Your iPhone just got marginally more powerful, as 9to5Mac reports that Apple quietly increased its cellular download limit from 150MB to 200MB this week. If you aren’t connected to Wi-Fi when you start downloading an app, movie, or podcast on your iOS device, it will check to see how large the file is. Previously, if a file was over 150MB, it would fail to download without connecting to Wi-Fi. But now the limit has been increased.
The cellular download limit makes sense on paper, as it stops unwitting users from downloading massive files and using up all of their monthly data on accident. On the other hand, the data limit is inexplicably impossible to override, so even if you recognize the risks and want to download the app or video anyway, you’ll have to wait until you can find a Wi-Fi network. Even more baffling is the fact that wireless subscribers with unlimited data plans are restricted to the same data limit as everyone else, despite it serving them no purpose.
This would perhaps be an easier pill to swallow if Apple increased the limit on a regular basis, but as 9to5Mac points out, this is the first time the limit has changed since 2017 when it jumped from 100MB to 150MB.
So while it’s not the most exciting news ahead of WWDC 2019 next week, it will be a welcome change for unlimited data customers who want a little bit of extra wiggle room for their over-the-air downloads. And with 5G right around the corner, perhaps a more substantial data limit will roll out in the coming years.
