “Use Less Data” switch.
- Thank us, and be proud of your mad hacker skills!
Now, the feature does come with a warning. Turing it on “may affect your experience of using the app..” but our suggestion is to ignore the warning and be chill about the whole issue.
So what exactly happens when you enable this option?
If Instagram is to be believed, the setting will stop videos from auto-loading when you’re connected to the cellular network. When you get back to a wifi, however, the videos will start playing automatically again.
Please note that this does not stop the app from auto-playing the videos even while on data. It just stops them from pre-loading. Meaning that the videos will not load until you scroll down to them. So our original suggestion of rapid scrolling through the videos is actually golden!
Moral of the story is that sometimes, the silliest of things are actually quite solid in reality. But, that’s a philosophical discussion, and best left for a later stage. For now, all you like-mongers, go out there and share some photos of food!
