How to boost iPhone battery life – most power-draining apps you’re using revealed
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POWER-HUNGRY apps may be to blame for your iPhone's lacklustre battery life.
So if your mobile really struggles to make it through a day, it might be worth cutting back on draining apps – or deleting bad offenders entirely.
To help you make your decision, Uswitch has studied the 50 most popular apps of all major app stores.
It tracked the permissions they allow and how many permissions each app has access to – draining your battery in the background.
And it turns out that some apps are worse than others.
According to Uswitch, Google, Facebook (plus Messenger) and WhatsApp put the "biggest drains on our batteries".
For instance, Facebook runs constantly in the background, accessing a wide range of permissions.
Amazon's Alexa app ranked in fifth place, requesting 39 permissions on phones.
And Uber, Waze, Google Chrome and YouTube filled out the rest of the top 10.
"It’s estimated that over 5 billion people in the world now own a mobile phone, it’s our main form of communication and for some people even a method of payment," explained Ernest Doku, a mobile expert at Uswitch.
"It can cause issues when you’re caught out with a drained battery.
"There are a few simple ways to preserve your mobile phone’s battery life, such as turning off WiFi/Bluetooth and making the most of low power modes.
"If all else fails, remember to put a portable charger in your bag on long journeys."
Uswitch also tested popular apps to see how long you could use them before draining a battery completely
Viral app TikTok fared worst, draining the battery of several phones in just 7 hours and 48 minutes on average.
But it beat apps like Twitter, WhatsApp, Bumble, Instagram and Tinder.
Of that lot, Bumble came top with a battery-drain time of 11 hours and 52 minutes.
That's better than rival dating app Tinder (10 hours 53 minutes).
Of course, you should take these results with a pinch of salt.
For a start, different phones fare better than others.
iPhone tricks to try today
Here are some of the best...
- Typing cursor – When typing, hold down the space bar to turn your keyboard into a trackpad, letting you move around words and sentences more easily
- Close all Safari tabs – To do this in one go, simply hold the overlapped squares in the bottom right-hand corner, and press close all tabs
- Delete lots of photos quickly – Hold down on a photo and then drag your finger diagonally in Photos to select lots of images at once, then hit delete
- Convert currency quickly – Swipe down from the top of your Home screen (or swipe left to right on an iPhone X), then tap in the bar and type a currency (like $200) and it will automatically covert to your local currency
- Check if you're due a battery upgrade – Batteries inside smartphones degrade over time. Just go to Settings > Battery > Battery Health, and check out the Maximum Capacity reading. Generally a battery is considered worn when you're down to 80% capacity. If you're below, you can buy a battery swap from Apple
- Move apps around faster – Hold an app until it starts wiggling, then (while still holding) tap other apps, causing them to stack so you can move them around easier
If you've got a brand new iPhone 11, it'll likely last longer than an ailing iPhone 6.
Phone batteries degrade over time too, so a phone used for two or more years will probably have less than 80% of its original battery capacity.
You might not have the same background permissions accepted as the apps on .
And the way you use apps might be completely different, so your own mileage may vary.
For some real Apple juice help, check out our guide to the best iPhone battery life tricks.
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And read about all the Samsung Galaxy S20 features your iPhone doesn't have.
Do you know any tricks to improve your iPhone battery life? Let us know in the comments!
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