Get Google Latitude to use less data

[chrisjbarker89]

Hi All!,

So I've had a Motorola Defy for about two weeks now. I started to find over the two weeks that the battery was lasting less and less time, and it was, naturally, annnoying me. It got to basically the point where I'd take it off charge at 7.30am, and use it moderately, and by the evening, it was pretty much dead.

After looking at all my usage statistics, using the *#*#4636#*#* etc, I saw it was Google Maps, and after disabling latitude from automatically updating, my battery can now last about two days.

Im looking at the data it had been using too, and it was well in excess of 30mb a day, normally around 50. Which explains where my battery was going. I have wifi disabled, so it gets my location from Cell Phone towers, but it just chews through all this data, which is causing me to hit the limits of my fair usage policy, and burn my battery unnecessarily.

My Question is: is that just how latitude is if I have automatic updating enabled, and I just have to live with it? Or is there a way to have it automatically update my position but not burn a hole in my data and battery life in the process?

Thanks in advance everybody, if I can answer this question Ill be a happy android user.

 

[takeshi]

You mention WiFi but you don't mention GPS. GPS is the bigger battery killer.

If Latitude allows you to adjust data usage you'll see the option in its settings. I'm not aware of any.

 

[chrisjbarker89]

Gps is switched off, and most of the time wifi is too. It gets its location from phone masts, the main question here is about the data useage, is there a way to get latitude to use less data, because 30-50mb to simply find out my location from a cell phone tower and update it feels like a lot, and it is a battery burner.

It seems also that with latitude disabled, it uses just a few kb to find where I am in google maps.

 

[JaSauders]

A quick Google search suggested someone on the Google Mobile Questions forum has tested this to see what kind of data usage it used. They concluded it was about 1mb a day.

Google Latitude works really only if you're moving a lot. I've tinkered with it extensively to feel how it works. It seems as if it doesn't update as long as it doesn't sense you moving. For example, I was in my car for 7 hours on Sunday. It updated me every 3-4 minutes without hesitation. Once or twice I would even see a report of my location changing twice during one minute.

So it would only make sense that if you're moving, it's going to crunch up more data.

What I would PREFER is to enable a lock setting on Google Latitude (if it exists, I don't know it) to only update every 15 minutes MAX, whether moving or not. The less frequently it updates, the less data it would thereby use.

That said, Google Devs have also noted they only recommend using Latitude on an unlimited data plan, mostly because the usage from one user to another, depending on how often they move around, could greatly differ in data usage from John to Jim to Bob to Frank, etc.

 

[zuben el genub]

I never agreed to the user policy in Latitude. It asks if you want to allow the phone to use Latitude.
Google needs to separate this out from maps. Especially if it is using large amounts of data. Also if you don't want it. You can't freeze it with TB. It's not listed.

I saw this, and if this is true, then most of the others will follow suit. That will make a lot of users very angry.
Verizon Moneymaking Plans: Low Bandwidth Caps + New High Bandwidth Services = Profits? | Techdirt

This will go against those who do use the hungry apps - like FB updates, Latitude, etc.
It would be a lot in Google's favor if they did allow those who don't want/use/like those parts of maps to disable them in advance of higher charges rather than cause hard feelings and an uproar later.

 

[chrisjbarker89]

Thanks for all the answers. Yeah, this question has been bothering me all week. As I said, turning off latitude literally doubled my battery life, but today I reenabled it, and am keeping a strict eye on data. So far today it has only used a few megabytes, which is fine, and my battery is lasting a good time still. So Im not sure exactly now what is causing it to suddenly use loads of data, but I'll keep an eye on it and see if it does it again. As I say, all the excessive data useage from before was being attributed to maps, so we'll see if it comes back.

 

[timnz]

I use an app called "auto airplane", which put my tablet into airplane mode when the screen's off. While that might not be really helpful for a phone a varient might be, something that will turn off gps and wifi when the screen is on, but leaving 3G active.

 

[wygant97]

You mention WiFi but you don't mention GPS.

 

[zuben el genub]

Mine's off. I know my coordinates so I can enter them manually. I also have a separate GPS device, so I don't need the phone's.