It’s a constant battle to preserve your smartphone battery but your choice of apps could be the culprits draining your charge. Here are the worst offenders.
Apps are getting more and more complex and placing even more demand on your device.
They use things like location services, push notifications and many are always running in the background to stay up to date.
Here is a list of apps that have the biggest impact on your smartphone’s battery.
MAPS
Whether it’s Google Maps or Apple’s Maps, these can tax your battery because they are tapping into your device’s GPS system.
They are also using data to call in the latest section of the map your moving into.
Using Google Maps for 15 minutes can use up to 9MB of data so it will not only affect your battery but also have impact on your monthly data limit as well.
The ever popular social media site is now being accessed by more people on mobile devices.
It has, by default, an automatic refresh feature so it can be updated even in the background.
To reduce the battery drain you can turn off automatic refresh in the app’s settings.
It should also be noted you use 5MB of data for every 15 minutes you’re checking out you’re the latest status updates.
SKYPE
Many people leave Skype running in the background so they don’t miss out on calls on the go.
Not breaking the connection might mean you’re online and up for a Skype call but that’s not much use with a dead battery.
ANGRY BIRDS
Gaming apps, including popular title Angry Birds are probably the worst offenders when singling out battery drainers.
And it’s not just the heavy use of the screen, processor and speakers that can suck out the charge.
It’s the pop-up ads that run in the free versions that saps your power.
So you can either pony up for the full ad-free version or stay close to a power point if you’re addicted to that game.
CAMERA
This is one of the most used features of any smartphones and can impact your battery life with constant use of the flash and having the geo-location feature activated.
To save some amps, leave the flash off or on auto and turn off geo-location.
Like Facebook, Twitter can also be left to run in the background to refresh so that it can display the latest tweets when you open the app again.
You can get to your tweets faster but the battery will also get to zero faster as well.
WEATHER
The weather is a very handy app to have but for it to be useful to you it has to constantly refresh itself whenever you change location.
Some other battery saving tips include:
* Turn off location services, wi-fi and Bluetooth until you need them.
* Avoid apps with lots of ads
* Close down games and apps you won’t be using for a while
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