# Data saver

> Hold back what the keyboard fetches while you're on mobile data, feature by feature, with an ask-first option in the middle.

URL: https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/privacy/data-saver/
Section: Privacy & security

Data saver is the switch for people who pay by the megabyte. It doesn't
change a single one of your settings. While the connection is metered, it
hides the fetches you've told it to hide, and the moment you're back on
Wi-Fi everything you chose is back, untouched. Same trick as
[Power saving](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/typing/power-saving/), pointed at the network instead of the
battery.

Advanced / Data saver

## Three answers, not two

Every feature on the screen gets one of three answers:

- **Allow.** Data saver leaves it alone.
- **Ask each time.** The feature still works, but it stops happening
  without you saying so. Open the GIF panel on mobile data and the grid says
  why it's empty, with a **Use mobile data** button under it. Tap that and
  the feature is allowed for the rest of the session, until the network
  changes or the keyboard restarts.
- **Turn off.** The feature is off while data saver is on, and nothing is
  offered.

The rows in the first group only get two of those. They're the fetches the
keyboard makes on its own, with no panel open, so there's nobody there to
ask. An "ask each time" for a clipboard link preview would either be a
notification or a silent no, and neither is worth having.

## When it turns on

| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| Only when I turn it on | never by itself: the manual switch is the whole story |
| On mobile data or a metered network | the active connection is metered, which covers mobile data and any Wi-Fi you or your carrier marked as metered |
| Only while roaming | the connection is metered *and* roaming |
| Android's Data Saver is on | you turned on the system-wide Data Saver in Android's own settings |
| Any of these | any of the three above |

**Only when I turn it on** is the default, so data saver never holds
anything back unless you choose a trigger or turn it on. There's also a
manual **Save data now** switch that holds on any connection, Wi-Fi
included, which is what you want on a phone hotspot that Android thinks is
free.

## What it can hold back

**Fetched on its own** (allow or turn off, all off by default except rates):

| Feature | What it stops |
|---|---|
| Link previews | the title and thumbnail fetched for a copied link and for a scanned QR code |
| Word look-ups | the definition fetched when you select a word. A look-up you tap for in the vocabulary list editor is not held back: one tap, a few kilobytes |
| Photo backgrounds | refilling the pool of rotating background photos, the largest automatic download the keyboard makes |
| Weather chip | the forecast behind the weather suggestion |
| Exchange rates | the rate table for the currency chip and converter. Allowed by default: a few hundred bytes, cached for hours |
| Add-on updates | re-reading add-on repositories to find new versions |

**Started by you** (all three answers; allowed by default, the same rule as Android's own Data Saver, which restricts background data and lets what you tap for through; only the two that can move real data ask):

| Feature | What it asks about |
|---|---|
| GIFs and stickers | searching and loading the GIF and sticker grids. Allowed by default. Your own sticker packs are files on the phone, so they always work |
| Web and image search | search results, the thumbnails an image grid loads, and a camera photo sent to a search site ([search by photo](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/camera/#searching-with-a-photo) on the Web setting). Allowed by default |
| Animated emoji | fetching the animated version of an emoji. Asks by default: the looping preview in the long-press popup waits for a yes, and pressing **Send** is the yes |
| Downloads | language data, dictionaries, emoji keyword packs, add-ons and the on-device speech and language models. Asks by default, since these run to hundreds of megabytes |
| Cloud AI | chat (on the keyboard and in the app), the [Settings assistant](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/ai-chat/#the-settings-assistant), AI actions, [AI-tidied dictation](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/voice/#tidying-dictation-with-ai) and the [sticker generator's online engines](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/emoji/sticker-generator/#engines) that run on a provider's servers. For the sticker generator, a second press of **Generate** is the yes, and at **Turn off** only the phone's model draws. Asked first, the chat's **Retry** and the assistant's next question are the yes; clearing the assistant's chat in between takes that back, so its next question is asked about again. Held or asked, a dictated phrase stays as heard. Allowed by default: small payloads, and the roaming trigger is the place to say no. On-device models are never held, because reaching them costs nothing |
| Online grammar check | [Grammar check](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/smart/grammar/#checkers-harper-and-languagetool) sending the text to a LanguageTool server, a few kilobytes after each pause in typing. Allowed by default. The one row here with only **Allow** and **Turn off**: a check runs on every pause, so there is no single moment to ask. Turned off, Harper still checks English on the phone, and the panel says why other languages wait |
| Speed test | a run of the [Internet speed test](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/speed-test/), which moves tens to hundreds of megabytes on purpose. Asks by default: the panel says how many megabytes a run is likely to cost, and **Run anyway** is the yes |
| Transcription server | voice typing that sends each phrase to your [transcription server](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/transcription-server/), about 75 KB for every 30 seconds of speech, compressed as Opus (just under a megabyte to a server that reads only WAV, or before the compression library has been fetched). Allowed by default. At **Ask each time** the voice panel explains, and pressing the microphone again is the yes |

