Technologies
4 Apps That Help Track Your Streaming Subscription Bills
Are you making payments for a streaming service you barely use? Here’s how to keep up.
Your streaming subscriptions for Netflix, Spotify, Disney Plus and other accounts are probably all on autopay. Because you don’t have to think about due dates, that may mean you’ve overlooked the monthly expense or who to contact if you want to cancel. You could be spending more money than you want by paying for a phantom streaming service.
Is Netflix billing you directly? Has your forgotten Hulu 30-day free trial turned into a paid subscription? Did you buy your Disney Plus subscription through a third party like Apple, Amazon or Verizon? With all the streaming price changes creeping in, unwatched content, and missed opportunities for deals, it’s a good idea to keep up with who’s billing you, when and for how much. Luckily, there are apps that can make keeping track of your streaming subs a lot easier.
Here’s our list of recommendations for apps that help you track payments for your streaming service subscriptions. Most of these offer a free option, but you can upgrade to a paid version if you want extra features.
Read more: Keep Up With What’s Streaming on TV Using These 5 Free Apps
Formerly known as Truebill, Rocket Money is a well-rounded budgeting app with the option to track your streaming subscriptions. There are free and paid versions available.
It uses Plaid to link your financial accounts and syncs information about automatic payments from your bank, credit card or services like PayPal. After signing up and setting up multifactor authentication, you can begin managing your recurring payments. Rocket Money provides a snapshot of your yearly spending on subscriptions like Spotify and Netflix, and you can also view upcoming payments including a countdown to the due date. A calendar icon takes you to a screen that outlines all payments for the month.
You can cancel subscriptions within the app, view your history of payments or remove them from the Rocket Money list. There is a seven-day free trial, but its recurring fee is on a sliding scale from $4 to $12 per month, billed annually. Rocket Money is easy to use, but the free account lacks some features such as having the app cancel your streaming accounts.
Hiatus is a budget- and bill-managing app that includes a subscription manager feature. When you create an account, you can track your streaming services in an organized «upcoming bills» category. The app also allows you to enter missing subscriptions manually.
Hiatus connects your financial institutions through Plaid, with options that include banks, PayPal or the Google Play Store. In addition to showing all your streaming subscriptions on autopay, the app provides insights on how much you’ve spent at different intervals — seven days, 30 days and the last 365 days. You may opt to set spending limits for your streaming services using the budget feature.
You can use the app for free, but if you sign up for a premium plan at $8 per month, Hiatus offers other features like canceling your subscriptions on your behalf. You also have the option to cancel on your own. Hiatus is available for Android, iOS and web browsers.
Like Hiatus and Rocket Money, Bobby helps you keep up with your streaming subscriptions and how much you’re spending on them. Unlike Hiatus and Rocket Money, Bobby does not require you to link your financial information to track your recurring payments.
Instead, you click through the app’s list of providers to create a list of streaming subscriptions. Then you manually enter information such as how much and how often you pay. We admit this may not be helpful if you can’t remember all of your active services. But with Bobby, you can receive notifications for upcoming due dates, organize the bills into a category and monitor your average spending on streaming. And it’s free.
Foreign currency breakdowns and security features like Touch ID and passcodes are available. Bobby can be downloaded on iOS devices only.
Trim allows you to find, track and cancel subscriptions at no charge. Like Hiatus and Rocket Money, you can connect your financial institution through Plaid, and the app will collate all your recurring subscription payments.
You can view your transaction history for each streamer and cancel a service within the app or by visiting its site directly. Trim is not available as a mobile app, but you can access it on a web browser on your phone or other device.
Streaming service bill tracker FAQs
What about privacy?
Sharing access to your financial information with a third party raises genuine concerns about security. We urge you to review the privacy policies for each service to learn how information is used and stored. With the exception of Bobby, all the services on this list use Plaid to connect your accounts. Plaid does not provide your login credentials to Rocket Money, Trim or Hiatus, so none of the apps receive or store your banking or credit card information.
Why isn’t Mint on this list?
Mint (by Intuit) is a popular user-friendly app that’s used for budgeting. There’s a feature meant to help you track bills and subscriptions, but when I clicked on the Subscriptions tab in the Bills section, none of my subscriptions or recurring payments showed up. I did receive a message saying Mint couldn’t find any subscriptions in my transaction history. Additionally, we’ve seen numerous users reporting that the subscription feature is unreliable.
Are there any other apps you considered?
In addition to Mint and the four tools on this list, we checked out other budget/subscription tracker apps, including PocketGuard, Wallet by Budgetbakers, Billbot, Petal and Everydollar. We decided to highlight the four we discussed here based on robust features, accessibility, fees and ease of use.
