In a busy and hectic world, social media apps are often our lifeline to the world. But many of them have one thing in common: in order to provide services that connect you and keep you abreast of what others are doing, they boast features that are taxing to your battery. On top of that, nothing in life is free — and these apps are free. This means the developers must find alternate ways of making revenue, and that often means selling your data.
“WhatsApp is one of the worst iPhone applications that has drained my battery making it impossible for me to use my phone in a full day without recharging,” says Harriet Chan, the co-founder from CocoFinder. “WhatsApp was purchased by Facebook and has been over the recent years accused of compromising one’s privacy. The application now shares and saves data to the Facebook servers, making it possible for the company to include targeted ads in WhatsApp statuses. The Facebook group that includes WhatsApp has been accused of selling users’ information to third-party applications.”
Chan says that some people are WhatsApp addicts due to the algorithms that monitor their daily activities and trigger notifications to keep the user constantly using their phones. “iOS 14.5 will inform iPhone users on what applications spy on them and use controls to disable the applications from tracking them,” Chan says. “One can use alternatives such as Signal and Telegram in communicating sensitive information.”
But WhatsApp isn’t the only social media app that is creating concern among tech experts.
Two more apps to keep on your radar if you’re having battery issues are Facebook and Snapchat, says Jennifer Schultz at Outforia. “As a certified outdoors athletics educator and instructor at Outforia, I spend a lot of time outdoors, where my iPhone's battery life is truly a limited and precious resource to be optimally conserved,” Schultz says. “The biggest culprits I've found eating up battery life are Facebook and Snapchat. Both apps run in the background even when not in use, with the first also automatically syncing contacts and updates, and the latter your live location.”
“With Facebook, I would recommend deleting it and accessing it in your browser if you must when you are on the go, as most key functionalities are still accessible there,” Schultz says. ”As for Snapchat, if it is an essential social service you cannot live without, using ghost mode and switching off the live location feature can at least somewhat stem the bleeding.”
If you absolutely need ALL of your social media apps, Schultz recommends following a few tips to maximize battery life:
1. Don't close your apps after using them. As compared to Android, Apple does a great job of keeping your 'minimized' apps frozen when they are not in use, unless they are intended to run in the background (like Facebook). By closing and reopening apps, you are actually using more of your battery life to re-launch them.
2. Keep your phone in your pocket or face down. When your iPhone detects ambient light, it wakes your screen every time you receive an incoming notification. While helpful if battery life is not a concern, this continued activation of your display can rapidly eat through your battery over time. In fact, if you are going to be engaged in an activity for a block of time, just turn on Airplane mode to prevent the constant fetching of updates, and drain to your battery life.