The first video call was placed by future US President Herbert Hoover in 1927. At the time, Hoover was Secretary of Commerce and the call was a promotional exercise for the Bell telecommunications lab, and not a publicly available service. Almost a century later, the ability to call someone anywhere in the world and speak to them face-to-face has become a consumer reality. If you’re far from home, video calling is the next best thing to seeing your loved ones in person. Apps like FaceTime or Skype help stave off homesickness by simulating a real-world conversation. They’re a godsend for professions that require long stretches of time away from home, like offshore workers or military service people. They make long-distance relationships bearable, and allow holidaymakers to flex every detail of their vacations in real time.
For all their benefits, it should be noted that video calls require a large volume of mobile data to function. Any traveller who’s made one abroad will quickly attest to this. Placing international video calls shouldn’t be off-limits, however: with some practical tips on managing data usage, you can still call home and see your loved ones across the world. From using a travel eSIM to adjusting the app settings, here are some concrete tips on estimating, managing and reducing data usage with video-calling apps like FaceTime, WhatsApp and Skype.
How Much Data Does FaceTime Use?
At first glance, the FaceTime app looks similar to minutes-based services like phone calls, texts and iMessage. However, FaceTime requires the internet to work and therefore consumes mobile data, not minutes.
A 30-minute FaceTime video call placed from an iPhone consumes around 100MB of data.
The relationship between data usage and video calling is fairly straightforward – the longer the call, the more data consumed. A one-hour call will therefore eat around 200MB of data, and it would require about five hours of uninterrupted video calling to use up 1GB of mobile data. There are other factors at play which can greatly influence data consumption, however. One is the resolution of the video – later models of iPhone have higher-quality cameras capable of streaming videos in greater resolution – these will in turn require a greater volume of mobile data to process.
These higher-resolution capabilities are set to continue in the future. Apple's latest product launch in September 2024 introduced the iPhone 16 with a new, improved camera and microphone, as well as Apple’s AI-powered ‘Audio Mix’ tech. FaceTime calls have never looked or sounded better. This improved fidelity comes at a cost, however.
Which Video Calling Platform Uses the Most Data?
FaceTime is a proprietary Apple product that can only be downloaded through the App Store. Android or Windows users can still receive FaceTime calls (via an invite link sent by the Apple user making the call) but cannot download the FaceTime app or place calls themselves. Fortunately, there are a host of other video-calling platforms available.
This list compiles the average hourly data consumption of the world’s most popular mobile video-calling platforms. All numbers are purely estimates, as the precise data values depend on a variety of factors, including the device the call is made on, the video resolution and the available signal strength. These numbers are based on single person-to-person calls and not multi-user conference calls as data usage increases with the number of people on the same call.
- 1
Skype
The hourly data usage for a Skype video call depends on several factors, including video resolution, the number of people on the call and whether features like screen sharing are used. Skype data usage can therefore be tricky to determine, and Microsoft don’t provide any data themselves. In our personal experience, a Skype call between two iPhones used around 400MB/hour, though other users online have reported anywhere from 45MB/hour to a whopping 700MB/hour.
- 2
WhatsApp Video Call
Like Skype, WhatsApp video calls use data at different rates depending on the video quality and device used to place the call. In general, Whatsapp video calls require around 500MB per hour (similar to Skype). However, WhatsApp does have a ‘Use less data for calls’ option in the app's settings menu that drops the video and audio quality to minimise in-app data consumption.
- 3
Google Meet
As a platform that is used for both personal and work-related video calling, Google Meet offers a richer choice of features than FaceTime. One of these is the ability to adjust the resolution of both the sent and received video feeds in a call: users can select between 360p, 720p and 1080p UHD. This will in turn affect data usage – a standard definition 360p Google Meet call will use a similar data volume to WhatsApp, while higher definitions will incur greater data costs.
- 4
Instagram Video Call
Instagram’s video call feature uses an average of around 150-300MB per hour, though this can rise in calls of more than two people. The app currently supports video calls with up to eight participants.
- 5
Facebook Messenger and Snapchat
At around 300-500MB/hour, both Snapchat and Facebook Messenger’s video call features consume data at a similar rate to other social media platforms like Instagram or WhatsApp. These consumer-focused services require less data than the more polished (and data-hungry) video call experiences offered by the business-oriented Skype, Zoom or Google Meet.
