“Facebook is one of the most downloaded apps on iOS but it has long been cited as a cause of fast-draining iPhone batteries,” Samuel Gibbs reports for The Guardian. “Last year it was accused of using background tricks to stay active even when it wasn’t being used. Facebook admitted bugs existed, and fixed them, but questions of the app’s impact on battery life remained.”
“Similar concerns about Facebook’s Android app led to the discovery that deleting the app saves up to 20% of a phone’s battery,” Gibbs reports. “After that revelation, I set about seeing if the same was true for iPhone users. I discovered that uninstalling Facebook’s iOS app and switching to Safari can save up to 15% of iPhone battery life.”
“I had also saved space, because at the point I had deleted the Facebook app it had consumed around 500MB in total combining the 111MB of the app itself and its cache on the iPhone,” Gibbs reports. “To make sure that this wasn’t an isolated incident, I also recruited several other Facebook-using iPhone owners to conduct a similar test. They all found similar results…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: So, if you’re using the Facebook app frequently, stop blaming your iPhone’s battery and start using Safari to visit Facebook instead.
SEE ALSO:
FCC won’t force Google and Facebook to stop tracking you – November 6, 2015
Facebook working on its iOS app’s battery drain issues – October 22, 2015
Why you shouldn’t install the Facebook app on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch – August 20, 2015
FYI: Facebook collects all the text you typed but decided against posting – April 22, 2015
European Commission: Don’t use Facebook if you don’t want to be spied on – March 27, 2015
Facebook, Google, and Amazon are getting even creepier – December 9, 2014
Edward Snowden’s privacy tips: ‘Get rid of Dropbox,” avoid Facebook and Google – October 13, 2014
Tim Berners-Lee: You should own your personal data, not Google, Facebook, Amazon, and advertisers – October 8, 2014
How to hide Twitter, Facebook buttons in iOS 8 sharing panel – October 2, 2014
Facebook’s scary Messenger app highlights iOS security vs. Android security – August 8, 2014
Facebook conducts massive psychology experiment on 700,000 unaware users, and you may have been a guinea pig – June 28, 2014
Why Apple really values your privacy – unlike Google, Facebook, or Amazon – June 25, 2014
U.S. NSA used Facebook to hack into computers – March 12, 2014
How to permanently delete your Facebook account – December 16, 2013
Facebook is an addiction. A time waster. Lowers self esteem and self confidence. And yet, I check it constantly. I need to just go cold turkey and kill off FB from my life.
agree
How does this sound: “[Friends are] an addiction. A time waster. Lowers self esteem and self confidence. And yet, I check [them] constantly. I need to just go cold turkey and kill off [friends] from my life”
Exactly.
The dumbest thing I’ve read in a long time. Looking at what your friends post in an endless stream, interspersed with advertising, has nothing to do with maintaining friendships. The vast majority of our Facebook “friends” barely qualify as aquaintances.
But it does explain why FB is so addictive. Quit that and you will come crawling back in a few weeks. We’re social animals. Sorry.
Hey man, at least you’re reading something.
didn’t you know?
Deleting your faceplant account can save up to 15% of YOUR ACTUAL LIFE !!!!!!
I like the new Facebook app, for being so bad, that it motivated me to finally uninstall it. Less Facebook for the win.
Shut down facebook, Google and Wall Street, Moodys, JP Morgan Chase and of course the devils Bank: Goldman Sachs.
From your lips to God’s ears. We hope!
I uninstalled Facebook and Messenger on my iPhone ages ago, and in addition to the savings in my iPhone’s battery and memory, it also provides a great side effect: I use Facebook a whole lot less, stop caring as much about notifications, and devote more attention to things that actually matter in life. Checking Facebook becomes a conscious effort, rather than a reflexive response to receiving a notification. And that makes a huge positive change.
I strongly encourage anyone who doesn’t like Facebook’s impact on their lives or their phones to do as this article suggests: uninstall the app(s) and install a Safari shortcut on their homepage instead.
Huh. Not really a big deal for me. I kill the Facebook app (and any others) when not actively using them. Takes but a swipe, and results in the battery lasting longer.
Even when closed Facebook APP is still using resources in the background. That was one of the points in the article. Deleting the APP, and installing a Safari link removes the issues.
I gave up on the Official Facebook app years ago, and have been using Friendly+ instead. I know that Friendly+ stops Facebook from using locations services – you have to authorize a temporary access to location services every time you want to check in someplace when on Friendly+. I’m not sure if Friendly+ eliminates all the other background functions as well. I might have to remove it, and see if there’s a noticeable improvement on my iPhone 6s+ battery life …
On my Macs, ignoring Facebook saves me a lot of time. I barely care any more. Forget bothering with it on my iOS devices!
I killed off farcebook two years ago i dont miss it at all cold turkey no it was easy. Its borning. I have a phone and use it to connect to my peeps
Just noticed the last few days that FB was using lots of battery. I checked and it had 4 hours of background. How can this be when I have it set to NO background refresh? Shitty app.
Uninstall?
Never installed it.
If I want to know what you are doing or have you know what I am doing, I’ll call you or meet you somewhere and we’ll talk about it.
Don’t need or want to know what a bunch of attention whores are doing.
FB lets me connect with friends from far away. It’s a nice addition to my life. Sorry so many of you don’t have that experience.
The Facebook app is STILL doing that?!?!?
I can’t find the full post
great job