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These apps are draining your battery

These apps are draining your battery
Patrick Devaney

Patrick Devaney

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Smartphones are amazing and there is absolutely no doubt that the phones we have today are much better than the phones we had just a few years ago. That is not true, however, for the batteries that power them. Battery life is the same as it ever was. Mobile phone manufacturers haven’t been able to move beyond a simple truth. For more battery power, you’re going to need a bigger battery. It really is that simple. You can’t have more power without having a bigger phone and phones are about as big as they can get.

As a phone owner, however, there are things you can do to help squeeze a bit more power out of your Android or iPhone’s battery. Yep, you should be familiar with your device’s battery saver mode and of course things like screen brightness, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi usage, and battery health will have an effect too, but you also need to know that certain third-party apps will be placing a massive strain on your battery usage. If you delete these apps, you will immediately notice a difference. Let us show you then, the apps that are draining your battery.

Biggest battery draining apps

All the apps below are draining more than their fair share of battery. If you regularly find your phone dying before the end of the day, consider deleting any of the following apps that you have installed on your Android or Apple mobile device.

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t just want all your private data, seemingly, he wants all of your battery power too as he owns the top three apps to make it into our battery draining list. Facebook, however, is by far and away the biggest of the lot though, and deleting Facebook from your phone will have the biggest effect of any action we’ll recommend you today.

The main reason behind Facebook’s excessive battery drain is that it is constantly trying to spy on everybody all over the world. This means that the app on your phone is constantly tracking what you do and constantly trying to notify you about what everybody else on your network is doing. Think about it, Facebook is always running in the background, it syncs and updates whenever it wants to, and it is constantly updating contacts and software. This means you can limit Facebook’s power usage by turning off all internal notifications for the app. Or you can just delete it altogether.

Facebook Messenger

Hot on the heels of Facebook is Facebook Messenger. You know that app that extra Facebook decided you had to download as it was no longer ok to send messages to your friends using the Facebook app. Yeah that app that you shouldn’t even need but do because a global corporation forces you to download it. That app is a massive battery hog that is likely causing your phone to run out of battery long before it needs to.

The reasons for this are much the same as they are for Facebook. Messenger is a busy app, constantly buzzing away in the background and using a lot of your phone’s hardware in the process. Fortunately, for anybody looking to save battery without losing access to the biggest social network on earth, you can download the Lite versions of Facebook and Facebook Messenger, which will use a lot less power than their bigger siblings.

WhatsApp

WhatsApp

We’re now at number three on our list and as you can see, we’re still talking about a Zuckerberg-owned app. WhatsApp is an incredibly useful app, so much so, that it is the most popular messaging app in the world. That comes as no surprise too, when you consider that you can use WhatsApp to text and call your friends and family, make video calls, easily send photos and videos, and effortlessly create messaging groups with lots of different people. Not too bad at all for a free app.

The catch, however, is that WhatsApp uses a lot of battery power. The internet modem on your smartphone is one of the most power-hungry pieces of hardware it has. By sending all your messages and transferring all your social data over the internet rather than the phone antenna, you’re placing more of a strain on your device’s battery. The real kicker here, though, is that there’s no real alternative. If you want WhatsApp to use less of your battery, you’re going to have to use it less.

Google Maps

Just like with your data, the other big guilty party when it comes to hogging your battery power is Google. In particular, out of all the Google apps, Google Maps is the one that is using the most of your juice. Google Maps needs a lot of data to accurately keep you up to date on your whereabouts. As we mentioned above, more data means more power.

To limit the amount of power that Google Maps needs you need to go into Settings on your mobile and then scroll down until you find the Google Maps option. Once you’re there select Location and adjust to While Using the App. Another quick battery-saving measure you can do is turn off notifications too.

Snapchat

Snapchat makes it onto our list today by being guilty of a number of the crimes we’ve mentioned above. Basically, Snapchat is always on and constantly tracking and looking for something to notify you about. On top of that, Snapchat is constantly tracking your location so that it can tell your friends where you are and what you’re up to.

As you’ve probably guessed, the best way to stop Snapchat hogging all your battery is to delete it from your phone altogether. If you don’t want to do that, however, you can limit certain features and functions. You need to go into the Snapchat app and open Settings and select the Who Can… option and hit My Location. When you’ve done that hit Ghost Mode and you should start to notice your battery lasting a little longer at the end of the day.

Patrick Devaney

Patrick Devaney

Patrick Devaney is a news reporter for Softonic, keeping readers up to date on everything affecting their favorite apps and programs. His beat includes social media apps and sites like Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat. Patrick also covers antivirus and security issues, web browsers, the full Google suite of apps and programs, and operating systems like Windows, iOS, and Android.

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