## With no connection

Advanced / Data saver / Use on-device models offline is a separate question from data saving: not what the keyboard may spend, but what it does when nothing can be sent at all. It is off by default. Turn it on, and three tools that use a server change to the on-device model you downloaded when the phone has no connection, or when the server does not answer:

| Tool | Set to | Uses instead |
|---|---|---|
| Voice typing | a [transcription server](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/transcription-server/) | a [Whisper model](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/whisper/) for the language you type in, or else your phone's own voice typing. A phrase already recorded when the server fails is transcribed by the Whisper model, so it is not lost |
| AI actions | a cloud provider or a server | your [on-device model](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/ai/#local-models) |
| Translate | the Online engine | the [on-device languages](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/tools/translate/) you downloaded |

A short message tells you the first time a tool changes to the on-device model, and again after the server has answered in between. Translate also shows **On device, offline** next to the result. A tool with no model downloaded does what it did before: it shows its own error. AI chat always uses the provider you picked.

## Where the old switches went

Two settings used to say a smaller version of this, and both moved here:

- **Ask before downloading on mobile data**, on the Languages screen, is now
  the **Downloads** row set to *Ask each time*.
- **Only download over Wi-Fi**, on the AI models screen, is the same row set
  to *Turn off*.

Whatever you had set carries over, but both rows only act while data saver
is on, and data saver never turns on by itself unless you pick a trigger.
The Languages screen keeps a row that
points here so it's still findable from where it used to live.

Add-ons keep their own **Only on Wi-Fi** switch as well, on the Add-ons
screen. Either one holding is enough to skip the automatic refresh.

## Details & edge cases

- **A yes lasts for the session, not forever.** Tapping **Use mobile data**
  allows that one feature until the network changes underneath it or the
  keyboard restarts. It's an answer about the connection you're on, so
  carrying it into next month's roaming would be answering a question you
  were never asked.
- **One yes covers one feature.** Allowing the GIF grid doesn't allow
  downloads.
- **The settings app asks separately.** A download you start from the
  settings screens shows its own confirmation, with the size, and that yes
  doesn't carry into the keyboard either.
- **A refused download says why.** With **Downloads** set to *Turn off*, a
  download button answers with what held it: mobile data, Wi-Fi that
  Android counts as metered, a VPN, or, on a connection that isn't metered
  at all, the **Save data now** switch. Marking your Wi-Fi unmetered can't
  lift that last one. **Open Data saver** in the same message goes straight
  to these rows.
- **A running download notices the connection change.** A model or
  feature library download asks again every few megabytes. If the phone
  moves from Wi-Fi to a connection that turns data saver on, and the
  **Downloads** row is set to *Turn off*, it stops within about 4 MB
  on each connection and says it is paused. What arrived is kept, and the next attempt carries on
  from there. At *Ask each time* it goes on, since you were asked when it
  started.
- **Nothing is rewritten.** Data saver is a view of your settings, applied
  on the way out. Turning it off can't lose your configuration, because it
  never touched it.
- **Power saving still applies on top.** If both are on, either one is
  enough to hold a fetch back. See
  [Power saving](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/typing/power-saving/#what-gets-dropped).
- **An unknown connection counts as free.** In the second before the first
  network reading lands, nothing is held. It's better to fetch one photo too
  many than to have every panel come up refusing to work on a cold start.
- **Offline is not the same as metered.** With no connection at all, the
  panels show their own offline errors, unless
  [Use on-device models offline](#with-no-connection) gives them a model to
  use. Data saver doesn't claim credit for a fetch the radio was never going
  to make.

See [Network policy](https://wmkeyboard.pages.dev/privacy/network/) for the full list of what each
feature fetches and where it goes.