What About FaceTime Audio?
FaceTime Audio is the non-video calling option on the FaceTime app. Functionally, it works exactly like a regular phone call, though the connection is made via the internet rather than a cellular connection. Some people prefer to use FaceTime audio instead of a standard phone call, for example if their Wi-Fi availability is stronger than their phone signal, or if they’re calling internationally. The audio quality on FaceTime audio is also often clearer than that of a regular phone call.
A FaceTime audio call will usually use around 10% of the data of a FaceTime video call – around 30MB/hour.
How to Track FaceTime Mobile Data Usage
Due to the variety of factors that affect individual data consumption on a video call, it’s wise to measure your data usage to accurately estimate how much data FaceTime uses on your device. Fortunately, this is simple to do on an iPhone or iPad.
On the iPhone or iPad, go to the Settings app, select Cellular/Mobile Data and click on the FaceTime icon to view your personal data usage for the app over a selected period.
How to Reduce FaceTime Data Use
We’ve all been there – you're somewhere with free public Wi-Fi, like a hotel or train station, so you make a lengthy video call, download an album or two, maybe stream a YouTube video – only to realise you’ve forgotten to connect to the Wi-Fi and carved out a chunk out of your monthly data allowance. While there’s little that can remedy this situation, there are some practical steps that can be taken to limit the data usage of apps like FaceTime and mitigate any unwelcome phone bills.
Turn off FaceTime data usage
Maybe you’re nearing the end of your contracted monthly data allowance or you’re in another country and haven’t installed a travel eSIM. Whatever the reason, turning mobile data off for FaceTime is an instant way to avoid burning through the last of your precious mobile data.
The most effective way to reduce FaceTime data usage is not to use FaceTime. The second most effective method is to turn off the data usage section of the app.
Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad
Select Cellular/Mobile Data
Select See All
Tap the toggle switch next to the FaceTime icon to turn data usage for FaceTime on or off
Once enabled, you will only be able to make or receive Facetime calls when connected to Wi-Fi.
Turn off the video
Unlike some other services, FaceTime does not provide an option to reduce video quality in order to save data – all video is displayed at the highest available quality. The app does, however, allow users to turn off the video function entirely. Turning off the video not only adds some privacy – it can also save around 90% more data per hour. Many calls only require video streaming from one of the two participants.
Download a travel eSIM
A travel eSIM won’t technically reduce the volume of data that FaceTime uses. If you’re abroad, however, it will ensure that any data used costs less than it would with a standard domestic network provider.
This is because a travel eSIM connects your device to the local mobile network, ensuring any mobile data is charged at local rates and doesn’t incur international roaming charges. Prepaid plans like those from BetterRoaming make it easy to monitor data use and avoid the hefty charges phone companies levy when a data allowance is breached. The app notifies the user when they’re about to run out of data, and they can then simply decide whether they wish to purchase more.
eSIM data plans
Using FaceTime on an iPad
Since the addition of a rear-facing camera on the iPad model 2 back in 2011, video calls have been one of the main selling points of the tablets. In a product that has sometimes struggled with it’s identity, video calling is a standout advantage of tablet computers. This is especially apparent in video conferencing and work-related video calls, where the confines of the iPhone’s screen size limits the ability to share screens, diagrams or view multiple people on a single call.
The introduction of the eSIM-supported iPad Pro 3 in 2018 further enhanced the tablet’s appeal: now users could make or take video calls wherever they were, just like on a mobile phone. Of course, this consumes a significant volume of mobile data, at around the same rate as FaceTime for iPhone.
Can you use FaceTime on an Apple Watch?
At the other end of the screen size vs. portability axis lies the Apple Watch. Even the Apple Watch Series 10, Apple’s largest Watch model announced at the “Glowtime” product launch event in September 2024, maxes out at 46mm.
The same features that make the Apple Watch such a suitable starter mobile device for kids – the lack of a camera, the tiny screen - makes them uniquely unsuited to video calls. They can, however, make and receive FaceTime audio calls, with a data usage of around 30MB/hour.
