The internet abounds with hacks for eking more battery life out of your phone. But sometimes boosting your smartphone juice is as simple as looking at what apps are siphoning off the most power.
That’s what Inc. magazine reporter John Koetsier recently did because his phone battery was no longer lasting most of the day. He learned that a single app soaked up 47 percent of his phone’s battery use during the prior 24 hours — even though he used the app for only about 30 minutes during that period.
That app was Facebook. Once Koetsier deleted it from his phone, its battery lasted through the whole day with 20 percent to spare, he reports.
Reducing Facebook’s drain on your phone battery life
Koetsier didn’t give up using Facebook on his phone. He just accessed his Facebook account through a mobile web browser instead of the app.
Aaron Hettler, an executive at the ad technology company SRAX, explained to him why that change made such a difference:
“Facebook’s app is a juggernaut of features, which is contributing to its usage of your phone’s battery, not to mention space. … Simply opening the app fires up all these features.”
Speaking of space, Koetsier also notes that the Facebook app takes up “a massive 388 megabytes — a far cry from the 5, 10 or 30 megabyte apps of just a few years ago.”
If you can’t imagine deleting your Facebook app, you can tweak its settings to reduce the amount of battery juice it soaks up. Erica Johnson, an expert at the mobile tech support company Asurion, tells Koetsier that such tweaks include turning off Facebook’s:
- Video autoplay
- Location settings
- Background app refresh
- Notifications
How to tell which apps use the most battery juice
Koetsier has an iPhone and used its built-in tool for assessing battery use. You can access it from the Settings menu by clicking on “Battery.” Apple’s website also offers detailed instructions for how to use this tool on an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch.
Android phones have a similar built-in tool for assessing battery use. You can access it from the Settings menu by clicking on “Battery” as well. Various third-party websites like wikiHow also offer detailed instructions.
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