A new app-usage finding shows that on an average over thirty per cent of all data on your smartphone is used by apps running in the background with Facebook Messenger and Gmail being the most data-hungry of the lot.
The report -- conducted through millions of Opera Max users - shows that Facebook Messenger and Gmail account for some 73% of total data usage happening in the background. Apps like Google Drive and WhatsApp meanwhile consume 50% background data, according to the finding.
The finding is based on data from anonymous aggregated statistics among Opera Max users in December 2015. "Most apps are made to give a great user experience, not to save data. If you fetch background data through your data plan, it's like throwing away $1 out of every $3 you spend on your mobile data plan," Sergey Lossev, product manager at Opera Software said.
Background data is all the internet traffic that goes on when you're not actually using an app. "Most people are not aware of this background data drain and may not have authorised it, nor do they know how to stop it from happening," Lossev added.
In lieu of this, Opera has also announced Smart Alerts that automatically identify apps that use a lot of data in the background. "Smart Alerts help you easily manage your background data usage, as well as getting helpful tips and suggestions on how to prevent apps from devouring your data," Lossev said.
Alerts will show up inside Opera Max as a card in the "Data usage timeline", a card in "App management" and in the OS notification bar, to help better manage background data consumption. Users will also get a pop-up when Opera Max detects heavy, rapid background data usage.
The report -- conducted through millions of Opera Max users - shows that Facebook Messenger and Gmail account for some 73% of total data usage happening in the background. Apps like Google Drive and WhatsApp meanwhile consume 50% background data, according to the finding.
The finding is based on data from anonymous aggregated statistics among Opera Max users in December 2015. "Most apps are made to give a great user experience, not to save data. If you fetch background data through your data plan, it's like throwing away $1 out of every $3 you spend on your mobile data plan," Sergey Lossev, product manager at Opera Software said.
Background data is all the internet traffic that goes on when you're not actually using an app. "Most people are not aware of this background data drain and may not have authorised it, nor do they know how to stop it from happening," Lossev added.
In lieu of this, Opera has also announced Smart Alerts that automatically identify apps that use a lot of data in the background. "Smart Alerts help you easily manage your background data usage, as well as getting helpful tips and suggestions on how to prevent apps from devouring your data," Lossev said.
Alerts will show up inside Opera Max as a card in the "Data usage timeline", a card in "App management" and in the OS notification bar, to help better manage background data consumption. Users will also get a pop-up when Opera Max detects heavy, rapid background data usage.