How much data does a video call use on whatsapp
How much mobile data does video calling use?
Facetime, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Skype have all revolutionised the way we communicate, whether that is with family and friends or business video conference across the world. We have moved away from costly international telephone calls but are we appreciating the true cost of higher data usage bills instead?
Many people are surprised to discover that the amount of data used on video calling varies depending on which apps are used. Apple’s Facetime is typically found to use the least data but may not always be a viable option as you can only call fellow Apple users.
How much data does Facetime use?
Video calling on Facetime using your mobile data plan will use approximately 130mb to 180mb per hour, depending on your version of iOS. If you keep your iOS updated your data usage will be towards the lower figure, however you should always keep up to date with the latest iOS news as this may change in the future.
It is possible to restrict your ability to make and receive Facetime calls when there is no Wi-Fi connection in order to avoid excess data usage. Go to Settings, then Mobile Data, scroll to Facetime and use the slider to turn mobile data off.
How much data does a Whatsapp video call use?
Whatsapp video calls have been found to use the most data in independent tests, approximately 25mb for a 5 minute video call can be expected. This adds up to 300mb after an hour of video calls – approximately double the amount used by Facetime.
To reduce Whatsapp call data usage go to Settings, Data and Storage Usage and under Call Settings select ‘Low Data Usage’. This may affect your video call quality.
How much data does a Facebook Messenger video call use?
A Facebook Messenger call can be one of the most convenient ways to reach your Facebook contacts. Data usage for an hour of calls is approximately 260mb. Again, it is important to take measures to reduce your data usage during Facebook Messenger calls by making sure that you are on a wifi connection where possible.
How much data does a Skype video call use?
Skype app-to-app video calls use approximately 225mb for an hour of calls, slightly less than Facebook and Whatsapp calls.
If video quality isn’t important for your call you can reduce the amount of data used during video calls by reducing the video call quality in your Skype app settings.
Although data usage for video calls can be small for the short 5-10 minute calls here and there, this can quickly add up if the calls become longer and more regular. Look at the data usage for a video call against your overall data usage limit for the month to work out how many calls you can comfortably conduct over your mobile data, don’t forget to take into account your normal day-to-day data usage.
You can save your mobile data by having as many of your calls as possible via a Wi-Fi connection and ensuring that your apps are all optimised for data-saving.
How can the Apps2Data app help?
If you are a frequent user of video calling apps you may benefit from the Apps2Data service. By monitoring data usage throughout the day you can pinpoint any particular calls which were heavy on data and be aware of this in future.
With an overall picture of your, or your business data usage throughout the month, Apps2Data puts you back in control.
How to reduce data usage on WhatsApp video call?
Whatsapp has now become one of the most popular messaging apps ever to exist. The app has just about every feature you’d expect from a modern-day messaging app, including internet-based voice and video calls.
However, we’re not always connected to Wi=Fi, and as we all know, video calls can be first-degree data hogs. If you’re out and about and low on mobile data, making a video call might make you a bit uncomfortable because it’s highly likely that you’ll run out of data.
Another case is when you’ve already run out of data, and now your internet speeds are slower than a sloth. In such cases, reducing the data usage that Whatsapp video calls put on your connection’s bandwidth can not only help you save data but also might help you have stable video calls when you’re already exhausted your daily data limit.
In this article, we’re going over a few simple steps using which you can drastically reduce just how much data your Whatsapp video calls use.
Also read: WhatsApp vs Signal vs Telegram: Which one is the most secure?
It’s tough to put an accurate number on how much data does a video call exactly use. However, on a 4G network, a Whatsapp video call uses somewhere between 800KB to 1MB of data per minute on average.
After turning the data saver on, you can expect this usage to drop down to around 400-700KB per minute
Also read: How to fix ‘Waiting for this message’ error on WhatsApp?
Note that these steps will also apply to Whatsapp voice calls, meaning you’ll be able to save data on those as well. Open the app on your device and follow the steps mentioned below to reduce data usage during Whatsapp video calls.
- Open Whatsapp and tap on the three vertical dots in the top right.
- Tap on Settings.
- Head over to Storage and data.
- Enable the Use less data for calls slider.
You can also consider turning off mobile data or downloading Whatsapp media only over WiFi to save more data.
Also read: How to use WhatsApp on Samsung Galaxy smartwatches?
Yadullah Abidi
Someone who writes/edits/shoots/hosts all things tech and when he’s not, streams himself racing virtual cars. You can reach out to Yadullah at [email protected], or follow him on Instagram or Twitter.
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How much traffic WhatsApp consumes and how to save it wisely
It would seem that messengers are not the applications that require a lot of Internet.
In fact, it all depends on how actively and how to use them. Under certain conditions, even on WhatsApp, you can effortlessly spend about ten gigabytes per month. With a limited internet package, it would be nice to know how much traffic WhatsApp consumes in general and how to save it wisely. Let's look into this issue.
Data usage
First, let's talk about how much WhatsApp consumes while running in the background. This is just 1 MB of traffic per day. Then there are text messages, each character sent consumes 1.6 bytes. That is, 1 MB of traffic is enough for 655360 characters in correspondence, and this is not the volume of the smallest book novel.
