Google launches Datally data saving app for Android

Google launched its new data saving app Datally: mobile data-saving & WiFi app for the Android operating system today.
Datally requires a device running Android 5.0 or higher, and is available globally. While Google hopes that Datally will help Android users save data when using mobile data connections, it is not a compression or proxy type of solution.
Datally is an analytics application that supports some features -- blocking of data use by certain applications in real-time and connecting to suggested public WiFi networks -- that help save mobile data.
The company ran a limited beta test of the app earlier this year and notes that users saved about 30% of mobile data on average when using the application.
Datally
So, it is not an extension of Data Saver for Chrome on Android for instance. Google designed Datally with three core things in mind:
- Help Android users better understand data usage.
- Help Android users better control data.
- Save data.
Datally keeps track of mobile data that is used on the Android device it runs on. It records the data and which program uses the data, and provides users with information on that.
Google added a Data Saver feature to Datally that utilizes public wireless networks. If enabled, Data Saver will block background data usage and monitor it in real-time at the same time.
The app displays a bubble in the notification area of the device that informs you about the apps that used mobile data, and lists an option right there to turn it off.
Datally informs you about public WiFi networks on top of that and helps you locate those to use WiFi instead of mobile data.
The last option does not pick up public wireless networks that the phone's sensors pick up, but suggests publicly known wireless networks. The closest in my case was 300 meters away from my location, the farthest away 1 kilometer. You can get directions to those which will open Google Maps on the device. You can rate wireless networks from within the application, and it appears that Google uses the information when it makes recommendations to users.
Setup is not super straightforward unfortunately. Datally requires permissions to the phone, SMS and location. If you deny these, it won't run.
It also needs access to certain other features on the device before you can make use of its full functionality.
Closing Words
Datally is an analytics and data saving application for Android. It displays information on mobile data use to you when you run it, and may be used to control the mobile data use of applications, and to find and connect to public wireless networks.
Now You: What's your free mobile data quota?






Thanks for the tip Martin.
It is for these kinds of posts that I follow GHacks.
What’s up with the generic comment, are you a bot?
2G?
Where on the planet is that still in use? I was forced to give up using my RAZRV3 years ago because 2G was phased out by AT&T.
Everywhere 3G has been turned off and you don’t have LTE coverage, and believe me there are many developed countries where this is the case and if it weren’t for 2G you wouldn’t even be able to make a phone call.
Maybe I missed it, but I don’t believe tha term “2G” is in the article. Perhaps you are referring to “AGM G2”??
@Martin
Your website has gone insane.
When I the post button I then saw my comment posted on a different article page. When I opened this article again, it is here.
@Tachy @Martin Brinkmann
” Your website has gone insane. ”
Same here. Has happened several times.
@Tachy,
@Martin P.,
For over two weeks now,
I’ve been seeing “Comments” posted by subscribers appearing in different, unrelated articles.
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572991
https://www.ghacks.net/windows-11-update-stuck-fixed-for-good/#comment-4572951
For the time being,
it would be better to specify the “article name and URL” at the beginning of the post.
@tachy a lot of non-phone devices with a sim in them rely on 2G, at least here in europe.
Usually things reporting usage or errors/alarms on something remote that does not get day to day inspection in person. They are out there in vast numbers doing important work. Reliable, good range. The low datarate is no problem at all in those cases.
3G is gone or on its last legs everywhere, but this stuff still has too much use to cancel.
Anyhow, interesting that they would put that in. I can see the point if you suspect a hostile 2G environment (amateur eavesdroppers with laptop, ranging up to professional grade MITM fake towers while “strangely” not getting the stronger crypto voip 4G because it is being jammed, and back down to something as old ‘stingray’ devices fallen into the wrong hands).
But does this also mean that they have handled and rolled out a fix for that nasty 4G ‘pwn by broadcast’ problem you reported earlier this year? I had 4G disabled due to that, on the off chance that some of the local criminals would buy some cheap chinese gear, download a working exploit and probe every phone in range all over town in the hope of getting into phones of the police.
>”While most may never be attacked in stingrays, it is still recommended to disable 2G cellular connections, especially since it does not have any downsides.”
The downside would be losing connectivity. I spend a lot of time way out in the countryside where there’s often no service or almost none. My network allows 2G, and I need it sometimes. I have an option on the phone to disable 2G, I may do that when I’m in the city and I have good 5G connectivity, but not out in the country.
I would imagine that the stingray exploits, like most of the bad things in this world, are probably things you will run into in the crowded big cities.
I stopped using it in a mobile (Wi-Fi line) environment, so I’m almost ignorant of the actual situation,
But the recent reality in Japan makes me realize that “the infrastructure of the web is nothing more than a papier-mâché fiction”.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/17/google-chrome-to-enable-https-first-by-default-for-all-users/#comment-4572402
It is already beyond the scope of what an individual can do.
What we should be aware of is the reality that “governments and those in power want to control the world through the Web”, and efforts to counter (resist and prevent) such ambitions are necessary.
Why do you want people to disable the privacy features? Hmmmmm?
Now You: do you plan to keep the Ads privacy features enabled?
I’d like to tell you, but apparently if you make a post critical of Google, you get censored. * [Editor: removed, just try to bring your opinion across without attacking anyone]
@Martin
You website is still psychotic. Comments attach to random stories.
@Martin please do fix the comments, it’s completely insane commenting here! :[
@Martin
The comments are seriously messed up on gHacks now. These comments are mixed with the article at the below URL.
https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/18/android-how-to-disable-2g-cellular-connections-to-improve-security/
And comments on other articles are from as far back as 2010.
What does this article has anything to do with all the comments on this article? LOL I think this Websuite is ran by ChatGPT. every article is messed up. Some older comments from 2015 shown up in recant articles, LOL
The picture captioned “Clearing the Android Auto’s cache might resolve the issue” is from Apple Carplay ;)
How about other things that matter:
Drop survival?
Screen toughness?
Degree of water and dust protection?