Anyone who owns a cell phone knows that there’s nothing worse than apps that drain your phone battery. While you can avoid some of these apps, sometimes they’re a part of your daily routine. From maps to get around, to messenger apps for communication, to games that pass the time, it’s not likely that you’ll be able to avoid these apps that drain your battery completely. However, you can take steps to help preserve your battery, and one of the most significant steps is knowing which apps are the main culprits. Here’s everything you need to know about some commonly used apps that drain phone batteries fast.

What Drains Your Battery?

Several factors impact the battery life of your cell phone. If you have a relatively old phone, it will likely have worse battery life than a cell phone that’s brand new. Surprisingly, your location and service provider can also impact your battery pretty significantly because a phone that is constantly searching for service will die much more quickly than one that connects effortlessly. Many other components impact your phone’s battery life, but perhaps the biggest indicator of battery life is app usage. Because app usage varies from person to person, there’s no specific app that you can delete from your phone to extend your battery, but a few apps are notorious for draining the battery.

Facebook

Facebook is known for draining cell phone batteries, and several factors contribute to this. One of the most apparent reasons it drains battery life is that it’s easy to spend much passive time on the app. When scrolling through the endless memes and life updates, it’s easy to lose track of time and end up burning a decent chunk of your battery away without a thought. However, Facebook also uses your battery in ways that go beyond newsfeed scrolling. This app runs in the background, syncs updates and contacts, runs notification services, and many other background processes. Luckily, you can turn off some of these background services in your settings to help reduce the amount of battery usage. Facebook can also eat up a significant amount of storage on your phone, so it’s best to adjust your settings to prevent this as well.

Google Maps

Google Maps is one of those apps that you likely will not be able to avoid using entirely, especially if you’re a frequent business traveler. Having GPS services available at the tip of your fingers is highly convenient and can often help you out if you’re in a pinch, but it is also a primary culprit in battery drainage. Much of the damage comes from the use of location services. This feature is necessary when using GPS services, but you can change your settings to ensure that the app isn’t using location services when you’re closed out of it. By reducing the amount that the app searches for a location, you can drastically reduce the amount of battery expended in the background.

Snapchat

Snapchat's photo-messaging platform has quickly become one of the more popular apps on the market. Unfortunately, the app has also become one of the more draining apps that you can have on your phone. Much like Google Maps, Snapchat runs location services in the background unless you opt to turn this off. By putting yourself into ghost mode, you can stop most of the location services from running. Also, similar to Facebook, you can turn off unnecessary notifications to assist in saving some battery life. Even with these tips, Snapchat isn't great for your phone's battery, so if you're concerned, the best thing you can do is reduce your overall usage of the app.

WhatsApp

Aside from a cell phone's built-in messaging app, WhatsApp is one of the most commonly used messenger apps. This app is undoubtedly a fan favorite because it allows you to interact across international lines without incurring international messaging charges. Sadly, there aren't many great ways to reduce the amount of battery used by this app. Turning off notifications can make a slight difference, but this isn't usually the most feasible option due to the nature of the app. If you want to make any significant difference, you'll have to limit your app usage.

Fitness Apps

Because many fitness apps look to track your physical activity, they are often constantly running in the background, slowly chipping away at your battery. Most of these apps will keep track of the steps you take throughout the day, which means they end up using location services as well, so they can record how far your walk or run throughout the day. If these apps are more comprehensive wellness apps, such as Noom, you may find that they use more battery due to notifications and additional screen time to track things like meals and communicate with coaches or other app users.

Music Streaming Apps

Music streaming apps, such as Spotify or Apple Music, don't use a terrible amount of battery when not actively in use. However, because so many people choose to have music playing in the background almost constantly, these apps can end up expending a decent amount of power. Plus, as podcasts and audiobooks have increased in popularity, apps that can stream other audio content are also gaining traction. As a result, these streaming services can have a heavy impact on the battery life of your cell phone.

Games

Playing games on your phone can seriously impact your battery life. Games that connect to the internet are especially bad because they often run video ads throughout your gameplay experience, thus reducing your battery even further. It's incredibly easy to spend hours playing games on your phone when you have downtime, and this time translates to the lost battery. The best way to combat this is to reduce the number of games you have on your phone; if you don't have the game for temptation, you won't waste your battery life playing it.

Use MobileQubes to Save Your Phone Battery

Knowing which apps drain your phone battery is an excellent first step in improving your phone's battery life, but frequently you can avoid these apps. And sometimes, you don't want to get rid of these apps, especially if you have a long commute on the train or bus. However, with the help of MobileQubes portable chargers, you can be sure that your battery will last all day long, even if you're using every one of the apps listed. Our portable chargers help solve the problem of on the go charging, and they're cordless, meaning you won't get tangled in your charging cord. Plus, you can charge up even if you left your cord at home.

MobileQubes have several kiosk locations scattered across the country, so no matter where you find yourself, you'll have a full phone battery. Plus, our Qubes work with any smartphone, whether it's Android, iPhone, or something else entirely. So all you have to do is rent or buy a Qube, plug in your phone, and be on your way. Gone are the days of worrying about apps that drain phone battery—MobileQubes has you covered.