Nokia releases data Counter app in beta for Lumia Windows Phone

By Daniel Rubino
last updated

Keep track of your data, calls and messages with Nokia

Another day, another Nokia app is released you know the drill.

Today’s release is the much-anticipated ‘Counters’, which allows you to track your usage for calls, messaging and data. You simply add in your monthly billing data and restrictions and the app will do the rest for you.

What’s cool about this release is this is a Windows Phone 8 feature made for ‘7’ by Nokia—so don’t ever say they don’t do anything for you. In Windows Phone 8, the app is called DataSense and can do a bit more e.g. push browser data through a proxy server for compression. While you don’t get that here you do get the rest, which is quite a useful feature for many of us.

That’s the good news. The bad news is for AT&T users. Much like the Contact Share app released over the weekend this app will not run without the latest firmware from Nokia. That firmware is tied to the “Tango” (8773) update but it is not the OS that’s doing it, it’s Nokia’s firmware (we manually updated to Tango on our AT&T phone and still can't run it). So be warned. AT&T users should be getting their OS/firmware updated later this summer.

For now, you can jump in on the beta (opens in new tab), assuming you’re logged in to Nokia’s server and get the program. In fact, you can probably just try this link for the Marketplace to see if you can download directly. The QR will also scan for you. Being in beta there are known limitations which are the following:

  • there are no notifications when set limit is achieved (will come later)
  • conference calls are not counted properly
  • not possible to set data limit counter with a fractional part (i.e. not possible to set 1.5GB limit) 

Source: Nokia Beta (opens in new tab); Thanks, Sithick and J_v for the tips

QR: Counter

Daniel Rubino
Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central, head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been here covering Microsoft since 2007 when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, Microsoft Surface, laptops, next-gen computing, and for some reason, watches. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics and ran the projectors at movie theaters, which has done absolutely nothing for his career.

73 Comments
  • I have a titan and love the hardware. Love the phone dearly. But I am getting increasingly more jealous of Nokia users!
  • Me too :-(
  • Just use pageonce
  • I have a 900 on at&t and the device is great, but I wish I still had my Titan.
  • So I guess this means the new firmware/os for ATT Lumia 900 will be coming between now and the end of August.  I have tried very hard o remain as im;passive as possible about the lack of urgency displayed by our premier partner my carrier ATT.  But it seems that ATT while carrying the most WP's is less inclined than most carriers to get out the updates in particular for their self proclaimed "hero " device.
  • ATT's lack of updates is almost criminal.
  • HEY! ANOTHER APP I CANT GET BECAUSE I WONT SWITCH TO AT&T!!!
  • Ha! If you were on AT&T, you'd be the last to get this because AT&T holds up updates. The "premiere" partner tends to push them out last...if ever at all.
  • Or Tmo. Lumia 710 is also a Lumia phone. Just smaller.
  • Lumia 710 is a FisherPrice phone disguised as a Nokia.
  • And they're really helping the image of Nokia in the process!
  • Yeah need the update to run this app
  • This sucks. Wanted to try it out. Hurry up update!!
  • Cool I have been waiting for this. One thing I feel is missing is you should be able to pin the individual counters. As I would have my data on the start screen as everything else is unlimited. Or just add live tile in general.
  • Someone suggested this on the Beta Labs site. The staff reply was:
     
    Thanks for the feedback! We will try it. It will be quite difficult to have live tile updated in real time. What if it will update every 30 minutes?
     
