Facebook Messenger’s newest feature is its most useful yet

Vaughn Highfield October 17, 2016

If you’re one of the many millions of people who use Facebook Messenger as your main means of communication, and you’re currently on a limited mobile data tariff, this new feature is all for you. Data Saver is Facebook’s way of cutting back on that dreadful data bill, and it’s finally leaving Messenger beta on Android to come to all users across Android and iOS.

Facebook Messenger’s newest feature is its most useful yet

Messenger’s data-crunching tool works by limiting the content that automatically downloads to your device. It also further compresses images to help eke out that little bit more from your contract. If you receive an image, video or voice recording from another Messenger user when Data Saver is turned on, you’ll have to tap to select each individual item you want to download.

Handily, Data Saver comes with a counter – at least in beta – to let you know how much data you’ve saved. The feature only works on mobile data, not Wi-Fi, so if you also have limited Wi-Fi data, Messenger won’t help you cut back on that. If that’s the case, you may want to look into Opera’s Max app on Android, which handily cuts up to 50% of data downloaded to your phone.

Facebook hasn’t announced exactly when it will begin rolling out Data Saver to general users, but if you’re on Android, you can get stuck into the beta version of Messenger right away.