Twitter feature causing excessive data usage on Windows Phones

Is your Windows Phone device guzzling more data than it would normally? You’re not the only one who seems to have noticed an issue. It has been reported that Microsoft has acknowledged an issue with the built-in Twitter feature that is setting the data charges counter ringing.

The Verge has reported that the issue sprung up thanks to a change in the Twitter back-end which caused Windows Phones to re-download profile images from Twitter contacts often. Now, if you have a very active Twitter account, your Windows Phone will need to keep updating pictures since it is transitioning profile pictures from one server to the other.

Data guzzling

Thanks to this issue, Twitter is ending up consuming up to 300MB of mobile data and 3GB of Wi-Fi data in just under a week, according to tests run by the publication. The data drain will occur even if you do not use the People hub. The more number of Twitter contacts in your People hub and the more the data gets used up. This could end up being a problem if you have a limited data plan.

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Even while Microsoft works on addressing the issue, you can temporarily save on some data package by removing a Twitter account off your Windows Phone, at least till the migration has been completed. The company seems to be remedying the issue by updating the app to sync just once a day. You might also want to check the Data Sense app on your Windows Phone, if you have the feature enabled.