How to use Spotify’s data saver mode
When Spotify launched in South Africa, the streaming service punted its “data saver mode”.
Low-data-usage modes in apps are perfect for a market like South Africa, where people are conscious of their data usage and low-end data bundles are relatively expensive.
Spotify is aware of this, and its data saver mode is the default bitrate setting when a user streams over a mobile connection.
Data saver mode in Spotify uses 24kbps when streaming, which works out to 11MB of data per hour.
Other music services typically use 40MB for the same amount of streaming, said Spotify.
Deezer has the nearest competing option, with its “basic” mode reducing its streaming bitrate to 64kbps.
Assuming a constant bitrate, that comes to nearly 29MB per hour.
Accessing data saver
Following Spotify’s local launch, subscribers reported they could not locate the data saver mode in the app.
Spotify’s default data streaming setting is 24kbps, however, “perfect if you’re streaming when not on Wi-Fi”, said the company.
To manually change your data streaming setting, go to Settings > Music Quality. From there, you can select from several bitrates, said Spotify:
- Automatic – 24kbps
- Normal – 96kbps
- High – 160kbps
- Extreme – 320kpbs
Extreme is only available to Spotify Premium subscribers. The screenshot below shows what the setting looks like in the Spotify app for Android.
Now read: Spotify vs Apple vs Google vs Deezer vs Simfy in South Africa
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