- New report by Uswitch reveals the BIGGEST battery draining apps that would be killing your device
- Google, Facebook and WhatsApp amongst the biggest drains on your mobile phone battery out of the 2 million apps available
- The top ten apps require access to a combined 422 permissions on our mobile phones
- Amazon Alexa, Uber and Waze all make the top 10 draining apps to be on your phone and running in the background
- Over 5 billion people in the world have a mobile phone and the average battery life is 5 to 11 hours
NEW report reveals the most battery draining apps that could be killing off your iPhone. As users are spending more time on their phones unknowingly draining battery in the wake of social distancing here is what you need to know to make sure you’re not constantly plugging in.
The online comparison site analysed 50 of the most popular apps all major app stores, taking into account the permissions they allow and how many permissions each app has access to, constantly draining the energy from your phone.
The analysis took place following the scandal of Apple purposefully impacting older models battery life to improve sales – costing the company £20million in fines!
Google, Facebook and WhatsApp drain our phone’s battery the most!
Image 1. Shows a screenshot from the Drain Nation Report of the top 10 battery-draining apps.
Table 1. Shows the top ten battery draining apps and the permissions they require.
Based on the permissions they require, Google, Facebook and WhatsApp are the biggest drains on our batteries.
Facebook amongst others in the top 10, runs constantly on our mobile phones in the background and is accessing over 50 permissions including; contacts, location and media.
It might appear that Amazon’s Alexa is listening more than we realise. The Alexa app requests 39 permissions on our mobile phones ranging from location, camera and photos/media even when it’s not running.
Uber also makes the top 10 with 35 battery-draining permissions constantly accessing our location causing your battery to die faster than others. Waze is one of the most raved about map applications but is found to be more draining than Google maps.
Other apps such as Tik Tok, Mcdonalds, Grindr and Snapchat all make the top 20 list which can be found here.
After analysing several of the latest handsets, Uswitch estimated how long we’d be able to use some of these apps before our mobile phone battery died completely.
TikTok drains the average mobile phone battery in 7 hours!
Table 2. Shows how long 6 of the top apps would take to drain our battery. This is based on an independent experiment across several of the latest devices. Please note each usage/how long it takes to drain the battery will depend on the user.
Although the average battery life is claimed to be 5 to 11 hours, recent news that Apple has been fined over £20million for purposely slowing down older handsets proves our battery life will deplete.
Table 3. Shows the top battery-draining dating apps and the permissions they require.
For looking for love online, Grindr, the dating app targeted towards gay, bi and trans people is most draining on phone batteries, followed by Bumble and popular swiping app Tinder.
Ernest Doku, mobiles expert at Uswitch.com advises on how to preserve your mobile phone battery: “It’s estimated that over 5 billion people in the world now own a mobile phone. In the current situation, it has become more than a simple way to connect with friends, it is now our main form of communication with the outside world.
Now that social distancing is firmly in place, spending more time at home and not surrounded by people, it’s become natural for people to be using their phones more. What they may be oblivious to is the excessive drain this will be causing on your battery, needing you to charge it more often than usual, a cost to your phones mechanics and your electricity bill.
There are a few simple ways to preserve your mobile phone’s battery life, such as turning off WiFi/Bluetooth and making the most of low power modes. In the house, try to limit the amount of time you spend on your phone and implement no-digital hours to give you a chance to finish that task you’ve been putting off, go for a walk or just relax to maintain your phone for needed social interaction.”
For more information please see the full data here: https://www.uswitch.com/mobiles/drain-nation/