    I would be ok with 1/2 hour updates!
  • Live Tiles can't update faster than every half hour if you use the standard periodic background agent. Still way better than checking usage on a carrier site, which is often 24 hours behind.
  • I manually updated to Tango as well and it isn't working for me. What gives?
  • I assume you didn't read the full article where I specifically mention that it is the FIRMWARE not the OS that enables this? I swear, I'm going to enable a popup before people can publish a comment asking if they read the full post in its entirety and undertood it :-P
  • Thanks for taking me for a plebian.
    Quote: (we manually updated to Tango on our AT&T phone and still can run it).
    Okay, so did I. Where did you get the firmware?
  • lol, okay I fess up that's my fault. It should read "can't run it" First day on a Mac as AA/Delta can't find my luggage with my Lenovo :-/
  • Lol. Blame it on the Mac, must be their award winning keyboard.;-) Anyway, any ETA or educated guess to when NOK will roll out the firmware and/or Tango?
  • Hahahahaha. Even then people would just clock the pop up in order to comment. Hahahahaha
  • Click^
  • Hehe.. Do you really think that popup is gonna make difference? I didn't think so. :)
  • Needs update (firmware or OS) To work.
  • For everyone on AT&T: the myAT&t app works well to give you data and voice usage. It doesn't have live tiles but at least it works for all devices.
  • Finally! Works great on my Lumia 900.
  • Nokia Lumia 900 by AT&T ... No tango... :|
  • Works great on my Lumia 900. Even though no official WP8 will be making its way onto this device, Nokia shows a great commitment and support.
  • On Rogers here. I forced the "Tango" update weeks ago with the Zune trick and the app won't work. Says I need the update. OS version is 8773.98 and firmware (last two segments) is 8107.12084. Did anyone on Rogers get this to work?
  • Not working on my Rogers 900 and I updated when Zune prompted me, did not force the update.
  • Dang. I really like the idea of this app. I'm excited to use it.
  • Is it fair to assume that this app is really targeted towards non-att users? I ask this because Att users already have access to a basic counter app call "my att".
  • I'm using a Rogers Lumia 710 on Fido and I can get the app by scanning the QR code listed.
    I used the "trick" to get Tango a while ago.
  • Works on my Telus Lumia 800.
  • I am a user of MobiFone in Vietnam. I tried this app and it worked with my Lumia 710.
    Thanks!
  • Thanks ATT, you suck...luckily, verizon sucks worse :o
  • I can't run this app because it saying I need to update my phone but I got 7.5 so idk y
  • Does Nokia doing this mean 7.8 won't be getting this?
  • Pretty much. Don't expect anything other than homescreen and possibly aesthetic changes like updated tiles. Functionality? We've been given no reason to expect it, so don't bank on it.
  • What a great company, cheers Nokia!
  • Very useful, thanks Nokia!
  • Can someone confirm the firmware version required to run this?
  • Ending in 12220
  • Surprise!! AT&T is holding out on an update. My other WinPhone, the Samsung Focus, is STILL waiting for the "vanishing keyboard" bug fix that Microsoft made available go them in January. They are beyond sucking. At this point it's negligence.
  • Cheers for Nokia. Working on México, under Movistar on Lumia 710
     
     
  • Works fine on lumia 710
  • Yep working on my Lumia 800. UK country variant on o2 fully updated with tango and firmware. Like these little apps that Nokia are releasing.
  • This app awesome
  • Thank you Nokia! Just installed Counters on my Lumia 900 in South Africa on MTN. Going to be very useful. I've been waiting for this for a while. So happy I decided to go with Nokia even after knowing I wouldn't get WP8 :-D Nokia is the best
  • I may get blasted for 'defending' AT&T here, but I just want to note that there are NO Tango Updates even available for the AT&T branded Lumia 900 when I look in the NaviFirm tool. To me, this says that Nokia doesn't even have the update ready to hand off to AT&T. AT&T has done good so far with the Lumia 900 with pushing out the updates that Nokia HAS released so far, so I suspect they are just waiting for the final bits to test and release.
  • Just to refreshen my memory, what update did ATT push out for the 900?
    Other than the update to fix the data bug when the phone released, was ATT heavily invovled with that?  Nokia announced the release of that, not ATT if i recall correctly. 
    So essentially, ATT doesnt have an update track record for the 900 yet or i just dont remember. 
  • On Rogers in canada here.  I can download the app.  But then it comes back as:
     
    Sorry but this app won't work with this version of Windows Phone.  The good new is you can downlaod an update from Zune.
     
