The wireless industry is on the brink of a huge shift that's going to change how we use our smartphones - here are 4 improvements 5G will bring to your phone

Major carriers like Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T all offer unlimited data plans, but some of those options often come with trade-offs like slower speeds after a certain data limit has been hit or lower video quality.

With the advent of 5G, however, unlimited data plans are likely to become the standard, which means you probably won't find yourself scrambling to connect to the nearest WiFi network nearly as often. "That's going to disappear," Amon said. "5G is all about unlimited data plans, and it's been designed to handle the data."

That, of course, will depend on whether carriers are willing to adjust their current offerings to match the demand for unlimited data.

Since 5G networks will be capable of connecting mobile devices to the cloud more reliably than before, apps will be able to run power-hungry operations from the cloud and beam it to your phone, Amon says. That means performance won't necessarily be tied to the hardware inside your phone, which could enabled a new class of "super" apps, according to Amon.

Companies like Google and Microsoft are already experimenting with services that let you play console-quality games on any device by streaming it to your phone or TV through cloud-connected servers.

"Users will see a more reliable connection, and that's going to allow many of those services to evolve based on that," Amon said.

Today with 4G LTE, even a poor signal is still usually sufficient enough to stream a song on Spotify. But that's not usually the case for video.

This could change as 5G networks become more prominent. "It's just going to work seamlessly, Amon said. "No matter what signal you have."