How to speed up 3G internet on Android and iPhone

The 3G internet you count on your smartphone varies greatly from the type of plan you contract with your mobile carrier, but you can tell that the speed doesn't always match what you expect. This is often caused by certain features or applications on your own device, so you can fix it. To learn how to speed up 3G internet on your Android or iPhone, you can check out our top tips!

1. Use an efficient browser

Most popular browsers (such as Chrome and Safari) are usually heavier and have many features that can slow down 3G internet.

To get around this, it is best to have an alternative and lighter browser to use in these situations. Another solution is to use the Opera Max application, which automatically reduces data usage in other applications (such as Facebook and YouTube).

In addition, the tool also allows you to save data to your favorite applications, such as passwords, accounts, email completion fields, and more. The application is designed to protect the privacy of its users and to maximize the use of their data franchise while accessing the most varied applications. It is important to mention that it works in the background and is very level, not affecting the performance of your smartphone.

2. Use lightweight app versions

Another extremely useful tip for speeding up the 3G internet is to use lighter versions of known applications. There are several apps of this type made especially for slower smartphones or for use with your data plan.

You can search your favorite apps with the word “Lite” next to it on Google Play or the App Store. Some well-known examples are Facebook Lite, YouTube Lite and Messenger Lite.

Some other applications, especially these messaging applications, no longer make much use of your network. However, it is also important to understand that some specific actions within these apps can have a greater impact on your network usage. Some of them being: downloading or sending long videos, receiving or sending heavy photos, among others.

3. Turn off browser images

When you visit websites on 3G, some of its elements may force the internet to use more features, which will slow it down. This happens a lot when a website has many images or videos.

To get around this, you can enable "read mode" in your browser. Most browser applications have this option, including Safari, Firefox, and Google Chrome (the most popular today).

Images can have a huge impact on the loading speed of a website, so as well as making it easier for you to access pages, you can lessen the impact of browsing your 3G data package.

4. Clear cache

If you follow most of our tips and still realize that your internet is still slow, the problem may be the application itself. In these cases, the best solution is to clear the cache of the app in question, which is also quite simple.

Clearing the cache does not affect its operation, but only serves to purge data that has been saved in order to speed up its use. However, the cache is often too large, resulting in a drop in application performance and execution.

Typically, when you clear the cache of applications such as browsers, you will eventually also clear its history, as well as passwords or data saved in the search field. So make sure you don't want to miss any of this before you perform the procedure.

To do this, just go to your device settings, go to the tab for your apps, choose the specific app and click the "clear cache" option. You can check out a more complete tutorial for Android at this link and for iPhone at this link.

5. Close apps in the background

Finally, another factor that can slow your internet is applications that open in the background. This is because some of them can keep updating even without being used, especially when they have features that depend on the internet.

This happens a lot with social networks and email apps, for example, so it's a good idea to close all apps you're not really using right now. Always pay extra attention to applications that require a password to run, such as banks, and more. Closing them completely is one of the steps to ensure that no one can access your private information, especially in the event of your theft.

What do you think about our tips on how to increase the speed of 3G internet?

Did you know that the points we listed could affect the speed of your connection? Be sure to leave your comment telling us what you think of the tips and if we can help you.