Social media apps, streaming services and some games are among the worst offenders for draining your phone’s battery, experts have revealed.
According to tech experts at Decluttr, a tech trading website, the apps that do the most harm to your smartphone’s battery life are the ones that are constantly running in the background, even when not actively being used.
Facebook and Meta-owned Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and TikTok are some of the most taxing, experts warn, as the apps have access to your location, microphone, camera and contacts at all times.
It comes after users complained that Meta’s new social media app Threads, which has broken records by garnering more than 109 million users since its launch last week, was “killing your phone’s battery at lightning speed.”
Some frustrated users of the new microblogging app, seen by many as a direct rival to Twitter, even removed it after their smartphones’ batteries died.
Some users have complained that Meta’s new Threads app is draining their smartphone battery
Social media apps, streaming services and some games are among the worst offenders for draining your phone’s battery, experts have revealed.
In addition to social media apps, Decluttr warned that streaming apps including Spotify and Netflix are also among the worst offenders for draining your phone’s battery, and the Amazon app.
The app for the Uber taxi service, he warned, also drains battery life since, like social media apps, it has access to your location, microphone and media, as well as financial information.
Gaming apps like Candy Crush also drain your phone’s battery life as they require a lot of processing power, and users often play games for long periods of time.
One way to reduce battery usage from these apps is to turn off access to features like the camera and microphone, Decluttr said.
Changing location access to only allow when you’re using the app can also help preserve your smartphone’s battery life longer.
Another tip is to turn off your phone’s background app refresh setting, which allows apps to check for updates and new content, even when not in active use.
The new Threads app is linked to Instagram, allowing users to follow the accounts they’re already interested in on the photo-sharing platform.
While millions of users rushed to download Meta’s latest offering, many complained about its effect on their phone’s battery.
‘Is Threads just… killer of someone else’s drums?’ one user tweeted.
The app for the taxi service Uber, Decluttr warned, also drains battery life since, like social media apps, it has access to your location, microphone and media, as well as financial information.
Some frustrated users of the new Threads microblogging app have even deleted the app after their smartphones’ batteries died.
Another added: ‘Is threads draining the iPhone battery or has something changed with iPhones lately? I hardly use the app, but lately my battery has been draining a lot more than usual.’
‘Don’t download threads, it will drain your battery. Last night I went to bed with a fully charged phone and woke up with a 60% battery. I deleted the stupid app,” expressed another.
While the reason for this battery drain remains unclear, cybersecurity expert Jake Moore suggested that it could be due to a process called “negative testing.”
“Meta-apps have long been accused of causing iPhone battery drain,” he said. ‘It could be because they are trying to understand more about their app and how users interact with it.
A process called negative testing is used to help developers learn how people use the app in order to improve it and it was thought that Facebook used this in the past.
‘Negative testing involves parsing the application’s response when invalid input is entered.
“In the context of Facebook, negative tests can be used to test the functionality of specific features or measure the speed at which messages load when batteries are draining faster than usual.
“This may not be against their own policy, but it can be quite frustrating if you are one of the accounts they use to analyze.”
