Onavo‘s iPhone app, which can significantly reduce your mobile data bill by rerouting your Internet connection through the company’s own servers, launched to acclaim at The Next Web Conference earlier this year.
Today, its first Android app goes live on the Market. However, due to the way that Android routes mobile data around the OS, it’s significantly more difficult to pipe it all through Onavo’s servers. So, while the startup tackles that problem, it’s launching Onavo Lite, an app designed to give a helping hand to Android users in the meantime.
Designed for people on capped data plans or who use oh-so-expensive roaming data when abroad, Onavo Lite provides alerts to let you know when an app is consuming a lot of background data. You can set it up to automatically block apps that consume a lot of data when you’re on a mobile data (as opposed to WiFi) connection whenever you’re near your cap or roaming. Data tracking alerts you when you’re approaching your data cap, and the app even offers advice on the best kind of data plan for you based on your current usage.
Cleverly, Onavo uses data collected from the whole community of the app’s users to help determine whether an app is particularly demanding when it comes to data usage. When a new app is installed, Onavo Lite will be able to tell you whether it’s ‘data hog’ or not.
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While Android users who have eagerly been awaiting Onavo’s data-shrinking technology might feel a little short-changed by today’s release, the Israeli team behind the app is working hard to bring the full experience from the iPhone version to Android. This will be released in an update to the app as soon as it’s ready.
Onavo Lite is available to download from the Android Market now.
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