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How to monitor data usage on Android and iOS

Have you ever wondered how much data you’ve already used? Do you have a feeling that you’ve already consumed your data allowance? Android and iOS devices have their own built-in data usage monitor. But these monitors are often too simple and lack proper information like which apps are using the most data and how much data a particular app uses. Don’t fret here are the top apps you can download to monitor the data usage of your Android and iOS devices.

Table of Contents

My Data Manager

My data manager is the most rated data monitoring app on Google play. It’s rated 4.5 by around 230,00 people on Google Play and 4+ by around 10,000 on the app store. It has an easy to use interface and provides the user with various means of tracking their data usage. Here are its features:

Monitor not only your Mobile data but also your WiFi and Roaming usage.
Set up a mobile data plan — This would allow you to create an individual plan, a shared plan or join an existing one. You can then set the monthly data allowance and when it renews if the plan is recurring or if the plan is prepaid set the one-time data allocation. A shared plan is for families or groups of people that share data allowance. The app will then monitor the total data usage of those involved.
Setup an Alarm — This feature warns you of your data usage. It will notify you at certain thresholds like if you’ve already consumed your daily budget or 90% of your data allowance. You can also set custom alarms if needed.
Maps — Monitor at which locations you’ve used data.
Apps — Monitors how much data your apps use.
History — Shows the history of your data usage.

The app monitors relatively quickly and gives a good breakdown of your internet usage. It’s Alarms and Data plan settings offer a lot of flexibility to the user.

You can download the Android version here and the iOS version here at no cost.

3G Watchdog

3G Watchdog is perhaps the most downloaded monitoring app on Google Play with over 10 million downloads. Though named “3G” the developers have updated the app to support 4G. It monitors data, wifi, and roaming usage in a very simplistic way. A notification icon will appear on your notification bar in the shape of a battery. If your device allows it this icon would be color-coded if not it’ll only be white. Like a battery, it would fill up and change color as you consume data. At a certain threshold (75% of your data allowance is the default setting) the app will notify you of your usage.

The home screen gives you a general overview of your data usage and how much data your apps are consuming (requires permission). You can set how often the app would refresh its graph. It also has widgets available should you want it.

Though free the app has a Pro version with more options and detailed information. The free version would suffice if you only need a data monitor.

You can get the free version here and the Pro version for Php145 here. It is only available on Android devices.

Data Usage Monitor

Data usage monitor may be the most simplistic of all the apps featured in this article. If you just want an app to monitor your data usage and nothing else then this is the one for you. After opening it for the first time you would be asked to setup your monthly, weekly, daily, and every 3 days data allowance. After that, you’re all set. It’ll start monitoring your data usage and warn you if you’re about to reach your limit.

You can purchase a widget and a notification bar should you wish but these should’ve been included for free and is a waste of money. You could also purchase a premium ticket for Php 250 to enable more options.

You can download the app on Google Play here.

DataMan Next

DataMan Next is a highly rated app on the app store. It provides a clean and easy way to monitor data usage on your iOS device. 2 of its most notable features are its Data Widget and Smart Forecast.

The apps Data Widget lets you view your data usage at any point on your screen via iOS 10’s Widget feature. While it’s Smart Forecast predicts if you’ll stay within your data allowance. It monitors your usage on an hourly basis and has 4 custom alert thresholds.

You can purchase DataMan Next for Php45 here. It has a Pro version with additional features here but that would cost you Php 250.

For Globe subscribers, you can also watch this video demo.

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Zen Estacio

Zen Estacio is a Multimedia Producer for YugaTech. He is the team's laptop guru and one of their resident gamers. He has a monthly column compiling the latest and greatest the Nintendo Switch has to offer. Aside from that, he regularly writes gaming news, reviews, and impressions. You can hit him up at @papanZEN

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2 Comments

tantrums says:

7 years ago

Most android phones now have a built in data monitor (just hanging around or buried) in the settings. This is just a tap away needing a simple setup and you’re good to go – just set your data cut-off for the month. For example my globe plan my cut-off is every 20th, so the cycle for one month was July 19th to August 20th, next cycle is August 21 to Sept 20 and so on.

No more additional app to drain your phone battery/resources.
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Raf says:

7 years ago

Let’s add Google Triangle as well in this list, using it for the past week. I am on PrePaid but it works perfectly.
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