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Worst battery draining apps

I

iCole

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 10, 2010
190
21
Hi,

I'm coming from a S3 with an extended battery, and so far, i'm loving the iPhone 5. But ofcourse, the battery life is a downer. I came across this article :

http://www.cultofmac.com/229781/battery-draining-too-fast-lately-facebook-apps-may-be-at-fault-says-developer/

According to this developer, the Facebook apps are draining the battery like crazy. I'm a Facebook user and I would like to chat via Facebook but without the Messenger app. I have IM+ Pro, Trillian and Beejive. Which is considered to be the most energy efficient? Or are there other good battery friendly alternatives?

Also, this is meant to be a more general thread with a simple question :

What (other) popular apps drain the battery life like crazy?

Thanks! (Probably my first ever thread on MR, so apologies if I've opened it in the wrong section)
 
Skype is pretty bad if you stay signed in. Unlike other apps it does not use Apple's push notification service but rather it keeps a continuous connection open to the server. This keeps the radios on often, wasting battery.
 
Square Wallet 3.0 uses geofencing, and literally updates itself every 3 seconds. I kid you not. It is a battery hog and many people, including myself, have to manually turn off Location Services for this app just to preserve the battery.

The Google app with Google Now also keeps location services on, but they claim it doesn't suck up battery life.
 
I was using a Solitaire (free) app that was draining it like crazy. I caved and paid the $.99 to go ad free, and that made a difference.
 
I find days that I use tapatalk a lot I only get 4-5 hours of battery usage at the max.

Any app that uses cell data can be an offender depending on your signal strength. And a lot of things aren't as bad as you think they would be. I used Netflix while stuck in an airport (on their wifi) for 4 hours and I ended up getting about 10 hours of total usage which was way above anything I've ever gotten before.
 
Anything that uses geofencing will use the battery more than others that straight out freeze.
I use it on InRix but so far its not to bad on my battery.

On my end I'd say facecrap is the worst offender.
 
Facebook has been a no no for a while

The camera app is bad if your snap happy unless you turn geolocation off.

Any satnav app including apple maps
 
If I don't force close Facebook after using it the battery will decrease in standby, otherwise you would hardly use any % whilst in standby
 
For battery draining, there's nothing like the phone itself, even when not in use, if you're in a poor or no coverage area. If you can, put your phone in airplane mode -- and, you can still turn wifi back on (but not your GPS :( ).
 
TJ61 said:
For battery draining, there's nothing like the phone itself, even when not in use, if you're in a poor or no coverage area. If you can, put your phone in airplane mode -- and, you can still turn wifi back on (but not your GPS :( ).
Click to expand...
My 4S is on Airplane mode (no SIM card inside), but both WiFi and GPS are turned on and working.

Facebook - don't bother with the app, just use the full desktop site, close its tab when you're done

Any app that requires GPS will kill the battery, same with any app that requires lots of active screen time.

Don't use Bluetooth/3G/LTE unless you have to - that is also a big power drain.

Well, to put it simply, if you're looking to improve your iPhone battery life, you can either 1) use the minimum settings on everything and disable all wireless networks... or 2) strap your iPhone to a large electron tank. There is no third option unless you know how to make a bigger internal battery (while making the phone look ugly in the process).
 
Any app which uses GPS such as maps. Any game, any app which constantly uses and streams data such as Skype, Spotify, Netflix etc.
 
so basically buy a smart phone but dont use any apps or 3g/lte...may as well stick to old school flip phone..or buy a charger and enjoy your phone and use it how it was meant to be.

just close the apps when done manually by double tapping the home key.
 
Last edited:
Apps will always drain battery, but some drain more than they should. That's what I wanted to know :)
 
jcpb said:
My 4S is on Airplane mode (no SIM card inside), but both WiFi and GPS are turned on and working.
Click to expand...

I was referring to actual satellite GPS using the iPhone's GPS receiver, as opposed to WiFi-based location which is what you're seeing (and is not GPS).
 
Any streaming video like Youtube and Netflix (or even audio if you have bad reception) is going to be pretty damn tough on your battery life.
 
Here is a fine example of what the Facebook app can do, mind you my phone was off the charger for about 3 hours and was 100% fully charged, I didn't use it for anything it just sat there it was connected to WiFi and obviously I had 4 bars of service and no other apps running besides Phone and Messages.

z74tu.png
 
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