By admin 
If you’re anything 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 priceliteral. Not only in time, but also in data use.
Fortunately, there are a few changes you can make to reduce the amount of data it eats up.
Turn on Reduce Motion
Motion effects are those slick animations that make the app feel a little more alive. But while they look cool, they also use more data. By enabling the “Reduce Motion” setting you can soften all those lovely effects, meaning less data is used to load them. Plus, it gives the app a snappier feel, which is a nice bonus when it’s all about speed.
To enable this handy setting, open the Reddit app and tap your profile icon in the top right. Then tap Settings, scroll down to the Accessibility section, tap Media & Animation and turn on Reduce Motion.
A profile page on Reddit on mobile
Disable autoplay of video previews and animated images
Reddit loves to throw videos in between the scrolls, and by default they start playing as soon as they appear on your screen. While this is great for instant gratification, it’s terrible for your data bill. Every time a video autoplays, it retrieves data to load the content, even if you end up scrolling past it.
Reddit isn’t just about videos; it’s also a hotbed of animated graphics. Like videos, they autoplay as you scroll past, draining data whether you pay attention to them or not.
Fortunately, there is a simple solution. In the same settings menu where you can enable “reduce motion,” you can set “Autoplay video previews” to “Never” and also disable “Autoplay animated images.”
The Media & Animations page on Reddit on mobile (1)-1
Use Reddit in mobile browser instead of the app
When you access Reddit via your mobile browser, you immediately reduce background data usage by apps. The web version in mobile browsers does not constantly refresh or load new content unless you request it.
A quick tip: If you really want to save data, you can use a browser that supports data-saving features, like Opera Mini’s “Data Saving” mode. These browsers compress data before it reaches your phone, meaning 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 much less visual clutter? Well, it’s still alive and kicking.
All you have to do is go there old.reddit.com instead of the regular reddit.com, and you’ll be taken back to a simpler, lighter version of Reddit. This version not only saves a ton of data, but also loads much faster, especially if your connection isn’t the best.
Reddit homepage at old.reddit.com.
Use RedReader (Android)
RedReader (only available on Android) is a third-party Reddit app specifically designed to be lightweight and data efficient. You can adjust the settings so that images or videos don’t load automatically, which is where a lot of your mobile data tends to disappear.
r/books opened in the RedReader app.
RedReader takes Reddit back to the basics, giving you a clean, streamlined browsing experience. Like one open source appyou 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 similarly lightweight experiences.
Disable background data
Background data is essentially what apps use when they are not actively open on your screen. You don’t use the app, but it continues to pull in notifications, update content, and do all kinds of things behind the scenes, eating up your data.
For Reddit, this means it can pull in new posts, refresh posts, or update the feed even while you’re busy with other apps or going about 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. Happy, disabling background data is quite easy on Android and iOS and can save you a lot of data over time.
Disabling background data will likely affect notifications for posts, replies, or updates from your favorite subreddits. But if the tradeoff saves some of your data, it’s worth considering.