Facebook App Is Killing Your Phone's Battery

facebook app draining phone battery
Shuttstock
Shuttstock

Despite humanity's ability to do amazing things like develop alarm clocks for underwear or infuse garlic flavor into potato chips, we seem utterly incapable of developing a phone battery that is still functioning past lunch time.

Tech World Zone took a look at the problem on phones running Android and found that the Facebook app and other apps developed by Facebook (Messenger, Instagram) aren't helping things. They aren't the sole reason your phone is dying, but they're making the situation worse. Their researched was based on a post from Android blogger Russell Holly and a Reddit thread that was tackling the issue. They found that not only are those apps draining your battery (in part because they're using a lot of battery while running in the background), they're making your phone run less efficiently.

Using an LG G4, Reddit user pbrandes_eth discovered that other apps opened 15 percent faster after the Facebook app is deleted from the phone. Tech World Zone's tests resulted in phones have 20 percent more battery life when the Facebook app wasn't used.

The issues with Facebook's Android app have been well documented and it's even been such an issue that Facebook's central item officer Chris Cox made staff get rid of their iPhones to better focus Android issues. A representative for the social media site told Tech World Zone, "We have heard reports of a few people encountering speed issues coming from our Android application. We are investigating this and will update you as often as possible. We are focused on keeping on enhancing these issues."

It's worth noting that just because a few independent tests have confirmed issues, that doesn't make mean it's true for everyone. There are many variables at play and to 100 percent confirm this is a universal problem, more tests would need to be run. But you can test your own phone and discover if the app is causing issues for you.

The solution if you are having issues? Deleting the app works. But if you have to post political rants in order to engage in a fight with a distant cousin who you can later cite as a reason you're not going to Thanksgiving, there are other solutions out there. In particular, you can access Facebook via a web browser like Chrome and it works pretty well with Android.

h/t Gizmodo

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Dustin Nelson is a News Writer with Thrillist. He holds a Guinness World Record, but has never met the fingernail lady. He’s written for Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, The Rumpus, and other digital wonderlands. Follow him @dlukenelson.