Do newer iPhones use more data than older ones?

[TomFromAndroid]

This might be kind of a dumb question, but since switching from a 1st Gen SE to a 16e it seems that I'm using data a lot faster than before. Is this to be expected with a new phone with a newer OS (in this case, going from 15.8 on the old one to 26.5 on the 16e)? Except for using the free trial of Apple Music instead of Spotify I'm using the same apps as before and visiting the same websites.

 

[conmee]

Actually a good question. I'd like to know as well. I wonder if newer iOS/apps send more telemetry/diagnostic data than in the past. Even so, you wouldn't think it would make a noticeable difference in data use. How much more data/how much faster than before? Is it an extra GB per month or a couple GBs per week?

 

[NoBoMac]

Even so, you wouldn't think it would make a noticeable difference in data use

This for me. I have usage data going back to 2013 and the average has been steady. So a bunch of OS versions over multiple types of device.

For this year, seeing about 340MB more per month on average. Throw out the high and low numbers and average increase does not change much, 430MB.

But, yeah, probably more telemetry info. Apps maybe pushing more ads. More/more flashy widgets? Like anything else in computing world, if have more power/space/memory/etc use it vs optimize it.

 

[TomFromAndroid]

Actually a good question. I'd like to know as well. I wonder if newer iOS/apps send more telemetry/diagnostic data than in the past. Even so, you wouldn't think it would make a noticeable difference in data use. How much more data/how much faster than before? Is it an extra GB per month or a couple GBs per week?

Before, I was using roughly 1 GB per month. (I don't really live my whole life on my phone, 😉 and when I'm at home or someplace with Wifi I'll use that instead). But last month I blew through 3GB of data!

 

[TomFromAndroid]

This for me. I have usage data going back to 2013 and the average has been steady. So a bunch of OS versions over multiple types of device.

For this year, seeing about 340MB more per month on average. Throw out the high and low numbers and average does not change much, 430MB.

But, yeah, probably more telemetry info. Apps maybe pushing more ads. More/more flashy widgets? Like anything else in computing world, if have more power/space/memory/etc use it vs optimize it.

I do notice that there's a much larger amount of data consumed after an OS update. On the old phone and iPad with iOS 15.x it was negligible but the new phone just updated from 26.3 to 26.5 and that took a major chunk of data.

 

[Mrbobb]

It shouldn't be a surprise to no one, newer phones use more resources than old, programmers are not spending any extra time to optimize their codes, it is not THEIR money.

Go into the screen that tells you which apps is sucking up the bandwidth and attempt to reduce their activities, including no cellular data only wifi.

 

[TomFromAndroid]

It shouldn't be a surprise to no one, newer phones use more resources than old, programmers are not spending any extra time to optimize their codes, it is not THEIR money.

Go into the screen that tells you which apps is sucking up the bandwidth and attempt to reduce their activities, including no cellular data only wifi.

Good suggestion, thanks. What I found was that Apple Music is an enormous data hog, even though I had it set for the lowest quality (lossy) audio...which means I'm going to stick with Spotify.