The average smartphone user has around 26 apps installed on their device. Even if you only regularly use a handful of the apps on your phone, the apps you use or allow to run in the background can have a significant effect on your battery life.
Here are the top 5 battery draining apps:
The Facebook mobile app is notorious for being a resource hog, even when it’s just running in the background. With its location tracking and constant app notifications, it’s easy to see how this app can drain quickly your battery.
If you’re trying to save battery life for as long as possible but still want to access Facebook from your phone or tablet, consider deleting the Facebook app and browsing Facebook via your phone’s internet browser instead (Safari, FireFox, Chrome, etc.). Facebook is mobile optimized and accessing it from within the browser uses significantly less power.
YouTube
Streaming apps usually puts a strain on your battery, but the YouTube app in particular seems to drain battery faster than other apps. While YouTube has acknowledged that there’s a bug for iOS11 causing the battery to drain particularly fast and causing phones to overheat, the app is still taxing on your phone even when its run in an optimal environment.
Once again, if saving battery life is your main goal, try uninstalling the YouTube app and only access YouTube from the internet browser on your phone when needed.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a great browser option and comes pre-loaded on most Android devices. While this tends to be one of the most popular browsers available, it requires quite a lot of battery power to run.
If you’re using an iPhone or iPad, always use Safari when possible. This native browser is much less taxing on the system and requires less battery life to run. If you’re using an Android device, try FireFox, Edge, or one of the many other browsers available in the Google Play Store.
Skype
Skype is an all-around phone’s battery life killer. It’s one of the most resource-heavy apps when it’s in use and continues to require a lot of power in the background. You could disable this app from running in the background, but with so many other video conferencing apps available for either iOS or Android (such as FaceTime for iOS or Google Hangouts for Android), it’s hard to justify keeping Skype installed.
Snapchat
Snapchat is killing your mobile battery life, one snap at a time. This is largely due to the location based filters, constant background refresh, and camera usage. If you can’t live without Snapchat, consider disabling the Background App Refresh setting within the app itself.
When in doubt, choose to use apps that are native to your operating system (ie: use apps that were built specifically for the type of phone you have). Social media apps or those that constantly refresh their content in the background tend to be the biggest battery drains, but others that rely on a large amount of location services data or camera usage can negatively impact your battery life as well.
If you’re unsure if an app could be killing your battery, check out your battery usage information. This should be available within the settings app of any iOS/Android phone and can help you make informed decisions as to whether an app should be deleted based on its battery performance.
