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Google launches app to help you save data like never before

This app can help you save up to 30% of your data usage. No jokes.

Datally is this badass brand new app Google announced on the 30th of November, that will help Nigerians save data usage on their phones. In fact, it can help users save up to 30% of their data, in fact.

The Datally app is going to be able to run on any version of Android later than Android 5.0. and it will only be available for Android users on the Play Store. globally, today. This app was built, first with emerging markets like Nigeria in mind, and might perhaps be eventually useful for foreign markets.

Why is this app important?

When you ask the majority of internet users in Nigeria about their biggest problem with connectivity, you’ll probably hear stuff like “Oh it’s so confusing”; “I seriously don’t know how to control data usage properly”; “ït’s too expensive’; “to be honest, it’s never enough”.

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This problem of data usage for Nigerians, and many people all over the world, is what inspired this app that has been two years in the making.

Google, like Facebook and many other tech companies, believe that the next one billion users are in these regions with Internet challenges. It’s why they all try to find ways to make internet connectivity cheaper and faster.

This app, Datally, is Google’s way of saying let’s put data in the hands of you, the user. This app has four features that make it powerful:

Data Saver:

One thing many people don’t know is that a lot of apps use data in the background, whether it’s the weather report app or the Twitter app, constantly updating content and information. With the Data Saver option, you can choose which app you want to connect to the Internet or not. All you need is a simple lock and unlock button.

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● Data Saver bubble:

You can see this like a speedometer feature, orlike to call this the ultimate guilt tripper or conscience feature. Whenever a user opens an app, a small bubble appears in a corner of the screen, keeping a tally of how much data the app is consuming, in real time. Data-Tally.

● Personalized alerts:

This app can also alert users of the app when they start consuming a lot of data, even allowing them see how much data they’ve used on a daily, weekly, and even monthly basis.

● Wi-Fi finder:

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Because life is about opportunities and how we take them, this app lets you find Wi-Fis in your vicinity. In fact, you can actually rate a connection on whether it’s good or trash, so you can save the next person trying to connect all the trouble. So it’s like how Google lets you rate locations on the Maps, but this time for Data.

This is Juliet Ehimuan-Chiazor, she’s Google Nigeria’ Country Director and she had this to say at the launch:“For the last few years, our Next Billion Users team has been doing a lot of research on the ground in fast growing Internet countries like Nigeria, We have found that data is a major constraint for the the next billion users. Introducing Datally into the Nigerian smartphone market will help users understand how to control their mobile data better”.She also shared some insights about how this app was tested.

“Google tested Datally in the Philippines for most of 2017, and the insights from the product tests thereshaped the final app. The user research showed that people testing the app saved up to 30% of theirmobile data, depending on the way they used Datally.” she concluded.

What are the likelihoods of success for this app?

On a scale of 0–10, I see a 9 (No 10/10, because Nigerian lecturer syndrome). This app solves a fundamental problem, and simply creates a very efficient way to solve this problem; data. Will the Telcos be happy that we can finally track the data we pay for? We don’t care. As long as the user wins.

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Heck, I already downloaded mine.

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