travelmad478

I am a frequent overseas traveler based in the US, with a US cell phone plan and no great desire to fuss with local SIM cards. Since I retired a year ago, I am footing the bill for my own phone use and would like to be able to save money while still getting the data I want.

While overseas, I tend to buy Verizon's international package (which generally includes a set amount of MB of data) for the countries I'm in. This is so I'll have data coverage available if I really need it in a pinch; for the most part, I only turn my data on when I'm in a wi-fi zone, to conserve usage. Still, if I do have to turn data on for whatever reason while not on wi-fi, the zillion apps I have start plugging away immediately--e-mail pours in (a major data hog), plus other data that other apps start pulling down, and my data plan is quickly drained.

Here is the app I want: a sort of "one app to rule them all" that will turn cellular data usage off for all apps, while leaving it on for just a few of them that I can select: WhatsApp, Google Maps, etc. These apps don't use much data and I'm happy to have them on all the time. Then I could use this magic app to turn cellular data on for all apps once I got home. One could just do this manually, app by app, but that is a PITA and really, isn't this what technology is for?

Does this app exist? Could it? Or does the iPhone already have this feature and I just don't know about it?

HockeyCoachBen

All versions of iOS already have this option. Go to Settings > Cellular Data. Scroll all the way to the bottom and you will see a list of all apps that use cellular data. Move the slider to the right to turn on (green) or slide to the left to turn off (white/grey) for each app.

Some apps won't be listed on that screen, most likely because they have a separate setting inside the app itself to restrict its data consumption to Wi-Fi only. (Or the app was built so that it can never use cellular data - some video streaming apps are built that way.)

Any app that you turn the cellular data off for will of course still work on Wi-Fi to receive data.

Hope that helps with what you're looking for!

travelmad478

Thanks--I do know about that function in iOS. My issue is that I have dozens of apps, all of which I want to receive cellular data while I'm in the US, but only a few of which do I want to receive cellular data while I'm traveling overseas. That means that every time I go abroad, I need to go through the list one by one to tell most of them to use only wifi, then reverse the process when I return home. And as you say, for many apps, you have to go into the app itself to make that change. It's a big pain. Can there be an app to automate this process?

HockeyCoachBen

Gotcha. Is your phone jailbroken? You could use the Cydia app called SBSchedule that would allow you to program multiple custom toggles for turning app data usage on and off. You can set a daily schedule based on day/time. You can program individual apps to turn on/off on schedule. And you can add custom modes to the toggles, so you could add an "international" toggle which would switch off all apps except the ones you set. That's something to look into as well.

Mul

Would it be simpler if you switch to T-Mobile and get the free global data roaming instead?

travelmad478

My phone is not jailbroken. The app sounds like what I want, but is it not possible for me to use it on my phone? I'm not very tech-y as far as phone hacking. Make that zero tech-y.

gfunkdave

Given all the above:

-Need for low cost
-Not tech savvy (so no jail breaking)
-Verizon's roaming plans too expensive

I think the best solution is the aforementioned switch to T-Mobile for free international roaming.

josephstern

If you travel internationally a lot, this is something to seriously consider.

Of course, US reception isn't amazing outside big cities.

lhrsfo

As a very old school suggestion for a new world of apps, how about having a little list of which apps' data you want to turn off. Put it on a sticky in your passport. Spend two minutes on the plane on the way out making the adjustments. It's a long flight, after all.

travelmad478

That is the key. Verizon is by far the best for me--I do not live in a big city. Having the phone work when I am at home (85% of the time) far outweighs the benefit of having free data overseas (about 10% of the time).

lhrsfo's suggestion is well taken if there is no app available for this function.