As Facebook‘s guiding ethos has always been it’s better to ask forgiveness than permission, it’s not surprising Facebook has had a few problems with its app over the years. Whether it’s trying to steal your contact list, or only begrudgingly implementing privacy features, generally if you download a Facebook app, you’re probably in for at least some annoyances. And the latest, it turns out, is not only is the Facebook app hammering your phone’s battery, the way it wrecks your phone is almost impossible to find unless you know what you’re looking for.
It’s been going around for a while that Facebook’s app, especially on Android, is a battery hog, but Tech World Zone did an independent test by deleting the app and instead using Metal, an app that makes Facebook’s notorious mobile page much easier to interact with. The results? A 20% savings on battery life. This was backed up by a bunch of Redditors testing removing the apps and seeing what happened. Sure enough, their battery life improved and apps launched faster.
And yet, if you open up your battery tracking app, you’ll see that Facebook’s app doesn’t seem to be eating any more power than usual. It turns out that what’s happening is Facebook does so many things, it’s putting more of a strain on your Android in general, so your phone has to work harder to get things running overall. In other words, they’re not deliberately draining your battery; Facebook’s app team is just, uh, kinda bad at their jobs.
If you love Facebook but need battery, it’s worth looking into the aforementioned Metal or Tinfoil. Or, you could just access it through Chrome, if that’s too much work. Either way, you don’t have to stop browsing Facebook on your phone, but you should probably stop using their app to do it.
(via Gizmodo)