These five well-known iPhone apps are some of the worst battery hogs

iOS 7 (battery empty 001)

Have you ever wondered about the top battery hogs on the App Store? We all know the mobile Facebook app is notorious for its background fetching, which in combination with location tracking consumes a lot of power, but did you know Twitter just as easily rips through your iPhone’s battery life while you’re using it?

ZDNet has performed some eyebrow-raising testing of a raft of popular apps to uncover which have the biggest impact on your iPhone’s battery life, and here’s the shame list.

The shame list

After testing some 50 of the most popular apps for the iPhone on the App Store, sans games and camera apps, author Adrian Kingsley-Hughesgaming discovered the worst offenders for killing battery life, as follows:

  • Facebook—Facebook’s mobile app is one of the battery-heaviest apps on the App Store, even when it runs in the background.
  • Google Chrome—Google’s Chrome browser does not use Safari’s optimization techniques so it ends up being a significant battery drain.
  • Twitter—The app constantly checks for new tweets in the background. The more people you follow, the more Twitter for iOS hits the battery.
  • Google Maps—Location tracking, GPS and navigation together cause the most significant battery drain of all apps and with more features than Apple Maps, small wonder that Google Maps is another significant battery hog.
  • Skype—Probably one of the worst apps ever in terms of energy consumption, Skype uses just as much juice when it’s running in the background as it does when it’s in the background, even making your device hot to touch.

Bottom line

  • Disable background fetching for Twitter and Facebook in Settings → General → Background App Refresh to reduce the battery drain.
  • Switch to Apple Maps or download one of the many third-party navigation apps in the App Store, like TomTom’s new GoMobile app.
  • If you’re a Google Chrome users, switch to Safari.
  • Use FaceTime and Messages for video calling and texting, or another app whenever you can—and avoid Skype at all costs.

“Stock apps are the better choice if you want to get the most from your battery. Also, social media apps are hard on the battery,” the author concludes.

Facebook battery draing iPhone screenshot 001

Granted, there’s nothing scientific about Adrian’s tests: he was simply using them and then measured battery consumption in Settings → Battery, so your mileage may wary. That being said, it’s certainly interesting to see how Apple’s battery-shaming section within Settings helps identify apps that eat up your iPhone’s battery

Source: ZDNet