A penny saved is a penny earned. I learned this way before I started earning, and yet, I haven’t managed to gain complete control over financial discipline.
I learned about mindful spending and other aspects of financial discipline from my mom, and those pieces of advice helped me be more careful with my spending than many of my friends.
A fair amount of credit also goes to some of the best Android features. These are the ones that always stay with me, acting like a guide in real time.
None of them is marketed as a feature that can save money, but if you learn to use them smartly, they help you reduce your expenses, just like they do for me.
They are all easy to find, so you won’t have to go deep into the settings to find and enable them.
Here are the four Android features that quietly save me money.
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Notification history
Google introduced the Notification history feature with the Android 11 update in 2020, but I started using it only last year.
While I regret being late to the party, I never missed a deal on online shopping apps since I started using the feature.
The Notification history keeps a record of all notifications, including those you have dismissed, which you received in the last 24 hours.
It isn’t directly linked to saving you money. But I check the Notification history page every day to double-check whether I have accidentally dismissed the notifications of any lucrative deals from my favorite shopping apps.
This is particularly helpful during Prime Day deals, because that’s the time when you get the most discounts on almost everything.
If you dismiss a deal notification, you can open it later (within 24 hours of receiving the notification) directly from the Notification history page in your Android phone’s settings.
However, Android doesn’t enable Notification history in the default setup, so if you get a new phone, this is one of those features that I enable first after buying a new phone.
To activate it, open the Settings app, type Notification history in the search bar, and enable the Notification history toggle.
Digital Wellbeing App timers
Digital wellbeing on Android offers users a set of tools to manage their device usage. Of all the tools that it offers, the one that I use and love the most is App timers.
App timers helped me cure my Instagram addiction, but on top of this, I also use the feature to limit my visits to online shopping apps.
This is a crucial step for anyone who doesn’t want to overspend on online shopping portals.
The more you are exposed to items, the more you start to develop a liking for those products. This is called the Mere-exposure effect in psychology, and it’s a very common human trait.
So, the less time you spend on online shopping apps, the less exposure to items you get, and the less likelihood of you getting into the trap of those notorious countdown timers that say the sale will end in a few minutes.
Digital Wellbeing is available on all modern Android phones, though if you use Pixel UI or Hello UI, it’s available directly in the Settings.
On some devices like the Samsung Galaxy, Digital Wellbeing is accessible both through One UI’s Settings and as a standalone launcher in the app drawer.
Google Play’s subscription management
Managing app subscriptions felt like a nightmare on Android before Google introduced a subscription center on the Google Play Store in 2018.
Before the arrival of this change, I used to write down all the services I was subscribed to and how long I wanted to continue them. This was the only way I avoided overspending on subscription services.
It wasn’t easy, even after noting those pieces of information down in my notebook, because I had to cancel each of those subscriptions by opening the app individually.
The subscription center makes things simple. It centralizes all your Play Store subscriptions, where you can see all your active and expired recurring services.
It displays the names of the apps, so you can select the one you want to cancel and tap the Cancel subscription button.
Open Google Play Store, tap the profile icon, select Payments and subscriptions, and then tap Subscriptions to see all your active and expired recurring subscriptions.
Google Play’s purchase verification
The more friction there is, the more time you get to think about whether you really need to subscribe to a particular service or buy anything in general.
That’s what Google Play’s purchase verification does. When you buy an app or make in-app purchases, it’ll ask you to authenticate your identity using your fingerprint or face, whichever you use.
I’ve never purchased an app in my life, nor have I ever made any in-app purchases other than buying Premium subscriptions.
However, I still love Google Play’s Purchase verification status. It prevented me from accidentally buying something. A single tap won’t be enough to complete the purchase.
Open Google Play Store, tap the profile icon, select Payments and subscriptions, and tap Purchase verification to enable or disable the requirement of identity authentication for purchase.
Android doesn’t just track spending — the OS prevents it
Numerous excellent Android apps are available to help you track and cancel unwanted subscriptions.
While there is no harm in using them, Android is packed with features that you can cleverly use to save money, directly or indirectly.
Features like Notification history can help you save money by helping you cash in on deals before they expire. It doesn’t generate discounts, but it ensures that you never miss any opportunity to save. App timers also indirectly reduce your spending.
Tools like Purchase verification and subscription management play a more direct role in saving you money. I use each one of them to save money.
