iMessage WiFi vs iMessage 3G (Battery Hog) - Always uses 3G even when on WiFi!

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burnout8488

macrumors 6502a
I have always known that my heavy iMessage use between my girlfriend and I has been the source of my terrible battery life. By the end of a 12 hour day, my battery will be completely depleted. 0%, every day. Sometimes I'm lucky to get twelve hours.

Just to be clear: My battery life is excellent if I do not use iMessage for the entire day. It is 100% the culprit for me.

Little did I know, that iMessage uses 3G for communication even while connected to a WiFi network. I have always experienced slow message transfers on iMessage for seemingly no reason, and this is why. If a message gets stuck and I turn Cellular Data off, the message will immediately send over WiFi and the communication becomes much faster and smoother.

Today I did an experiment. I turned off cellular data for the whole day, and it turns out I didn't leave the house once, so I was on reliable wifi. I'm going on 14 hours of use now, and my battery is at 30%. My girlfriend and I talked more than usual today over iMessage, and the phone is still going strong. Web use was high, as were other apps.

This leads me to believe that 3G iMessage is a huge battery hog. THIS is what should have been fixed in 5.0.1, along with the various iCloud bugs - WiFi is on, so it should be used. The ability to at least prioritize WiFi over 3G would be nice in the iMessage settings pane, but I won't hold my breath :D

Hopefully this is turned around and WiFi is given priority in a future update. Blackberry messenger functions in this way, and it improves the experience greatly. :apple:
 
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Well I'd give this experiment an...
fail-exam.jpg


Having cell data off will increase your battery life not matter what the case may be.

I don't think iMessage is a big problem for the battery to be honest. I use it all the time, and never had a problem. If you really want to test it, don't use anything on your phone that requires data (apps, web) except iMessage with cell data on/wifi off and cell data off/wifi on. That will give you a more accurate measure of how much iMessage over 3G is affecting your battery life. Try again.
 
 
jbg232 said:
For my entertainment of course.
Click to expand...

I don't know why 3g even needs to be on if your phone is on WiFi... Should be automatically shut off when you are connected via WiFi. If imessage is using 3g while your phone is on WiFi that is an issue that needs fixing regardless.
 
iirc anandtech stated that its safer over 3g rather than wifi.

i do agree id rather have it send over wifi though
 
djuzi05 said:
Having cell data off will increase your battery life not matter what the case may be.
Click to expand...

This is definitely true. However, my battery life is perfectly fine when NOT using iMessage, and keeping Cellular Data on which was stated in the post.

When iMessage is used over 3G, battery life plummets and it is unreasonably bad. That was the purpose of the test. There have to be others that share the same findings, I hope? I'm seeing drops of 10% every 20 minutes in some cases over 3G. (When iMessaging) Browsing and games don't even eat it up that badly.

Half the time I find myself turning 3G off only when I'm going to be iMessaging for an extended period, then I turn it back on afterwards. If it uses so much less battery power on WiFi, it confuses me as to why Apple defaults to 3G on this service. Was their reason for safety or something else?
 
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burnout8488 said:
This is definitely true. However, my battery life is perfectly fine when NOT using iMessage, and keeping Cellular Data on which was stated in the post.

When iMessage is used over 3G, battery life plummets and it is unreasonably bad. That was the purpose of the test. There have to be others that share the same findings, I hope? I'm seeing drops of 10% every 20 minutes in some cases over 3G. (When iMessaging) Browsing and games don't even eat it up that badly.

Half the time I find myself turning 3G off only when I'm going to be iMessaging for an extended period, then I turn it back on afterwards. If it uses so much less battery power on WiFi, it confuses me as to why Apple defaults to 3G on this service. Was their reason for safety or something else?
Click to expand...

I have unlimited text message and limited data... I would rather all iMessage "texts" use my texting plan.
 
I have unlimited data so I may be interested in trying this. I'm assuming the constant switching between wifi and 3g is what is draining the battery (if you're assumption is correct) so keeping it on 3g with wifi off will eliminate switching and looking for wifi networks.

But I don't think everyone who has the "batterygate" issue is suffering from this, as their battery drains are apparent even when not using the phone. So I believe that was the priority for 5.0.1
 
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