27 Popular Apps That Are Killing Your Battery Life

Most apps in your phone drain your charge depending on its Screen On Time, or SOT. And that’s understandable.

What many don’t know is that some app can use significant battery even in the background.

And that’s hurting your battery life.

So, here are some of those apps that are draining your phone battery like the T-800 from The Terminator — relentless and unstoppable, it won’t stop until your battery is absolutely dead.

Google Play Services

Google Play service is a crucial part of the Google environment. Basically, it’s what makes all other apps and services work.

But, you cannot see it in your application menu.

Anytime you run apps like Google Maps or services that use Google Play Services API (Application Program Interface), your phone will run Google Play Services in the background.

Adding to this, If you have multiple Google accounts, your phone uses Google Play Services time and again to keep them updated.

As a result, if you take a look at the battery usage, you might notice Google Play Services is near the top of the list. Just look at how many hours it is running in the background.

It literally has 0 SOT and is running in the background for 11 hours.

Saying that, you might want to remove this. Unfortunately, most apps require services provided by Google Play Services and might not run if you uninstall it.

ANY Social Media Apps

Just in 2024 alone, over 5 Billion people are actively using some sort of social media application.

And, they spend an average of 4.8 hours daily on these apps.

So, there is no doubt that these apps are primarily causing a major chunk of battery drain in your device. Let’s look at a few of those.

Snapchat

Are you a frequent Snapchat user? Well, I have a bad news for you.

The constant location, mic and camera access, and downloading of all the pictures, and stories of all your contacts require heavy processing and it contribute to a very high battery consumption.

On top, the 3D filters and constant checking of new notifications also suck the life out of your battery.

To avoid this, make sure you turn off notifications for Snapchat.

And may be lower its screen time too?

Facebook

Facebook is the epitome of social networking apps. From a small kid who just started using mobile phones to adults, everyone has it installed on their phones.

With more than three billion active users monthly, there is no doubt it’s doing everything at its disposal to be at the top.

Facebook connects with its server constantly to stay up-to-date.

It checks for messages and keeps your news feed fresh. It does this even in the background.

Just as I was writing this, I checked the battery usage for Facebook. It showed the Screen On Time as 1h3m and the background as 3h54m and 854343 packets were sent via wi-fi in this period.

3h24m is a huge period for an app to run in the background. No wonder it consumes battery.

All this keeps your processor busy and your battery drained.

To avoid this, I recommend using Facebook Lite instead. It uses less RAM, less resources, battery, and data usage.

TikTok

Although we don’t like to admit it, most of us have probably been sucked into the deep hole of TikTok. I know I have.

If you have noticed, the TikTok app starts playing videos right from the moment you open it, without even buffering. Pretty neat right?

It does this because all the searching algorithms and buffering happen in the background.

Unfortunately, this is what drains the battery.

I once completely turned off notifications, disabled background data, and restricted the app in battery settings.

But it still used 1.2 GB of data with 0% use. For some reason, the app is still allowed to run in the background even when restricted.

Instant Messaging Apps

After scrolling through pages of social media, you are likely to open your messaging app.

Nothing like chatting up with your school friends and catching up. Right?

But, it’s likely causing your phone’s battery to drain more than the usual.

Let’s look at a few of those.

Messenger

Like Facebook, Messenger also works in the background to keep your messages up-to-date.

And if you wonder how you get message notifications even when the app is closed, its because Messenger connects to its server all the time to retrieve new messages.

For some reason, Messenger also uses precise location by default. I cannot see any reason why a messaging app needs this except when sending live locations.

However, all these drain a significant amount of your phone’s battery usage.

Whatsapp

Whatsapp is another messaging app owned by Meta.

And like Messenger, it also constantly checks its server for new messages, Even when you have notifications turned off.

The constant background refresh to connect to its server means your phone is constantly working. And so, it drains the battery.

Another reason the app could drain the battery is if it has permission to access your location.

Disable it and this should lower your battery consumption.

Other messaging apps like Viber, Telegram, and Discord also drain your phone’s battery.

Streaming Service Apps

Unlike social media and messaging applications, streaming services like Netflix and YouTube don’t usually run in the background.

All the battery drainage occurs mainly when using the app.

And if your SOT is high, it WILL consume more battery. Let’s start with YouTube.

YouTube

Now, YouTube is a bit different from other apps that I have mentioned above.

As I said, it is not usually active in the background. But when active and playing a video it is constantly downloading video data.

The amount of battery depletion depends entirely on the resolution of the video.

Higher resolution means your phone needs more video data. And it communicates with the server more which means high battery usage.

Plus it is also playing audio, which also increases battery consumption.

If you want to conserve battery while using the YouTube app, consider playing at a lower resolution.

Netflix

During the first quarter of 2024, more than 6 million users downloaded the Netflix app.

And why wouldn’t they, it is one of the best streaming services to binge-watch your favorite shows.

I emphasize binge because that’s what will lower your battery’s percentage.

Just like YouTube, Netflix also receives data from its servers. Plus, a great thing about it is it always tries to play videos at the highest resolution.

This is why you see your charge dip drastically when running this app.

Watching a movie/series back to back on Netflix with maximum brightness will contribute to it even more. You might even feel the device heat up more when watching.

Spotify

Once you install Spotify, you can never go back to your phone’s default music application.

It’s great at what it does.

