Is your Android phone’s battery life draining faster than usual? More often than not, it’s because of app usage. That’s why you need to know which programs are causing such a commotion.
If you want to know what’s affecting your Android & which apps are using the battery the most, read on below.
Table of Contents
Android Apps That Use the Most Battery
According to PC Mag, here are the apps that drain Android phones (as well as the traditional iPhone battery.)
- United Airlines
- Lyft
- Uber
- Fitbit
- Uber Eats
- PayPal
- Microsoft Teams
- YouTube
- Airbnb
- TikTok
- Snapchat
- Yelp
- AOL
- Duolingo
- Google Classroom
- Nike
- McDonald’s
- YouTube Music
- Bigo Live
- Slack
- Tinder
- Shein
- Amtrak
- Likke
- SleepCycle
- Spotify
- CNN
How to Determine the Battery-Draining Apps on Your Android Smartphone
While the list above gives you a bird’s eye view of which apps use a lot of battery life, you can try to know for sure. Here’s how to do it:
- Tap on the ‘Settings’ icon on the home screen.
- Click on the ‘Battery’ option. For best results, do this when your battery life is almost drained.
- Scroll down the ‘Apps’ section. This will show you the list of apps that consume your Android battery through usage or running in the background.
How to Keep Your Android Device Battery From Draining
Now that you know which background apps cause a battery drain, it’s time to make a conscious effort to save your device’s juice. Here are some easy ways to do so.
1. Force Stop Apps
Apps can drain your battery power even if they’re not being actively used. So to prevent programs from running in the background and draining your phone’s juice, you’ll need to follow this tip from CNET:
- Go to ‘Settings’ and click ‘Battery.’
- Go to the ‘Apps’ section and click on the program that uses much battery life.
- Click on the ‘Force Stop’ button.
Tip: Some phones offer the ‘Restrict’ option. If you see an app with a ‘Restrict’ notice, click on the card to limit its usage.
Another tip: If you aren’t using this battery-draining app, the best thing to do is to delete it. Not only will it save you juice, but it’ll also free up some memory.
2. Optimize Battery Life
Similar to force-stopping apps, you can keep your phone working for longer through battery optimization. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to ‘Settings.’
- Click ‘Apps’ > ‘See All Apps.’
- Choose the app you wish to optimize, then click on the ‘Battery’ option.
- Go to ‘Manage Battery Usage’ and click ‘Optimized.’
3. Use the ‘Adaptive Battery’ Mode
According to Samsung, turning the Adaptive Battery mode on will help your phone determine your usage patterns. As a result, the apps you don’t access commonly are prevented from running in the background.
Here’s how to turn on your ‘Adaptive Battery’ mode:
- Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Battery.’
- Tap on ‘Adaptive Preferences’ > ‘Adaptive Battery.’
4. Put Apps to Sleep
If you’re using a Samsung phone, you can minimize battery use by putting your apps to sleep. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Device Care.’
- Tap on ‘Battery’ > ‘App Power Management.’
- Turn on the ‘Put unused apps to sleep’ option. If you want to do this manually, you can select the ‘Deep Sleeping’ or ‘Sleeping Apps’ options. Click on the ‘+’ icon and choose the apps you wish to add to this list.
Tip: The ‘Sleeping Apps’ option will prevent certain apps from running in the background, though they will spring back to life whenever you use them.
The ‘Deep Sleeping Apps’ option, on the other hand, will stop the app from running in the background even if you’ve clicked on them.
5. Use the ‘Adaptive Brightness’ Feature
Apart from the ‘Adaptive Battery’ option, Android phones also offer the ‘Adaptive Brightness’ feature. This allows your phone to adjust the screen brightness according to your preferences.
Remember: the brighter your screen is, the more battery it’s going to use.
To prevent this feature from draining your phone’s battery completely, you can utilize the above-mentioned option by doing the following:
- Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Display.’
- Turn on the ‘Adaptive Brightness’ feature.
You can adjust the screen brightness by going to ‘Settings’ > ‘Display’ or swiping down the notification bar.
Another option is to use your phone’s dark mode. To do so, go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Display’ and turn on the ‘Dark Theme’ option.
6. Adjust the Screen Settings
As previously mentioned, screen brightness and usage can drain your phone’s battery. To avoid this from taking place, you need to adjust the screen settings.
The good news is you can do this in a variety of ways.
For one, you can turn off the screen if not in use. To do so, you need to go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Display.’ Choose the ‘Lock Screen’ option and turn off the ‘Idle Lock Screen’ feature.
For other phones, you will need to turn the ‘Always Show Time and Info’ option off.
You can also configure your phone screen so that it turns off sooner. Go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Display’ > ‘Screen Timeout.’ Here, you can reduce the time of active screen life to, say, 30 seconds.
Other battery-saving tactics include turning off your Android phone’s Smooth Display or Live Wallpaper feature.
7. Turn Off Other Battery-Draining Features
The third-party apps mentioned above are not the only programs that drain your battery. Other features do so as well, such as:
- Hotspots and/or tethering
- Bluetooth
- WiFi
- GPS/Location Services
For best results, turn these features off whenever they’re not used.
8. Remove Unused Accounts
If you have multiple unused Amazon or Gmail accounts (among many others), they may also drain your phone’s battery life. As such, it will be best to delete these inactive accounts/users.
Conclusion
Several apps drain Android battery the most, such as United Airlines, Lyft, and Uber, to name a few.
But if you want to determine which programs are the actual culprits, you can do so by going to ‘Settings’ > ‘Battery’ > ‘Apps.’ Here, you’ll find which apps utilize power the most.
You can prevent these apps from draining your Android’s juice by force-stopping them or optimizing your phone’s battery life. Other options include turning on the ‘Adaptive Battery’ mode or putting these apps to sleep/deep sleep.