How to listen to music without using mobile data
Short answer: music saved on your phone never uses mobile data. Audify plays it with Wi-Fi and mobile data switched off, even in airplane mode, and needs no account. The parts of the app that do use the internet are the ones that fetch something: internet radio, lyrics you have not saved yet, the first download of Calm sounds, Google Drive backups and, in the free version, ads. Fill your library over Wi-Fi or a USB cable, turn on Android's Data Saver, and everyday listening costs 0 MB.
Why songs on your phone need no data
A song stored on your phone is read from the phone's own storage, the same way a photo opens from your gallery. It is not streamed, so playing it needs no connection at all. You can check it in ten seconds: switch on airplane mode, open Audify and press play.
The same is true of what works on those files: playlists, the 10-band equalizer, the sleep timer, the ringtone cutter, videos stored on the phone, lyrics you have already saved and Calm sounds once they are downloaded. Even casting your songs to a Chromecast or DLNA TV sends them from the phone to the TV over your home Wi-Fi, not over mobile data.
What in Audify uses the internet, and how much
Internet radio. The Radio section streams live stations, so it uses data for as long as you listen. The station list shows each station's bitrate, and the bitrate sets the cost: an hour at 64 kbps is about 29 MB, at 128 kbps about 58 MB, and at 320 kbps about 144 MB. On a small data plan, pick lower-bitrate stations or keep radio for Wi-Fi.
Lyrics and album-art searches. Looking up lyrics you have not saved yet uses the internet: the app sends the song's title and artist to look the words up. Saved lyrics are stored on the phone and show without a connection. Album art comes from the song files themselves, and the app only goes online for a cover when you choose to search for one.
Calm sounds. The sleep, relaxing and meditation sounds are not inside the app. Each pack downloads from Google Play the first time you open it, tens of megabytes at a time, and then plays offline, so download the packs you want on Wi-Fi.
Google Drive backup. Backup and Restore goes through your own Google Drive, so backing up and restoring both use the internet. Settings and playlists take little data, but backing up songs uploads the song files themselves, which for a whole library means gigabytes. Start big backups on Wi-Fi.
Ads in the free version. Ads load over the internet while the app is open. Without a connection, new ads cannot load and your music plays exactly the same; an ad that loaded earlier, while you were online, can still appear. Premium removes the ads.
Small background updates. Like most apps, Audify also exchanges small amounts of data in the background when a connection is available, such as settings updates, crash reports and usage statistics. Audify has no Wi-Fi-only setting of its own, so the switches that control all of this are Android's, in the checklist below.
How to keep Audify at zero mobile data
- 1. Fill your library on Wi-Fi or with a cable. Copy songs from a computer over a USB cable, or move them from your old phone with Audify's phone-to-phone transfer, which connects the two phones directly and uses no mobile data. How the transfer works.
- 2. Save lyrics and download Calm sounds on Wi-Fi. Open and save the lyrics of the songs you care about, and download any Calm sounds you want, while you are on Wi-Fi. Both then work with no signal at all. How lyrics work in Audify.
- 3. Turn on Data Saver. On Pixel and most Android phones: Settings → Network & internet → Data Saver. On Samsung Galaxy: Settings → Connections → Data usage → Data saver. Data Saver stops apps from using mobile data in the background; the app you have open can still use it.
- 4. For a hard zero, keep Audify off mobile data. Airplane mode, or switching mobile data off, stops every app from using it while your songs keep playing. On Samsung Galaxy phones, the same Data usage menu can also set a single app, such as Audify, to use Wi-Fi only.
- 5. Set Google Play to update apps over Wi-Fi only. App updates are downloaded by Google Play, not by the app itself. In the Play Store, tap your profile picture, then Settings → Network preferences → Auto-update apps → Update over Wi-Fi only.
- 6. Check that it worked. Android counts the mobile data each app uses: open Settings, search for data usage and look for Audify in the list. If it shows mobile data, it came from radio, a lyrics or cover search, a download, a backup, background updates or ads while you were on mobile data.
With no connection: what keeps working, and what waits
Keeps working: every song and video stored on the phone, your playlists and favourites, the equalizer, the sleep timer, the ringtone cutter, the lyrics you saved and the Calm sounds you downloaded.
Waits for a connection: internet radio, lyrics and covers you have not looked up yet, Calm sounds you have not downloaded, and Google Drive backup and restore. New ads cannot load either.
How much data a music library costs to fill, once
Songs cost data once, when they arrive on the phone, and nothing after that. A 128 kbps MP3 takes about 1 MB per minute, so a four-minute song is roughly 3.8 MB; at 320 kbps the same song is about 9.6 MB, and FLAC is two to three times larger again.
That makes 500 songs about 2 GB at 128 kbps, or about 5 GB at 320 kbps. Copied over a USB cable or home Wi-Fi, that is 0 MB of mobile data, and every replay afterwards is free too. An hour of a 128 kbps radio station, by comparison, uses about as much data as fifteen four-minute songs of the same quality, and it costs that again every hour you listen.
Formats, file sizes and how to get songs onto the phone are covered in the offline listening guide.
Common questions
Does Audify need the internet to play music?
No. Songs and videos stored on your phone play with Wi-Fi and mobile data switched off, even in airplane mode. Only radio, lyrics and cover searches, Calm sound downloads, Google Drive backups, ads and small background updates use a connection.
How much data does internet radio use?
It depends on the station's bitrate, which the station list shows: about 29 MB an hour at 64 kbps, 58 MB at 128 kbps and 144 MB at 320 kbps. Radio streams live, so it cannot play without a connection.
Can I see lyrics without internet?
Yes, once they are saved. Looking up a song's lyrics for the first time needs the internet; after that they are stored on the phone and show offline.
Why does my phone show Audify using mobile data?
Something in the app used the internet while you were on mobile data: radio, a lyrics or cover search, a Calm sound download, a backup, ads in the free version, or small background updates. Data Saver stops the background part; for a hard zero, switch mobile data off or, on a Samsung Galaxy, set Audify to use Wi-Fi only.
Sources
“When a user enables Data Saver in Settings and the device is on a metered network, the system blocks background data usage and signals apps to use less data in the foreground wherever possible.”Android Developers, Optimize network data usage
- Use less mobile data with Data Saver — Pixel Phone Help
- Reduce & manage mobile data usage — Pixel Phone Help
- Manage data usage on your Galaxy phone — Samsung
- How to update apps on Android — Google Play Help
- Optimize network data usage — Android Developers