If you’re worried about using too much mobile data, you can dive into the Settings of the Pixel phone and turn off background data for any application.
One of the benefits of an Android smartphone or tablet, is that our 3rd-party applications can do a lot of stuff on our devices. While this generally translates into very powerful applications that let us use our device the way we want, it can also have its drawbacks. There are times in which an application is more focused on doing something, even if you don’t want it to.
A big factor here is how much data an application uses.
When you have an application open, you expect it to be using your mobile data. The thing is, there are some applications where expect this data usage to be halted in the background (meaning when you close the application). However, some applications (social ones in particular) and games can eat up a ton of data when you aren’t even using it. If this is the case, and you want to stop this, then all you have to do is follow these steps.
Unless an OEM has removed (or moved) this feature, you can do this on any Android 7.0 Nougat device.
Pixel Stop App Background Data
- Launch the Settings application
- Scroll down and tap on the Apps option
- Locate and tap on the offending application or game
- Then tap on the Data Usage option
- And then tap on the Background Data toggle to turn it off
Explanation
There are a number of applications that you need to let use data in the background. Then there are some applications that you simply want to let use your mobile data in the background. But then there are applications where you have zero need for it to be using any of your data while it’s not open. Sadly, there are times in which an application can bug out and chew through all of your allotted data within a few hours.
If you’ve ever experienced this, or simply want to prevent an application from using any of your data while it’s in the background, it’s good to know there’s a way to stop this from happening. As mentioned, this feature should be present on all Android 7.0 Nougat devices, but an OEM (like Samsung or LG) could move this or even remove it completely. The place to manage your applications shouldn’t be hard to find though.
So to start, you’ll want to launch the Settings application and then scroll down to the Device section. Here, you’ll find an option labeled Apps, and inside there will be a list of all the applications and games that are currently installed. Scroll through this list and find the application you want to stop from using your background data. Once you tap on the application, you should see a Data Usage option to tap on.
This page will give you some information about how much data the app has used during a certain time period. Android will even section this off between background data (when you have stopped using the app) and foreground data (when you’re actively using the app). You’ll also find a Background Data toggle here that will let you prevent the application or game from using any data while you’re not actively using it.
By default, this toggle is set to on, but you can simply tap it to toggle it off. Alternatively, you can also allow unrestricted data usage for an application (with the toggle at the bottom) so that it will continue to use background data when you have enabled Data Saver.