But being this great comes with a price. It consumes a lot of your phone’s resources. Here I’m specifically talking about streaming music.

Like any other streaming application, it also requires a constant Wi-Fi connection.

Although a lot less compared to Netflix or YouTube, it still uses a considerable amount of data, especially if the app is streaming high-quality music. And this will drain your phone’s battery.

If you have the entire playlist downloaded, you can play it offline, which will consume slightly less battery.

Navigation Apps Like Google Maps

This might come off as a surprise but your phone consumes a significant battery when running maps.

We all know what a navigation app does. It tracks you, shows directions for the quickest routes, and even shows traffic on the road.

And your phone also sends data anonymously to Google/Apple, depending on the app you use.

Furthermore, if enabled, it shows satellite images to navigate even more efficiently.

This is why your battery runs out quickly when navigating through maps.

Fortunately, it only consumes charge when opened.

Here are some other navigation applications that drain your phone’s battery.

• Waze
• Apple Maps
• Go Navigation
• Petal Maps

Fitness Tracking Apps

I know these tracking apps are great for tracking your steps. And if you have a smartwatch/band, they even track your heartbeat and burn calories.

Some might even require you to enable location services all day.

But, this constant tracking means the app has to run throughout the day. And your phone’s Bluetooth also needs to be connected to the band all day.

I noticed my phone’s battery lasted much longer when I closed the fitness tracking app and disconnected my fitness band.

Here are some popular apps that drain your phone battery

• Strava
• JEFIT
• Samsung Health
• Fitbit
• MyFitnessPal

But all these apps are pretty accurate and useful, and users might still want them installed.

If you want to use them make sure you disable location access and make sure that the app does not run in the background.

And, if you have a fitness band, I suggest you let it do all the tracking. Turn off Bluetooth in your phone to disconnect the two.

Your band still tracks everything you do, your steps, calories burnt, heart rate, everything.

Just connect the band to your phone at the end of the day and your fitness app will get the data.

This way, you save battery and still have your health data ready.

Video Conferencing Apps

When active, the video conferencing app performs a lot of tasks simultaneously.

It constantly receives video and audio data from multiple users. And it constantly sends data from your phone.

So, basically, your phone is working tirelessly.

And What does this mean? It of course requires more POWER.

When trying the app, just running it for a few minutes, my phone was relatively hot. This meant that my processor was under heavy stress when running these apps.

No wonder the battery drains when using this app.

Fortunately, in most cases, it only does this when you are using the app for a video conference. Other times not so much.

Here are some video conferencing apps that could significantly drain your phone’s battery

• Zoom
• Google Meet
• Microsoft Teams
• Skype

Benchmarking Applications

I might not have to explain why a benchmarking application drains your phone’s battery.

If you don’t know what a benchmarking application is, it is an application that pushes your phone to its limit.

Here are some of these applications,

• 3DMark
• Stress Test
• AIDA64
• Geek Bench 6

It tests the processor, and GPU by rendering a game at your device’s resolution.

This requires a lot of power as both the GPU and CPU are performing at full throttle.

These applications might even run in the background, however, the apps I’ve tested all displayed some sort of disclaimer in the notification menu if running in the background.

During the time of the test, my battery level on My S22 dropped to 35% from 43% within just 5 minutes of running 3DMark.

Web Browsing Apps

Want to perform a quick search on the internet? Your web browser is going to be your best friend.

And don’t get me wrong, some web browsing apps are great. They consume a minimum amount of system resources while keeping things buttery smooth.

But there are many that hog your phone’s resources.

On top of my head, one browser that comes to mind is Chrome.

Chrome has a separate process running for each tab. This makes the browser more stable and smooth.

Unfortunately, this causes it to consume a lot of resources. Now, you can guess why the battery drains so much when using Chrome.

Intensive Gaming Apps

This is kind of obvious but, these types of gaming apps put a lot of strain on your phone. These games usually have high graphical requirements.

This means the GPU and CPU are performing at its max. Hence the battery drain.

Adding to this, if the game requires an active internet connection to a server, you can expect your charge to drop fairly quickly

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it. These apps require heavy resources and power.

The only thing I can recommend is lowering your SOT (Screen On Time) if you are playing graphics-intensive games.

Check Apps that are Causing the Battery to Drain

All these apps that I mentioned are some of the common ones that users have installed on their phones.

But, you may not have them installed on your phone. So, if you want to know what apps are draining your phone’s battery, you need to check it from Settings.

1. In Settings, head over to Battery settings.
2. Check for an option named Battery Activity.
3. Scroll down and check for a list of apps with battery usage percentages.
   

Note: Settings might be different depending on the phone you use.

Few Tips to Stop Apps From Draining Battery

Now, do you know what apps are causing the highest battery drain? Now let’s fix that.

First, try changing the app permission settings. These are the services that the app can access.

To do this,

1. Head over to Apps in Settings > Select your app that is draining battery to open App info.
2. Open Permission.
   
3. Now disable any services that you don’t need.
4. I usually disable location access or set it to “While using the app”.
   

The second thing you can try is restricting battery usage in the background. To do this,

1. In App info, Head over to Battery.
2. Select Restricted. This will restrict battery usage when the app is running in the background.
   

And finally the most obvious, lower Screen On Time.

So, that’s it, all the types of apps that could be draining your phone’s battery.

If you have any queries about why an app is causing significant battery drain, feel free to leave a comment. And make sure you share this with your friends.