Do you want to limit the mobile data that some of your apps can use on your iPhone or iPad? If you’re on a metered plan and think this could be useful, you’ll be happy to hear that iOS makes it possible to set it up in a matter of seconds.
While it’s true that mobile tariffs increasingly include more data, restricting which apps can access mobile data. And which cannot can be very useful if your rate is small or if your consumption is high and you need to reduce it somehow.
Stop Apps from Using Cellular Data on iPhone & iPad
The following are the steps to take if you need to restrict certain apps on your iOS device from using mobile data.
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap on Mobile Data.
- Scroll down until you see list of apps.
- Use toggle button next to each of the apps, you do not want to allow to use mobile data.
As you can see, restricting apps from using mobile data is a straightforward process. You can check which applications have the highest data consumption by looking at the list of applications you’ll see, which is arranged from most to least; you might even find that some consume significantly more data than you expected.
In addition, Wi-Fi Assist can be accessed via the menu that appears beneath the app list. All iOS devices with cellular connectivity have this feature enabled by default, and it uses data instead of the WiFi connection if the latter becomes unstable. Because of this, you won’t experience any disruptions to your browsing experience, but you also won’t know for sure if your WiFi is actually working. You can save some data from your tariff by turning this feature off as well.
Data-hungry apps tend to be video-centric. Consider video-sharing platforms like YouTube or social media channels like Instagram, TikTok, etc. Syncing photos and videos in real time via mobile data to iCloud can significantly increase data usage. Avoid using these apps while roaming and restrict their use to Wi-Fi only.
