How to stop Reddit from using too much data

If you’re like me, you’ve probably found yourself on Reddit more times than you’d like to admit. But here’s the thing: all that scrolling comes at a costliterally. Not just in time, but also in data usage.

Fortunately, there are some changes you can make to reduce the amount of data gobbled up.

Turn on Motion Reduction

Motion effects are those elegant animations that make the app feel, well, a little more alive. But while it looks cool, it also consumes more data. By enabling the “Reduce motion” setting, you can lower the tone of all fancy effects, meaning less data is used to load them. Plus, it gives the app a faster feel, which is a nice bonus if you care about speed.

To enable this handy setting, open the Reddit app and tap the profile icon in the top right. Then tap “Settings,” scroll down to the “Accessibility” section, tap “Media & Animation,” and toggle “Reduce motion.”

Disable automatic playback of video previews and animated images

Reddit loves to throw videos in between scrolls, and by default they will start playing as soon as they appear on the screen. While this is great for instant gratification, it’s terrible for your data bill. Every time a video autoplays, it pulls the data to load the content, even if you end up scrolling right past it.

Reddit isn’t just about videos; it is also a hotbed of animated images. Like videos, they’ll autoplay as you scroll, draining data whether you’re paying attention or not.

Fortunately, there is an easy solution. In the same settings menu where you can turn on “motion reduction”, you can set “Autoplay video previews” to “Never” and turn off “Autoplay animated images” as well.

Use Reddit in your mobile browser instead of the app

When you access Reddit through your mobile browser, you immediately reduce your apps’ background data usage. The web version in mobile browsers does not constantly refresh or load new content unless you request it.

A quick tip here: If you really want to save data, you can use a browser that supports data saving features, such as Opera Mini’s “Data Save” mode. These browsers compress data before it reaches your phone, which means you use less bandwidth overall.

Use Old Reddit

Remember the Reddit interface from a few years ago? The one that was mostly text, links, and a lot less visual clutter? Well, he’s still alive and kicking.

All you have to do is go to old.reddit.com instead of the regular reddit.com, and you’ll be transported back to a simpler, lighter version of Reddit. Not only does this version save a lot of data, but it’s also much faster to load, especially if your connection isn’t the best.

Use RedReader (Android)

RedReader (only available on Android) is a third-party Reddit app designed specifically to be lightweight and data-efficient. You can adjust the settings so that it doesn’t automatically load images or videos, which is where a lot of your mobile data tends to go.

RedReader strips Reddit down to the basics, giving you a clean and streamlined browsing experience. Like one open-source applicationyou can feel good knowing that there are no shady data practices going on behind the scenes.

Other third-party Reddit apps, such as Relay for Reddit (Android) or Infinity for Reddit (Android), offer similar lightweight experiences.

Turn off background data

Background data is essentially what apps use when they’re not actively open on the screen. You don’t use the app, but it keeps bringing you notifications, updating content, and doing all sorts of things behind the scenes, gobbling up your data in the process.

For Reddit, that could be pulling in new posts, refreshing messages, or updating your feed even when you’re busy with other apps or living your life. This can add up quickly, especially if you’re on a limited data plan or just trying to keep your phone from turning into a data-hungry monster. Fortunately, turning off background data is pretty simple on Android and iOS and can save you a lot of data over time.

Disabling background data will likely affect notifications for messages, replies, or updates from your favorite subreddits. But if the trade-off saves a chunk of your data, it’s worth considering.