A first of its kind website and service has debuted. The CTIA’s KnowMyApp.org website allows users to estimate an app’s data usage before downloading it, a welcome service to those who are on capped data contracts.
While tools capable of measuring an app’s data use after downloading have been around for some time, the new site is the first to offer estimated information prior to download, according to CTIA.
Users can visit the site and search for an app to determine its estimate data use, and the impact it may have on their data plans. Estimates are available for plans ranging from 300MB to 4GB per month.
The above screenshot shows the estimated data use and plan impact by the app for the Pandora music streaming service. It shows an average use of 2526.57MB per month, which represents 842 percent of a 300MB plan, 246 percent of a 1GB plan and 61 percent of a 4GB plan. The system estimates this by considering a one-day usage, consisting of three sessions, each including the following actions: “Viewing the Feed, Profile, Settings, create a new station, play 5 songs, delete station.”
The service was created by CTIA’s Application Data Usage Working Group, which includes Apple, Microsoft, and all three major U.S. wireless carriers.
The site is currently limited to the top 50 free and paid apps for both the iOS App Store and the Google Play Android app store.
