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iPhone 12 App or web, which is good for battery?
- Thread starter Veerasayz
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I'm not sure if this really possible to answer. Seems to me it would totally depend on which app vs. which website (and additionally on which mobile browser and even on which version of iOS). I don't think there's one global answer.
Okay let me be more clear.
This is general question, let us take any app, for example Facebook.
Access Facebook through app vs access Facebook.com through safari. Which one will consume less battery. Similarly, twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit etc.
This is general question, let us take any app, for example Facebook.
Access Facebook through app vs access Facebook.com through safari. Which one will consume less battery. Similarly, twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit etc.
I’m talking majorly about Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Reddit.
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Well that's what I was saying - impossible to answer it as a general question because there are too many variables.
As for your specific example, even then there are variables. I suppose the Facebook App may use more battery if you have push notifications on for it and you get frequent notifications? But the user-friendliness of apps vs. their corresponding website is usually worth FAR more than any possible marginal battery usage difference.
Unless you're experiencing some unexpected battery drain issues, I wouldn't give this a second thought. If you ARE experiencing such issues, go to Settings > Battery and scroll down to see which apps are consuming battery power and how much.
Web. Apps can run in the background trying to figure out your location, always connected to have push notifications, and stealing whatever other data it have access to.
I always heard Facebook have bad reputation with sucking up battery. You can disable apps from refreshing in the background, that could help.
I always heard Facebook have bad reputation with sucking up battery. You can disable apps from refreshing in the background, that could help.
This is what I think so. Apps will consume more battery as they will be always running in the background to check for updates and notifications. However, we hear mixed opinions here. We will wait for more comments.
The best thing you can do for your phone and battery life, delete Facebook
For Facebook, I'd assume web. You can restrict a lot of Facebook cross tracking cookies and other trackers via the browser, and it has reduced access to the phone hardware compared to a native app.
Instagram, cannot help it to use a native app since the web experience is much more limited. But I don't see it as a huge battery drainer when not in use.
In short, if you don't need active notifications or you're not actively posting to the services, just use a web version. I use native apps only if I must have notification (eg instagram messaging).
Well I use a lot of apps, including Facebook, and have no complaints about my battery life.
Is this question just a theoretical exercise, or are you actually having a real issue with your battery life?
Probably depends on the specific Apps - I know Apollo (for Reddit) and Tapatalk (various forums) are much more efficient than Safari for me.
Easy to test - just run them side-by-side for a while, force close apps when not using to eliminate risk of background drain. Then compare the apps on the 24hr and 10d graphs while toggling the apps for %-batt vs hrs-used info. You can get a really good feel for relative efficiency between apps this way.
Easy to test - just run them side-by-side for a while, force close apps when not using to eliminate risk of background drain. Then compare the apps on the 24hr and 10d graphs while toggling the apps for %-batt vs hrs-used info. You can get a really good feel for relative efficiency between apps this way.
It depends entirely on how they’re coded. Some apps use the same code for web and app, in which case any difference in battery impact depends on feature differences and background processing. Others use native code for the app, which can be (but isn’t always) significantly more efficient.