If you didn’t already know, Android has a built-in “firewall”, of sorts. It’s not a firewall in the sense that it can’t be used to filter traffic based on TCP/UDP ports, but what Android does let you do is limit the ability of apps to access the internet based on certain criteria. You can use this to stop apps from constantly trying to phone home even when they’re running in the background, and therefore potentially improve your battery life. You could also use this to block certain apps from accessing the internet altogether, and potentially improve your privacy. For example, let’s imagine you really like the Google Photos app, or Google Camera, but you don’t use their cloud, and don’t want their apps to automatically start uploading your pictures to their cloud without your knowledge or consent. You have the option of installing and using those apps, and just blocking their access to the internet altogether.
Edit: I must preface this entire post with the following however. Android is a more fragmented ecosystem than iPhones/iOS. The options available to any one person can vary wildly from one vendor, carrier or even one model of phone to the next, based on the modifications all those different involved parties have made to the operating system on its way from Google to the phone you hold in your hand. Do not be alarmed or confused in the event that your phone doesn’t have the options mentioned in this post.
To make use of this setting, follow these simple steps.
- Long press on the app’s icon, then click “App info”.
2) In the settings for that app, click the option labeled “Mobile data and WiFi”.
3) Change the settings here as desired.
Just repeat these 3 simple steps for any apps that you wish to apply network restrictions to. This could help save you some battery life, or even improve your privacy, depending on your goals. There are a few things to remember about some of these settings however.
For one, disabling the “background data usage” for an app like Facebook will prevent things you share to Facebook from other apps from posting immediately. The Facebook app is smart enough to sort of queue up your posts and post them as soon as you actually open it so it’s allowed to use the internet. But if you share something to Facebook from another app and Facebook’s background data is turned off, then your post will not be made immediately, it will be made the next time you actually open the Facebook app.
I have also noticed that if you try to post a review for a location using Google Maps, the review may not post if you have its background data turned off because it seems that the window it opens for posting the review is seen as something else (possibly an embedded browser window?), and so Google Maps is seen as being “in the background”, so when you try to actually post the review Google Maps may give you an error about not being able to connect.
But, if you’re willing to spend a few minutes tweaking some settings and learning a little more about your phone, you can achieve greater privacy and potentially longer battery life.
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