5 Popular Apps That Drain Your Smartphone's Battery The Most

Modern smartphones are as powerful as ever, and you'll often see companies leaning on this fact as a way to sell you their new model. Almost every company is talking about how powerful its new phone is. But if you've used smartphones long enough, you know how battery life is a huge challenge. That's why there are tons of articles on the web giving you tips on how to improve your smartphone's battery life. If you feel that your phone's battery is draining faster than it should, you aren't alone.

According to a study conducted by the U.K. telecommunications and network company Elevate (via Yahoo), a good number of phones now need to be charged daily, unlike in 2019 when most could last at least a day and a half before running out of power. Some of this battery drain can be attributed to heavy usage, but the apps you have installed also play a role because of background processes.

Of course, you can easily find which apps are draining your phone's battery by diving into your phone's Settings app. But don't be surprised to see some of your favorite apps installed on your device ranking high on that list because they've been found to use more battery. If you have any of these apps installed, you should consider removing them or at least curb their background activity as they've been found to be battery drain culprits.

Netflix is one of the best streaming services for a reason. It has a wide catalog of both licensed shows and originals, a simple and easy-to-use interface, and a great recommendation system that makes discovering binge-worthy titles easy. Thanks to all these features, it's understandable if you pay for and use Netflix as your go-to streaming service. 

But if you do most of your watching on your iPhone or Android phone, then you're harming your battery life. Netflix ranks as the top battery-draining app, according to Elevate. As an app for streaming content, it consumes a lot of battery. The study shows that users spent an average of 60 hours watching content on the app in a month, plus it had background processes running for a total of around 13 hours. 

The study reveals that Netflix consumes 1,500% of a full battery charge in a month, the highest on the list of examined apps. That said, the next time you want to binge-watch your Netflix favorites on your phone, don't be surprised when the battery drains faster than it usually does.

The second popular battery-draining app you should watch out for is TikTok. It's a short video platform that ranks as the fourth most popular social media app in the U.S., according to a Pew Research Center survey. It's also well-known around the world, with over 1.59 billion users. But while the app is great for short-form content, it's bad for your battery, as per Elevate. 

In the company's study, it found that TikTok drained 825% of a fully charged battery per month. That's almost half Netflix's 1,500%, but still makes it one of the most battery-draining apps you can have installed on your smartphone. That 825% figure is from 33 hours spent in the app per month, plus nearly 10 hours of background processes. 

From the figures, the total background processes from TikTok per month are just three hours less than Netflix, despite having almost half the screen time. That's a clear indicator that when you close the app, it doesn't stop all the tasks. There are still some processes running in the background that slowly drain your battery without your knowledge.

YouTube is a video-sharing platform and with a YouTube TV subscription, it offers one of the best live TV streaming services, with over 100 channels and unlimited DVR storage for recording live shows. You can access YouTube on mobile, and it offers a great platform to watch content due to its easy-to-use interface. But using YouTube to watch content can really drain your battery, so don't open the app to watch content when you're running low or when you'll be away from a power bank or socket for a while. 

According to Elevate's investigation, Google's video app consumes 540% of a full battery charge per month. It estimates that the app drains about 20% of battery charge per hour of watching content, which is massive. On top of that, it also runs processes in the background for a total of about six to seven hours per month, which can still make a huge dent in your phone's battery life.

Threads is one of the newer social media apps, as it was only launched in July 2023 by Meta. It's considered by some to be an X (formerly Twitter) clone, as it features an almost identical layout and concept of sharing short text posts. As a social media app, it's no surprise that it features on this list. According to Thomas Davy, the CEO and co-founder of Cloud ExMachina, these apps are some of the top battery-draining apps that you can install. 

And, sure enough, Threads, Meta's text-based X (formerly Twitter) competitor app, ranks fourth, as per Elevate's study. According to the study, the app consumes 460% of a full battery charge per month, falling behind YouTube. The app runs in the background as well, like other apps that we've discussed, which highlights just how many apps don't completely stop everything when you exit them. Per the study, Threads' background processes ran for an average of 6.9 hours per month.

Snapchat is a social media app that describes itself as a "visual messaging service" and has been around since 2011. According to the study, Snapchat consumes 320% of a full battery every month. That's better than Netflix's 1,500%, but still makes Snapchat one of the worst apps when it comes to battery use. The team from Elevate ranks Snapchat fifth, behind Threads, as one of the most battery-draining apps you can have on your phone. 

From the 320% of battery usage per month, the team found it to be a big battery hog in the background. The study also revealed that half of Snapchat's battery use for the month was from background activity. On average, users spend around 16 hours every month in Snapchat, which isn't as high as the previous apps on the list. Remember, these figures are based on the given average usage hours per month, so if you use Snapchat more, you'll likely see more battery drain from the app.

The apps we've discussed on this list are from a study conducted by Elevate, published by Yahoo. Using different factors, such as data usage, average screen time, and battery drainage per hour, the team was able to calculate how much battery different popular apps use every month. The study lists the ten most popular battery-draining apps, but we've only discussed five of them, from most to least.