These Apps Will Drain Your Phone’s Battery the Quickest

Here are the airline, dating, fitness and social media apps dubbed "secret phone killers"

iPhone 12 Pro Home Screen with Apple Store, Amazon and Netflix apps
A new study shows the apps that'll kill your phone's battery the quickest.
James Yarema / Unsplash

Ever wondered why your phone battery just went from 95% to 40%? Or how you hit your memory limit on your phone within just a few months?

You can thank the “secret phone killers,” according to cloud storage company pCloud. The company examined the 100 most popular apps to figure out which ones were causing issues based on activity, memory, battery and size.

Some key findings:

  • The most “demanding” app — after looking at the functions each app performs, the battery they use and whether dark mode is available — is a tie between Fitbit and Verizon. As pCloud notes: “Both apps permit 14 out of the 16 available features to run in the background, specifically including the four most demanding: the camera, location, microphone and Wifi connection.”
  • Six of the top 20 apps that’ll drain your phone’s battery are social media. Social dating apps were also considered (ha) “demanding.”
  • Randomly, the United Airlines app took up the most memory on your phone, followed by Lyft, Uber, and (again) Fitbit.
  • Microsoft Teams took up twice as much space as Zoom or Skype.
Secret Phone Killers list from pCloud
The top 10 apps on the list of “Secret Phone Killers.” Head to pCloud to see the top 50.
pCloud

Our suggestion? Narrow your app usage, and for things you don’t use often — like airline apps — feel free to delete and download only when needed.

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