Power Hungry Apps You Need To Know About
Almost everyone is very dependent on smartphones nowadays. These marvelous devices have infiltrated every aspect of our lives from messaging to photography, even cooking and relationships. There are around 197 billion mobile app download last year. In 2016, mobile app downloads of iOS users amounted to almost 25 billion while Android users, at the same year, downloaded a whopping 90 billion applications.
Three years ago, Facebook was the most used application but last year, Amazon got the largest number of users. According to reports, nine applications are used by people on average daily while thirty applications are used monthly. In the Apple Store, there are around 2.2 million applications as of January 2017 while Google Play had almost 3 million applications as of June 2017.
So Many Apps To Choose From
One can argue that the popularity of the smartphones can be attributed to the thousands of applications available to the users. These applications stretch and give more functionalities to the smartphones. While some mobile apps employ strategies of traditional marketing, others employ a more modern approach. For the latter part, app developers happen to use mobile marketing platforms like AdAction to advertise in mobile. Truth be told, there are several benefits of mobile marketing and is is easy to identify the important ones—reaching target audience easily; getting discoverability in app stores; and retaining users for a long time.
Applications can also be considered as the reason why smartphones are heavily used. However, the downside to having too many applications installed on one’s phone is the tendency of the phone to slow down or even crash. This may be due to decreasing memory of the smartphone which can contribute to the decreased processing speed of the device.
In addition, applications tend to eat up a lot of battery power. In fact, there are a lot of applications that are considered power-hungry. If you feel that your phone’s battery dies faster than it used to, then check your applications because these may be the culprits.
Apple recently released an iOS update that is supposed to "enhance" the battery life on their devices. There are mixed reviews on whether or not it worked.
A new report from Avast, a mobile security firm, have revealed that there are certain applications which suck most of the power out of a smartphone’s battery. The report has determined that the applications which used the most energy are Facebook, Netflix, and Snapchat.
Related Read: Tips, Apps & Settings That Will Keep Your iPhone Secure
Coincidentally, these are three of the most popular applications out there. Avast has categorized applications into two classifications:
- 1Applications that immediately run as soon as the phone is booted up.
- 2Applications that users manually start themselves.
Applications that Immediately Run at Start Up
Listed below are the top ten applications which drain the life out of your battery as soon as you start the phone. These phones can be considered silent workers since they still run even on background which makes them not the first suspects in case the battery runs dry. These applications are:
Android
- 1Samsung Allshare
- 2Samsung Security Policy Updates
- 3ChatON Voice & Video Chat
- 4Google Maps
- 5WhatsApp Messenger
- 6Facebook
- 7AppLock
- 8WeChat
- 9Microsoft Outlook
- 10DU Battery Saver (a little bit ironic)
iOS
- 1Moves
- 2BT Wifi
- 3Google Search
- 4Facebook Messenger
- 5Facebook
- 6Google Hangouts
- 7H&M
- 8WhatsApp
- 9Google Maps
- 10Viber
Google Maps drains batteries fast because it regularly tracks and transmits data in order to ascertain efficiently where you are or the details of the place you’re trying to locate.
Social media applications such as Facebook and WhatsApp are power hungry because they utilize LTE or Wifi connectivity in order to bring real time updates and messages. Even though these applications are closed from time to time, still they run in the background in order to stay connected.
Applications That Users Manually Start Themselves
For Android users, these are the power-hungry applications that are usually launched by the users themselves:
- 1Beaming Service for Samsung
- 2Samsung WatchON
- 3Netflix
- 4Clean Master
- 5Snapchat
- 6Photo Grid
- 7Super Bright LED Torch
- 8ES File Explorer File Manager
- 9Amazon Shopping
How to Deal with Fast Draining Battery
There may be applications that are non-negotiable to users. This means that even though they are aware that the applications drain their battery lives faster, they need the application on a daily basis and they cannot do anything about it.
In that scenario, the users may do something else in order to save their batteries from crashing down earlier than expected.
- 1Get a power bank or extended battery – This is a practical solution which does not really target the root cause of the problem. But having a power bank is really helpful especially when you are always on the go but still need to be on your smartphone 24/7. A power bank is also ideal if you're planning to go on any vacations any time soon. The last thing you want is to be on a vacation in Sri Lanka and you can't take any photos of the beautiful scenery because your phone has died! Sites such as www.3000store.lk make it easy for phone owners to purchase power banks so that they're always charged.
- 2Use content blockers in Safari – content blockers are technologies used by advertising companies in order to track other advertisements do use a lot of battery life
- 3Reduce the screen brightness – This is one of the fundamental things you need to address. Of course, if your smartphone is on full brightness mode, it will use a lot of battery power than usual. Luckily, smartphones now are equipped with night mode or reading mode screen brightness which not only will help prevent eye strain but also help your battery live longer than usual. Note that some phones have an auto-brightness feature, like the iPhone, which adjusts the brightness of the screen in accordance with the light around it. You may want to turn that feature off too. Not only will this save your battery, but it will also help with preventing things such as computer vision syndrome, as this artificial light can damage your eyes and have adverse effects on your mental health and sleeping patterns.
- 4Turn off Background Motion – For iPhone users with an iOS 7 and up, there is a feature called Background Motion wherein when you move your iPhone, the application icons and wallpaper of your phone move separately or independent from each other. It may be cool but it can also drain your battery. If you do not need that feature much, you can turn it off too and opt for a longer battery life.
- 5Make the Battery Usage feature your best friend – Again, this is for iPhone users, more specifically for those with an iOS 8 or up. In Settings > Battery, you will find the Battery Usage feature which will actually show you which of your applications eat up the most battery power over the past 24 hours. With this information, you will be able to see which applications to close on purpose and which applications to use less, if possible.
- 6Replace the battery - If you are still not able to pin down the excessive battery drain it will take a toll on your battery capacity. Replacing the battery will not stop the excessive power consumption although it will give you a longer life. This is especially true for older phones. You can get your battery replaced easily at a local cell phone repair shop.
There are other ways to save up on battery too like turning off the Location Services and Cellular Data of your smartphone. But then again, these tips need not be followed religiously if you need these features on a daily basis.
At the end of the day, you will be able to decide which applications to use scarcely and which applications you cannot live without, despite the battery eating tendencies.
