Duo Data Usage

[eric002]

Hey everyone, so my mom used to have a Galaxy Note 2, and a couple of years ago, I upgraded her to a Pixel 3A XL which she loves. For video chatting, we use either Duo or Hangouts. My mom is on a 6 gig per month capped data plan from Verizon Wireless, and I have unlimited data. It seems like ever since my mom upgraded to her Pixel 3A XL though, her monthly data usage has gone up quite steadily even though she's using the phone exactly how she used to. She read on some forum that Pixel phones use more data from apps than other Android phones do... that part doesn't make sense to me.. has anyone else ever heard of anything like that before? She also read on the same forum that even if your phone is on Wi-Fi, when you're video chatting using Duo, Duo is still using mobile data in addition to Wi-Fi? Again, that also doesn't sound right to me....Has anyone herd of that issue either? Going forward, we'll have to use only Hangouts for video calling since it just uses Wi-Fi and no bile data whatsoever. Any help is appreciated for this really weird issue. I do not eve know the answer to this one! thanks a bunch!

 

[Rukbat]

Pixels use exactly the same amount of data for a given app as any other phone does - the app determines the amount of data it uses. If you have mobile data turned off and WiFi turned on, the phone can't use mobile data. (If you have them both turned on, it will use mobile data. So either have her turn mobile data off when she chats, or install Tasker [not free] and have it turn WiFi on and turn mobile data off when she runs Duo [and however she wants to run when she's not - although with a limited data plan, it's best to stay on WiFi when you can].)

 

[eric002]

Pixels use exactly the same amount of data for a given app as any other phone does - the app determines the amount of data it uses. If you have mobile data turned off and WiFi turned on, the phone can't use mobile data. (If you have them both turned on, it will use mobile data. So either have her turn mobile data off when she chats, or install Tasker [not free] and have it turn WiFi on and turn mobile data off when she runs Duo [and however she wants to run when she's not - although with a limited data plan, it's best to stay on WiFi when you can].)

I'm sorry, but that doesn't make too much sense to me. I mean isn't the idea if you're using Wi-fi, to not have the app use mobile data? That part makes no sense to me. What would be the point of using wi-fi then, if the app will just continue using mobile data?

 

[isired]

The Note 2 is a 9 year old phone, so has a 1.9 MP front camera, the Pixel 3A XL front cam is 8 MP, so I would assume sending the video during the call uses 4x the data, no?

The screen resolution was smaller on the Note 2, but I would imagine the phone still needs to receive whatever size image is being sent from your phone and downstate it once downloaded.

Both are 4G / LTE phones - I thought maybe the Note was 3G which would have been an easy explanation...