Here's A Really Simple Trick For Cutting Down On How Much Cellphone Data You Use

Flickr / Nan PalmeroThis trick will have you saving data (and smiling!)

Unless you have an unlimited data plan, you can probably recall a time or two where you had to change your typical behavior to keep from going over your monthly limit.

Good news: If you use Google's Chrome app as a browser, this one simple trick can save you a ton of data without you having to change your habits.

On either iOS or Android, you can reduce your data usage from Chrome up to 50% by adjusting your "bandwidth management."

Here's what you need to do:

When you open Chrome, you'll see a vertical line of three dots on the right side. Click them, and then navigate to "Settings" then "Bandwidth management" then "Reduce data usage."

Simply turn the toggle to "On." Chrome will automatically remove unnecessary whitespace on pages, as well as metadata and other elements that aren't essential to render it. Images will be switched from JPEG or PNG to a much smaller format. These changes will help Chrome conserve your data.

You'll also be able to track how much bandwidth you save each month on Chrome (and, as an added bonus, turning on this feature also helps better protect you from malicious webpages).

Here's how it looks:

Google