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Social media apps can take a lot out of you smartphone battery. Apps like Facebook and Snapchat are constantly working —streaming video, updating posts, and so on — and these actions come at a cost to your phone’s battery and data plan.
What can you do about it? Aside from deleting the app, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done. But you can lessen the hit your battery takes by simply changing a setting. This is the one social media setting you should change right now because it’s slowly destroying your iPhone’s battery.
Location Services
It sounds creepy, but location services is actually a valuable setting — when used properly. Apps with GPS or weather apps rely on knowing your exact location so that they can provide you with the info and service you expect from them. But far too many other apps, including social media apps, track your location. Not only is it unnecessary in many cases, but it’s also taxing your battery.
Popular social media apps like Facebook and Snapchat both track your location — unless you change their settings and forbid them from doing so.
The Facebook app, which is by and large one of the most battery consuming of all apps, often tracks location. To turn off this setting, follow these steps:
Launch the Facebook app on your phone, and then go to Settings and Privacy and tap on Settings.’
Scroll down to the Privacy section and tap on the Location option.
Click on Location and select your preferred setting as shown in the screenshot; I prefer minimal tracking on my phone, so I went with ‘Don’t allow.’ Alternatively, you can set this to access your location ‘Only while using the app.’
Want to keep Snapchat from having access to your location? Here’s the simple way to turn off the location services setting:
Open the Snapchat app.
Tap on your profile picture on the top left side of the screen.
Tap on the settings gear on the top right of the screen.
Scroll down to the Who Can… section and tap See My Location.
Select Ghost Mode.
