Smartphone users have about 30 apps on their smartphones, on average. But the most used apps -- messaging, social media, and streaming entertainment -- happen to be the biggest guzzlers of battery power, according to a new study of Android phones from AVG Technologies (AVG), an online security company.
For apps that don't start automatically, Amazon (AMZN, Tech30)Kindle, Snapchat, LINE, Spotify, Netflix (NFLX, Tech30) and Amazon Shopping give battery life the biggest beating -- but only when you're actively using them, unlike Facebook, which drains your battery whether you're using it or not. Surprisingly, the Wal-Mart (WMT) app is the top battery drainer among U.S. Android users in this category.
To conserve battery life, AVG offered a few tips: limit push notifications, reduce frequency of refreshes, turn off connectivity (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS) when not in use, dim brightness, and disable background location tracking.
The study examined data from over one million AVG AntiVirus Android app users worldwide during the first three months of 2015. AVG excluded from its study apps with less than 1 million downloads on Google Play and core system apps.