Voice messages are "heavier" in order, one such message per minute will require 160 Kb of traffic, and for 1 MB it will be possible to record messages for 6 minutes and 40 seconds. Audio calls consume even more - 350 KB per minute of conversation. But they are still far from video communication - 6.7 MB per minute.
Files carry the biggest load. Sending documents, photos or videos takes the lion's share of traffic. This is despite the fact that WhatsApp compresses images and videos by default, degrading their quality but reducing their weight.
It is worth mentioning two more sources that consume the Internet. The first is backup. It allows you to restore correspondence and files attached to them when you reinstall the messenger. Perhaps this is due to sending all the contents of your WhatsApp account to the cloud storage. Naturally, this consumes traffic, the amount of which depends on the volume of files and messages. The second is the automatic update of the messenger, the size of updates can be either very tiny or reach tens of megabytes.
How to save bandwidth
If your Internet is very limited and WhatsApp consumes too much, then you can resort to the following steps to reduce Internet consumption:
- Refuse voice messages, audio and video calls in favor of text.
In any case, you will convey the necessary information, and you will spend much less traffic. - If it is not possible to refuse calls, then you should at least save on them by activating the appropriate mode: "Menu" -\u003e "Settings" -\u003e "Data and Storage" -\u003e "Call Settings" -\u003e activate "Data Saving".
- Disable chat backup or do it as infrequently as possible, the maximum possible value is once a month.
- Disable automatic messenger updates. You can update WhatsApp as needed over Wi-Fi, saving data.
- Download sent photos, videos and other files only when connected via Wi-Fi, not mobile Internet. You can do this through the WhatSapp settings at the address "Menu" -\u003e "Settings" -\u003e "Data and storage" -\u003e "Startup media".
Topic: 7 most useful Whatsapp chips that few people know about
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How much traffic WhatsApp consumes - how to save
Traffic consumption when using WhatsApp
- Post author: Sergey
- This entry was published on: 04/25/2022
- Post category: FAQ
- Reading time: 2 minutes of reading
- Entry modified: 04/25/2022
CONTENTS
- 1 What is WhatsApp traffic used for
- 1.
1 Calling costs - 1.2 How to calculate your traffic consumption
- 1.
- 2 Ways to save costs
- 3 Conclusion
WhatsApp is a service designed to communicate in a variety of formats. Subscribers can talk in real time using the smartphone's camera and microphone, as well as send text and multimedia content to each other. Already in 2016, the messenger became completely free. Service subscribers pay only the Internet service provider. Knowing the approximate traffic consumption, the user can minimize the cost of communication by correctly distributing priorities. This is especially important if the subscriber uses a tariff plan, the rates of which depend on the number of megabytes transferred. How much traffic does WhatsApp consume next.
What Votsap traffic is spent on
Internet usage while the application is running is distributed as follows:
- Daily traffic consumption while running in the background is 1024 bytes.
- Forwarding a text message of 100 characters will require a corresponding consumption of 160 bytes.
- When sending or receiving multimedia files, internet costs depend on the amount of content. Materials with a large "weight" are automatically compressed to save traffic. The quality of the processed images is reduced.
- An audio message lasting one minute corresponds to a transfer of 140 kilobytes.
- Chat history backup usually requires a lot of traffic and depends on the amount of multimedia content.
- Upgrading the software version also incurs costs.
Costs for calls
Communication with a picture requires more internet consumption. A minute of conversation without including an image uses 350 kilobytes, a similar conversation time with a picture is about 6.6 megabytes. One hour of video conversation corresponds to 400 MB transfer.
How to calculate traffic consumption
Mobile devices contain built-in utilities for calculating network connection costs.
Access to the option depends on the platform on which the smartphone is running. Most often, the information is located inside the options menu, in the "Connections" section. The name of the option varies: "Data usage", "Traffic monitoring", "Internet consumption".
Using this option, you can see the consumption of mobile data for a specific application for a selected period, as well as set a limit on data transfer through a specific service. When the limit is exhausted, all types of communication through the messenger will be blocked.
To clarify information about Internet consumption, you can use special utilities. There are programs that allow you to set up notifications about approaching the set limit, as well as regulate data transfer depending on roaming, connection method and other conditions.
Inside the WhatsApp application, you can check the statistics related to the traffic used, including highlighting information on specific interlocutors.
The "Network usage" option is located in the "Settings" menu section, inside the "Data storage" block.
Ways to save costs
There are several methods to help you minimize your internet usage when communicating.
- Minimize the forwarding of multimedia attachments.
- Refuse calls and switch to text messages.
- Activate the data saving option in the call settings menu (“Data storage” block).
- Receive media only when using WiFi. You can configure the media download option inside the "Data and storage" block.
- Subscribe to the free social media service from your mobile operator.
- When configuring the option to automatically create chat backups, limit the ability to save by specifying "via WiFi". In this case, the data will be sent to the server only when a free WiFi connection is detected.
- Prevent automatic installation of new versions of the application on the gadget.
Voice messages are not multimedia files. You cannot disable automatic download for this type of messages.
