How to watch Netflix and YouTube without draining your mobile data plan

March 21st, 2016

You might have heard the news by now that T-Mobile is letting people stream videos for free when using their services. Feeling left out, but don’t want the hassle of switching phone providers?

Say “Farewell” to FOMO (fear of missing out), with these tips and tricks for saving data while binge watching video on your mobile device, no matter what carrier you have. That’s right – you can still watch those adorable cat videos on YouTube (they never get old) or keep up to date with the latest political drama on Netflix without breaking the bank.

Use a data-savings app

Cut down that video data before it even lands on your phone and extend your data plan. The free data-savings Opera Max app reduces your data usage on video (and images and websites) across all the apps on your phone. When streaming videos on Netflix and YouTube, Opera Max means you can save up to 60% of your data and even keep track of how many precious megabytes you’ve saved.

Stream on Wi-Fi connections

Wi-Fi is your best friend when your are on a limited data plan. Whenever you can, connect to Wi-Fi for your video viewing. How can you check if you are near a Wi-Fi hotspot? Choose an app that can help you track nearby connections, like Wi-Fi Finder or Wifi Analyzer.

Turn down video quality

When you’re streaming video on your small phone screen, you don’t need high resolution. Many video apps give you the ability to change video quality in their settings. In the YouTube app, for example, just tap the three-dots menu and click Quality to lower it. For Netflix, just log into your account and under your profile choose from the three settings available: Low (0.3GB/hour), Medium (0.7GB/hour) or High (up to 3GB/hour).

Set a limit for your data use

A simple solution to help you avoid surprise overages from mobile video is putting a limit on your data right within your device. In Android, you can do this by going to your device settings, and then tapping the data usage option. Simple turn on “Alert me about data usage” to receive notifications about how much data you are consuming. (Or, even better, Opera Max has a feature that alerts you when any of your apps are using too much data.)

If you want to watch more videos on the go, while saving data and skipping the hassle of changing phone services, just try these simple tips. Less FOMO, more video.