-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 46
Android Data Upload
The App Settings page for each study has two checkboxes titled "Create new data files frequency" and "Upload data files frequency."
On the App Settings page for each study, there's a checkbox titled "Allow data upload over a cellular data plan."
-
The default behavior (box unchecked) is that the app will upload data only when the phone is connected to WiFi. This is the default option because the data files (especially accelerometer data files) can be very large, and we're concerned about overusing a study participant's cellphone plan and incurring extra costs for them.
-
If the box is checked, the app will upload data when the phone has an internet connection, regardless of whether that connection is WiFi or cellular data. A phone only has one type of internet connection at a time, and phone behavior (set by phone manufacturers) is usually to prioritize connecting to a known WiFi network over connecting to a cellular network. So with "allow data upload over a cellular data plan" checked, Beiwe will upload over WiFi if WiFi is available, and upload over cellular data if WiFi is not available.
The advantage of allowing data upload over a cellular network is that the participant's data are sometimes uploaded faster. Some participants only have their phones connect to WiFi at home, which is why we see a large spike in data upload volume around 6pm on weekdays, when many people get home from work. However, because of the extra data costs that Beiwe could incur for the participant, we recommend only enabling upload over cellular data for studies that either:
-
Do not record accelerometer data (since that's most of the data volume), or
-
Involve the study paying for the participant's data plan.
This checkbox only affects uploading data files; it doesn't affect other internet operations, including registering a phone for a new participant, resetting a password, or the participant viewing their own data. Those functions involve a negligible amount of data transfer, so those are always allowed to happen over WiFi or cellular data, regardless of whether the checkbox is checked.