PocketGuard syncs with many banks but you’re unable to link PayPal and other third parties like the Google Play Store. Billbot is not available for newer versions of Android, Petal requires you to apply for an account and EveryDollar charges $13 monthly if you don’t want to manually track your financial transactions. To digitally sync Wallet with your financial institutions, you must pay for a premium account.
Technologies
Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Sept. 19
Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Sept. 19.
Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.
I didn’t get off to a great start with today’s Mini Crossword, completely blanking on 1-Across. Thankfully, the other clues were easy, and that answer filled itself in. Need some help? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.
If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.
Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword
Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.
Mini across clues and answers
1A clue: Cancel on plans at the last moment
Answer: FLAKE
6A clue: Shade of light purple
Answer: LILAC
7A clue: ___ acid (protein builder)
Answer: AMINO
8A clue: Sarcastic «Yeah, sure»
Answer: IBET
9A clue: Sardonic boss on «Parks and Recreation»
Answer: RON
Mini down clues and answers
1D clue: Stylish panache
Answer: FLAIR
2D clue: Party game that tests how low you can go
Answer: LIMBO
3D clue: Visitor from outer space
Answer: ALIEN
4D clue: Philosopher who posed the question «What can I know?»
Answer: KANT
5D clue: Environmentally friendly prefix
Answer: ECO
Technologies
Your Old Android Isn’t Dead. These Tweaks Can Bring It Back to Life
Clear space, optimize your battery and update the basics. These quick changes can make an old Android phone feel snappier.
You don’t need the latest Android flagship to get good performance.
Thanks to longer software support from brands like Google and Samsung, older models can still run smoothly, as long as you give them a little attention. Clearing out unused apps, updating your software and tweaking a few settings can breathe new life into a device that feels sluggish. These quick fixes can help your phone last longer and save you from spending on an early upgrade.
Before you start shopping for a replacement, try a few simple adjustments. You might be surprised by how much faster your phone feels once you free up space, optimize battery use and turn off background drains.
Whether you use a Samsung Galaxy, Motorola or OnePlus phone, chances are you can still improve battery life and overall speed without buying something new. Just remember that Android settings vary slightly from brand to brand, so the menus may look a little different depending on your phone.
Settings to improve your battery life
Living with a phone that has poor battery life can be infuriating, but there are some steps you can take to maximize each charge right from the very beginning:
1. Turn off auto screen brightness or adaptive brightness and set the brightness level slider to under 50%
The brighter your screen, the more battery power it uses.
To get to the setting, pull down the shortcut menu from the top of the screen and adjust the slider, if it’s there. Some phones may have a toggle for auto brightness in the shortcut panel; otherwise, you need to open the settings app and search for «brightness» to find the setting and turn it off.
2. Use Adaptive Battery and Battery Optimization
These features focus on learning how you use your phone, including which apps you use and when, and then optimizing the apps and the amount of battery they use.
Some Android phones have a dedicated Battery section in the Settings app, while other phones (looking at you, Samsung) bury these settings. It’s a little different for each phone. I recommend opening your settings and searching for «battery» to find the right screen. Your phone may also have an adaptive charging setting that can monitor how quickly your phone battery charges overnight to preserve its health.
Why you should use dark mode more often
Another way to improve battery life while also helping save your eyes is to use Android’s dedicated dark mode. Any Android phone running Android 10 or newer will have a dedicated dark mode option.
According to Google, dark mode not only reduces the strain that smartphone displays cause on our eyes but also improves battery life because it takes less power to display dark backgrounds on OLED displays (used in most flagship phones) than a white background.
Depending on which version of Android your phone is running, and what company made your phone, you may have to dig around the settings app to find a dark mode. If your phone runs Android 10 or newer, you’ll be able to turn on system-wide dark mode. If it runs Android 9, don’t despair. Plenty of apps have their own dark mode option in the settings that you can use, whether or not you have Android 10.
To turn it on dark mode, open the Settings app and search for Dark Mode, Dark Theme or even Night Mode (as Samsung likes to call it). I suggest using dark mode all the time, but if you’re not sure, you can always set dark mode to automatically turn on based on a schedule, say from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. every day, or allow it to automatically switch based on your location at sunset and sunrise.
Keep your home screen free of clutter
Planning to hit up the Google Play Store for a bunch of new Android apps? Be prepared for a lot of icon clutter on your home screen, which is where shortcuts land every time you install something.
If you don’t want that, there’s a simple way out of this: Long-press on an empty area of your home screen and tap Settings. Find the option labeled something along the lines of Add icon to Home Screen or Add new apps to Home Screen and turn it off.
