Data Usage While Using the SafetyLine Lone Worker App
Mobile data usage always seems to be going up and with consumer’s ever-increasing desire to surf the web on the go. Picture this: you are only halfway through the month, and you receive that inevitable notification telling you that your data is nearly out. We’ve all been there, and we all know what it’s like to conserve cellular data. To use SafetyLine’s lone worker safety app on your smartphone, you will need access to WiFi or a data network. But, don’t worry, data while using SafetyLine Lone Worker won’t take much. Alternatively, you can also use SafetyLine while dialing-in to Check-in or declare a panic emergency. In this article, we will compare levels of data usage on SafetyLine versus various other phone apps that you already are frequently using.
How much data does the SafetyLine app use?
For SafetyLine on the iPhone and Android app we have gathered some data usage statistics recorded in kilobytes. One of the main functions used on the SafetyLine app will be checking in. A check-in with no message will use 1.211 KB of data. A 160-character text message included in an employee’s check-in uses 1.615 KB, a 30-second voice message increases to 585.193 KB, and a 60-second voice message uses 1148.081 KB. Data usages are slightly different for Blackberry users checking-in, with 1.495 KB being used when no message is included, 1.938 KB used with a 160-character text message, 86.741 KB for a 30-second voice message, and 168.561 KB for a 60-second voice message.
On an iPhone, if a worker checks in 5 times daily using a text message, 5 days per week, their monthly SafetyLine data usage will be about 161.5 KB or 0.1615 MB. If an employee is working in more hazardous conditions, they may choose to check-in more frequently. For a lone worker who is dealing with more risks and safety hazards, checking in 10 times per day with a text message on an iPhone will use about 323 KB or 0.323 MB of data. Let’s see how these figures compare to some of the most commonly used social media apps for data usage rates.
Comparison of data usage on 3 social media platforms
Everyday use of the Facebook app uses approximately 1.5 MB per minute. Everyday use refers to regular browsing, scrolling through the newsfeed, and looking at other users’ photos. Watching video content uses an extra 1.1 MB, resulting in about 2.6 MB per minute depending on the video quality. These figures mean that if you spend an average of 30 minutes on Facebook each day, which many of us do, then you will use up about 1.3 GB of data every month! For many users, this may even be a large underestimate because it doesn’t consider if you are watching a lot of videos or extra data usage that results from the Facebook app running in the background.
For every 40 images viewed on Instagram, about 1 MB of data is used. This figure is often reached after scrolling for only a couple of minutes, as users don’t tend to spend a prolonged period of time viewing each photo. Uploading content uses significantly more data with anywhere from 2 to 4 MB being used per photo posted. Instagram videos, which can vary from 3 to 60 seconds, use twice as much data as uploading photos. Lastly, viewing the stories of all of the users whom you follow can use up to 8 MB of data. An hour of regular use on Instagram eats up about 100 MB of data, so for the average Instagram users who spend about 30 minutes per day using the app, this adds up to 1,5 GB per month.
A bit more difficult to tabulate, this platform only uses data when it is refreshed. So, data usage completely depends on the number of times a user refreshes their feed. Each refresh uses about 70 KB. If you refresh 10 times per day, your Twitter app will use about 700 KB or 0.7 MB.
SafetyLine data usage per month vs. social media apps
In the graph above we can see megabyte data usage per month on the SafetyLine Lone Worker app vs 3 popular social media app platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. SafetyLine uses 0.1615 megabytes per month if a lone worker is checking in 5 times per day using text messages for 5 days per week. Twitter data usage is 21 megabytes per month if a user is refreshing an average of 10 times per day for 30 days. Facebook data usage is 1333 megabytes per month if a user is browsing for 30 minutes each day for 30 days. Instagram is data usage is 1500 megabytes per month is a user is browsing the app for 30 minutes each day for 30 days.
#SocialSafety
Between Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and even the latest social media platform TikTok, the typical user is predicted to use up nearly 3 GB per month. Of course, this figure may vary widely, with some users using 10 GB and some strictly using WIFI. However, compared to the small amount of data required to reap the benefits of SafetyLine, social media’s data consumption is considerable.
Social media is a tremendous way of keeping in touch with family and friends, sharing life updates and content, and keeping up with the news. But when it comes down to it, social media uses a substantial amount of data. Furthermore, our social media apps are constantly advancing and becoming more complex, and therefore using more and more data. When compared to apps like Facebook and Instagram, the amount of data used by SafetyLine is trivial. Considering the volume of data that we are willing to allocate to social media apps, the small amount required by SafetyLine should hardly be a concern.
Disclaimer: Please note data provided in this blog article are averages and can vary depending on user(s).