May 9, 2016

Tracking Minutes

Filed under: Main — Tags: — admin @ 12:01 am

Android phones are great for tracking mobile data. Hidden in the Settings app is a mobile data usage screen, with a lovely pie chart and a list of those apps that hog up most of the data. But what about talk-time minutes? If you don’t have an unlimited talk plan, how can you tell when your minutes are just about up?

This is a great question because I’ve never considered tracking minutes. I have one of the all-you-can-blab accounts, so the minutes don’t matter in my statement and I pay them no heed. But not everyone has such an account.

So I scoured my Android phones to look for some method of tallying a total talk time. I came up empty.

The closest info tidbit I could find was the call log, but it shows only per-call minutes. I didn’t find a running total.

I also looked for a minute-tracking app, but wasn’t able to locate one. The only close one I found simply accesses the cellular provider’s website and pulls the minutes value from your account. If that’s it, then that’s the solution. After all your provider should know the minute tally. In fact, the one subscription plan I’ve used reminded me with a voicemail or text when I was getting close to my limit.

So while the Android may not track minutes, my advice is to check with the cellular provider: Log into your account and see how many minutes you’ve used. While you’re there, check the website to see whether they have an Android app or widget that tracks minutes — if that’s possible.

The next version of Android comes in in a few months. I’ll have to check to see whether it shows total talk minutes used. It might, but seeing how this feature hasn’t been present in the past, and Google assumes (apparently) that everyone has unlimited talk, I don’t expect to see it soon.

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