Presto! No more icons on the home screen when you install new apps. You can still add shortcuts by dragging an app’s icon out of the app drawer, but they won’t appear on your home screen unless you want them to.
Read more: Best Android Phones You Can Buy in 2024
Set up Do Not Disturb so that you can better focus
If your phone routinely spends the night on your nightstand, you probably don’t want it beeping or buzzing every time there’s a call, message or Facebook alert — especially when you’re trying to sleep. Android offers a Do Not Disturb mode that will keep the phone more or less silent during designated hours. On some phones, this is referred to as the Downtime setting or even Quiet Time.
Head to Settings > Sounds (or Notifications), then look for Do Not Disturb or a similar name. If you can’t find it, search for it using the built-in search feature in your settings.
Using the feature, you can set up a range of hours when you want to turn off the digital noise. Don’t worry, any notifications you get while Do Not Disturb is turned on will still be waiting for you when you wake up. Also, you can typically make an exception that allows repeat callers and favorite contacts’ calls to go through. Turn that on. If someone is calling you in an emergency, odds are they are going to keep trying.
Always be prepared in case you lose your phone or it’s stolen
Is there anything worse than a lost or stolen phone? Only the knowledge that you could have tracked it down if you had turned on Google’s Find My Device feature.
To prepare for a successful recovery, here’s what you need to do: Open the Settings app and then search for Find My Device. It’s usually in the Security section of the Settings app.
If you have a Samsung device, you can use Samsung’s Find My Mobile service, which is found in Settings > Biometrics and security > Find My Mobile.
Once that’s enabled, you can head to android.com/find from any PC or mobile device and sign in to your account. Samsung users can visit findmymobile.samsung.com to find a lost phone.
If you have trouble setting any of this up, be sure to read our complete guide to finding a lost Android phone.
Assuming your phone is on and online, you should be able to see its location on a map. From there, you can make it ring, lock it, set a lock screen note to tell whoever has it how to get it back to you, or, worst-case scenario, remotely wipe the whole thing.
And always keep your phone up to date
As obvious as it may seem, a simple software update could fix bugs and other issues slowing down your Android device.
Before you download and install the latest software update, make sure your device is connected to Wi-Fi, or else this won’t work.
Now, open the Settings application and type in Update. You’ll then either see Software update or System update — choose either one. Then just download the software, wait for a few minutes and install it when it’s ready. Your Android device will reboot and install the latest software update available.
There’s a lot more to learn about a new phone. Here are the best ways to boost your cell signal, and here’s a flagship phone head-to-head comparison. Plus, check out CNET’s list of the best cases for your Samsung phone. More of an Apple fan? We have tips for boosting your iPhone’s performance, too.
Technologies
Your Pixel 10 Might Have Issues With Older Wireless Chargers
You might want to try taking the case off your phone in order to successfully charge it.
When Google introduced the Pixel 10 lineup in August, it became one of the first major Android phones to receive the Qi 2 wireless charging standard, which Google calls Pixelsnap. However, users noticed issues with wireless charging on the Pixel 10 almost immediately after its release.
Some people are having trouble charging their phone with the new Pixelsnap charger, and others are having issues with older wireless chargers, including Google’s own Pixel Stands. The bulk of the problems happen when a case is on the phone — whether it has the magnet array or not.
I own both the first and second generation Pixel Stands and both will charge my Pixel 10 Pro XL without an issue if there’s no case on it. However, when I add a case to my phone, the problems begin.
I have three cases for my phone, the Mous Super Thin Clear Case, the Magnetic Slim Case Fit by Grecazo, and a no-name soft TPU case. If my phone has any of those cases on and I attempt to charge it while it’s vertical, it starts to charge and then stops after a second or two, and keeps doing that.
I can fix this for the first-generation Pixel Stand by turning the phone horizontal, but it will still charge very slowly. I can’t seem to fix it at all for the Pixel Stand 2 — vertical, horizontal, it doesn’t charge.
Not everyone has this issue
The problem doesn’t seem to be universal. CNET editor Patrick Holland said he had no issues charging the Pixel 10 Pro during his time with it.
A Google spokesperson told me the Pixel 10 lineup is not optimized for older Qi wireless charging standards, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the phones won’t work with older wireless chargers.
Qi 2 is backwards-compatible with older standards, but the phone’s height and charging coil placement on both the phone and the charger are still factors. If you’re having problems, you might see if removing the case helps.
The prospect of potentially needing to replace your older wireless chargers with newer ones isn’t ideal, especially if you shelled out $80 for one or both of Google’s own Pixel Stands. Still, if you want the best wireless charging speed for your brand new Pixel 10 phone, it won’t be with wireless chargers that only support older Qi standards.
