Use Data Saver on Android Nougat OS to restrict internet access on some specific apps

Recently, the full name of Android N has just been revealed by Google Android team a few days ago. And apparently, the “N” in Android N that we’ve been hearing for awhile stands for Nougat. So yes, the official full name of the new Android OS is Android Nougat, not Android Nutella that many thought it would be.

But what are the new features that Google Android team has been preparing in this new build of Android operating system? What makes this Android Nougat OS better than the previous-gen Marshmallow OS?

Well, just a moment ago, I just showed you one feature in Android Nougat OS called ‘Night Mode’, the feature that basically will turn the color of the background on some pre-installed apps (like Setting, Clock, Calculator, etc) into black, while the text will turn into white.

Besides ‘Night Mode’, there’s actually another interesting new feature that you’re about to enjoy on your smartphone or tablet when it gets 'flashed' with Android Nougat OS. And this one is called “Data Saver”.


So as its name suggests, ‘Data Saver’ basically will allow users to save the internet data of their devices by blocking the internet connection on some specific apps according to users' liking.

So with this feature, you’ll be able to pick which apps on your device that are allowed to use the internet connection of your device and which ones that are not.

This of course will help users a lot to save their internet data from being used by some apps without permission. Not to mention, it will also make it easier for users to control the use of internet data on their devices, so users can save the cost for their internet data every month.

But the question is, how exactly to activate and use “Data Saver” on our device?


Well, first and foremost, of course your smartphone or tablet must be running on Android Nougat OS given that this feature is only available on this Android Nougat, not on Marshmallow.


If you want to activate this feature on your device, first open Setting > Data Usage > and then choose ‘Data Saver’.

To turn this feature ON, you can simply tap on the main toggle on the top. Once you slide that toggle ON, the system will automatically activate the 'default' setting in ‘Data Saver’.


In default, when you slide the toggle of ‘Data Saver’ ON, ALL apps on your device will be blocked entirely from using internet access, which means you cannot use Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, Opera browser, Firefox and other apps that connect to internet.

So you must firstly modify the setting to pick which apps you would like to be granted with internet access and which ones you'd want to block from using internet data of your device.

To change this default setting and create your own setting in ‘Data Saver’, you just need to tap on any area on the screen that says “Unrestricted data access”.

Once you press it, the system will present you the list of all apps on your device, all sorted in the alphabetical order, from A to Z.

As you can see, in default, all the apps on your device are blocked from using the internet connection of your device. It’s shown by the toggles of all apps that are turned off in default, which this is set by the system.

But this is the coolest thing about ‘Data Saver’.

So on each of the apps in the list, there is a toggle placed on the right side of each app. If you want to allow some specific apps to use with the internet access of your device, you just need to tap on each toggle of the app, one by one manually.


I don’t know if this feature will be changed by Google in the final build of Android Nougat OS or it will stay the same just like on the beta version of this OS. But I believe, the method to activate this feature will still be pretty much the same just like in the beta.

One thing that I really hope would be added by Google Android team on Android Nougat OS is definitely a quick data toggle, which allows users to turn ON and OFF internet data on any screen without going through Setting > Data Usage.

I know that it's probably not gonna happen, but I believe many users will be more than happier to see this feature again on Android Nougat OS.

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