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WHEN FACEBOOK RELEASES an update for its apps, it doesn’t include notes on what has changed.
Its latest update, which arrived last night, is one to note as it solves a recent problem with the app: unnecessary battery drain.
Reports about Facebook’s app consuming large amounts of battery life emerged recently, with users noting long periods of background activity even when settings like background refresh were disabled.
One of Facebook’s engineers Ari Grant confirmed the app was responsible for a faster than usual battery drain, but said it wasn’t down to location services.
The problem came from two fronts. The first was what Grant called CPU spin that he described was “like a child in a car asking “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? with the question not resulting in any progress… [causing] our app to use more battery than intended”.
The other issue was how it managed audio playback. The app would act as if audio was still playing silently but in the background, meaning it would continue to drain battery life even when the app wasn’t doing anything.
If you leave the Facebook app after watching a video, the audio session sometimes stays open as if the app was playing audio silently. This is similar to when you close a music app and want to keep listening to the music while you do other things, except in this case it was unintentional and nothing kept playing.
The app isn’t actually doing anything while awake in the background, but it does use more battery simply by being awake. Our fixes will solve this audio issue and remove background audio completely.
He did state that the battery problems had nothing to do with any of the app’s location features, and downloading the latest version should show improvements in battery usage.
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Pornhub drains me,full stop. I have a pull on the hour,every hour.
Ah jaysus!!!
Bodybuilders would kill to have my right forearm Trevor.
You need to dynorod your brain Mike haha
Wait… Your telling me you can watch porn on your phone? :0 http://youtu.be/72nrFIgFNB4
Anyone with a battery analysis app can tell ya this. Better off using the web page if you want to keep your battery going.
if you have an iPhone, and it is sluggish, try deleting the Facebook app. it seems to cache an infinite amount of data in the background until the phone almost runs out of storage space, leaving it all but useless.
Only problem with that Alien, is that when you reinstall the app it builds up that cache again, using more data and draining the battery again. Swings and roundabouts!
I never said anything about reinstalling it! ;-) deleting facebook from my phone was the best move I ever made!
I use the web page all the time now cause Facebook uses up your data constantly in the background too
Thankfully I actually have a life so I don’t have to care about any of this….!
Lol but you come on here commenting. Touché
thanks for that! just uninstalled it. I knew it was killing my battery but wasn’t smart enough to twig it wouldn’t happen if I just went in through chrome
Hi @Alien, it’s happening to mine I’ve zero games or working apps on my phone & am constantly deleting pics/videos to take more cos my storage is always full!! It’s infuriating so deleting FB will stop all that crap from happening?
And just go on Facebook through Safari?
Facebook is pants
Like
And as we all know, 20 mins shooting the breeze on Journal is gonna cost ya. ..
Funnily, I still use the Journal mobile site because the app was consistently the highest user of battery on my Android.
In another related study; it was found that Facebook was also draining your life. This has annoyed many Facebook Users who resorted to liking the article to show their displeasure.
So they confirmed the issued after they fixed it, I wonder why they wouldn’t confirm it before the fix. Typical
Draining batteries & brain cells daily.
Simple solution is to delete the FB App and the Messenger App. Open FB from a webpage and save the shortcut on your iOS desktop. You’ve the best of both worlds without having to use two battery and memory intensive apps. Also, you’re privacy is protected more too. These two apps were responsible for over 34% usage of my battery with most of it being background usage. Battery problems are gone now since I’ve deleted. Will never install them again!
I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been stupid enough to buy an apple product.
You are like sooooo cool
Worse on Android. Best with bookmark mobile web page..
Thank god I don’t use that rubbish so.
Drain the main vein
No joke but The Journal is now the biggest drain on my battery
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