Apps that are secretly draining your phone battery

A weak phone battery seems to be a constant problem, whether your phone is several years old or brand new. That's because, often, the culprits that drain the battery are apps running in the background.

 

But you don't have to struggle with a dead phone battery. Once you know the cause, you can fix it once and for all!

Battery-draining apps you may not know about

You don't have to doubt all the applications.

 

When it comes to battery-draining apps, you might think of heavy mobile games that get a little hot while playing. Or perhaps you think of the myriad of social media apps that constantly refresh and sync in the background to check for notifications.

But those aren't the only apps that drain your device's battery. Consider location and navigation apps, like Google Maps , which run in the background to track your location. There are also fitness and step-counting apps, which need to connect to your GPS or smartwatch to collect your activity data.

This also applies to apps that you need to keep running in the background, like messaging and email apps. This ensures you get notifications as soon as messages arrive, instead of having to manually open the app and refresh it multiple times a day.

Why do some apps drain your battery?

Not just when you're using them

 

 

When discussing battery consumption, not all apps drain your battery in the same way. After all, it's natural for a photo editing app or a graphics-intensive game to consume a lot of power while you're using it.

In fact, many of the biggest battery hogs rarely appear to be particularly heavy-duty at first glance. There are a few types of power drain to watch out for, including:

1. Background Refresh and Sync : Many apps are constantly checking for updates, notifications, and syncing to the cloud. This type of activity is usually small, but can quickly add up over the course of a day, especially if you have multiple apps performing the same task.
2. Automatic downloads & backups : Apps like YouTube , YouTube Music , and Spotify can automatically download content for offline playback. Meanwhile, apps like Google Drive or OneDrive silently back up photos and videos in the background. If left unchecked, both of these activities can drain your phone's battery.
3. Location Services : Any app that detects your real-time location, whether it's a weather app, a ride-hailing app, or a step counter, uses battery-draining sensors on your phone. Battery consumption can easily increase when multiple apps are running at once.

Types of applications you need to pay attention to

Because some apps are worse than others

 

So, aside from social media and games, what types of apps should you pay attention to when it comes to battery consumption?

1. News Apps : Especially if you have live widgets enabled, news apps will constantly refresh in the background to update with new news and information.
2. Fitness and step tracking : Apps like Strava and MyFitnessPal always have GPS turned on to record your activity. Outside of a designated workout, this is extremely battery-intensive.
3. Cloud Storage : Whether it's Google Drive, OneDrive, or Dropbox , automatic syncs and frequent backups can silently drain your phone's battery.

1. Streaming and music apps : In addition to streaming, apps like Spotify, Netflix, and Prime Video often cache or automatically download media for offline use. This consumes a significant amount of your phone's resources and drains your battery.
2. Smart Home & Virtual Assistants : Because they're always connected in the background to receive commands, your Alexa, Google Home, Ring, and Nest apps consume a significant amount of energy to predict voice commands and maintain camera feeds.
3. Shopping & Deals Apps : Amazon, AliExpress, and Temu regularly send push notifications about the latest discounts and deals. While sometimes useful, these notifications can quickly drain your battery throughout the day.