    I have Tango, but missing the firmware...:(
    Working on a 900
  • I love Nokia :)
  • Thank you Nokia for releasing another app that requires me to update my phone... I already have 8773.98, which to my knowledge is the highest possible update available. :)
  • Works perfectly fine on my 800 in India. Though one small desired feature would be separate counters for 2g n 3g data.
  • Just install on my wife Lumia 710. Lets see how its work. I would allso like that kinde app for my Omnia 7 :'(
  • Downloaded the app, and tried to enter my data limit of 1.5 gig. The Mb limit only takes 3 numbers and the GB limit doesn't take a decimal. So kind of looks like a bit of an oversight with the app
  • It's beta and that issue was already mention by Nokia in our post...
  • http://betalabs.nokia.com/trials/counters/suggestion
    responses:
    "Thanks for trying and feedback! Will will have more detailed information for data counter in next version, so that one can see not only 0/2 GB, but a more detailed report like you said."
    "Yep. We will do it in update. We have mentioned it in limitations of the current version."
  • Nice one.. Kudos to Nokia for all this exclusive software.. Hands down my wp8 device will be a Nokia :)
  • Anyone want to start a twitter campaign against AT&T. I'm serious. U can't claim to be the premier partner and then pull ish like this. @bushybro, lets do this
  • Thank you nokia, and thank you WPCentral for the link.
     
    Works great on my Danish L900 on "three" (3).
  • Doesn't work on the 900 on Rogers in Canada either.
  • Does anyone know if this app will somehow be able to identify different kinds of calls?  In Germany, we typically have contracts that have separated minutes for:
      landlines mobile numbers within our network mobile numbers outside of our network  
    The same applies for text messages.
     
    Just as an example: I have a contract with
      unlimited landline calls unlimited t-mobile calls 120 mins into other mobile networks unlimited t-mobiel texts 40 free texts to other networks 1GB 3G data, throttled to GPRS speed after that  
    I don't know if this app can understand different kinds of call & text allowances from what I can see.
    I would probably have to identify which peoples' mobile numbers are on which network, because that can't be 100% identified by the number.
  • It doesn't work for me.
    I have a Nokia 800 on Telecom NZ...
    OS Version: 7.10.8773.98
    Firmware Revision: 1600.2487.8107.12070
     
    Sounds like a need a Firmware bump!
  • I've downloaded the Counters App on my NL900 ATT Black. For some reason it is not working. Every time I launch the app, it gives me a message that this app does not work with my version of WP. It asks me to connect to Zune and upate the OS version.
    I've updated my NL 900 to Tango 8773.98 via the XDA guide. Yet, this app does not work on my NL900. Any ideas as to whats the issue?
  • You might also need the firmware which was the last update of the three in the update released today for it to work. 
  • Just got the Tango update  went back and found this post and did the QR thing  Nice app.  Thanks Nokia!!!!
  • Really looking forward to seeing this being updated with Live Tile support...
  • Windows 8 app made for 7? Am I missing a setting? Saw this talked about in the WP8 video release. Loved it on my 900, but wont install on my 920 and can't find it in the native software. Am I just overlooking something simple?
  • The app (counters) is not available for WP8 phones(lumia 520). Despite having so many good apps and features nokia and windows lack in this basic app, or I would rather call it a feature specifically in the countries like India, which is integrated with even the basic Rs. 4000/- worth of android phone. Nokia must release its counters' version for WP8 sooner than later. 
    Absence of this basic feature negates all the good features of the lumia series available in the phone. I won't advise anyone buying any lumia phone unless data tracking/counter feature is available in it. After all it' cannot be called a smartphone without this basic feature.
  • Unfortunately something is wrong with this app. It keeps on reseting counters unexpectedly. I have Nokia limia 800.