Data Saver: Usage & Blocker

Your phone tells you how much data you used. It does not tell you which app is the problem, and it will not stop it for you. Data Saver does both.

If your phone came with a data-saving app that has since been discontinued, this does the same two jobs: shows what spends your data, and stops it.

WHAT YOU SEE

Every app on your phone, ranked by how much data it used this billing cycle. Mobile and Wi-Fi counted separately, because only one of them costs you money.

Each app is also split into foreground and background. Foreground is data you spent — you opened the app and used it. Background is data the app spent on its own, while you were doing something else. That second number is the one you can act on, and most apps never show it to you.

On the phone this app was built on, a tile-matching puzzle game was the single largest data consumer of the month — ahead of the social apps, ahead of video. Nothing on the phone said so.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Restrict any app straight from the row showing its usage. No separate screen, no hunting through a list. Restricted apps cannot reach the network until you allow them again.

You can also decide this per network. Block an app on mobile data and leave it working normally on Wi-Fi — which on a metered bundle is usually what you actually want, since only one of those two costs you anything.

There is a one-tap action to restrict everything that spends most of its data in the background, so you do not have to work through them one by one.

Set your monthly bundle and the app shows what is left and how long it has to last.

After you restrict an app, Data Saver keeps measuring, and shows you an estimate of what being restricted has saved. It records what the app was spending before, so the comparison means something.

YOUR NOTIFICATIONS KEEP WORKING

Notifications on Android are delivered by Google Play Services, not by each app's own connection. Restrict the wrong thing and every notification on your phone stops — messages, mail, calls. Data Saver will not let you do that by accident. Google Play Services, your dialler and your messaging app are protected and clearly marked.

THIS APP HAS NO INTERNET PERMISSION

Not "we promise not to". It is not in the manifest, so the app is technically incapable of sending anything anywhere. No accounts, no analytics, no crash reporting, no servers, no ads. The figures come from counters Android already keeps on your device.

You need not take our word for it: the permission list on this page is extracted from the app, not written by us.

Source: github.com/anubisproductions/data-saver-usage-blocker

HOW RESTRICTING WORKS

Data Saver uses Android's VpnService to create a local connection on your device only. It is not a VPN in the usual sense: no remote server, nothing routed anywhere, no traffic leaving your phone through this app. It is the standard Android way to control which apps may use the network without root.

Android will show you two things because of it, and both are expected. A key icon in the status bar, meaning a local connection exists. And, in quick settings, "This device is connected to the Internet through Data Saver" — Android's own wording for every app that uses this API, which we cannot change. It is not true here: there is nothing to connect through.

PERMISSIONS

• Usage access — the only way Android exposes per-app data figures. You grant it by hand.

• VpnService — the local connection used to restrict apps.

• Network state — to tell Wi-Fi from mobile. Reports connectivity only, grants no access.

• Run at startup — to restore your restrictions after a reboot.

FREE, AND USEFUL WHILE FREE

Every measurement, unlimited restrictions, the bundle gauge and the protected-apps guard are free, and that is the whole app. There is nothing to buy, no subscription, no advertising and no locked features. A paid tier would mean adding the internet permission, and this app is built not to have one.

Works offline. Requires Android 7.0 or later.