
Uninstalling Facebook app saves up to 15% of iPhone battery life - gargs
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/feb/08/uninstalling-facebook-app-saves-iphone-battery-life?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
======
samsolomon
I uninstalled FB from my phone about a year ago. The main reason was that I
didn't want to install Messenger, and was sick of them limiting the app. I
discovered a few other things:

\- Improved battery life, as the article mentions

\- Mobile web is actually much faster than the Android app

\- I spent a lot less time looking, getting notified about crap

If you've got the app installed on your phone, I'd encourage you to give
uninstalling it a shot.

~~~
woobar
But if you switch to the web app from the native app, now Facebook is tracking
all your web usage.

~~~
justhw
You can dedicate one browser (say firefox mobile) for FB only and use chrome
or Safari for regular web viewing.

~~~
woobar
So, instead of one app that sandboxes my FB usage, I would be using a
different app (a separate browser) to do basically the same. It might work if
Firefox is less of a battery hog then FB app.

------
headgsaket
And about 30% of the users life. No seriously, I wonder how much productivity
is gained from using, and how much is wasted, worldwide?

~~~
JulianMorrison
Since ancient times it's been fashionable to diss the newest media. "This
invention will produce forgetfulness in the minds of those who learn to use
it, because they will not practice their memory" \-- Socrates, on writing.
Facebook, as a synecdoche for "how the hoi polloi use the internet" is just
another example of this. The reality is that my Facebook is a news feed
tailored to my interests and reflecting what's happening to the people I care
about and as such it's _useful_.

~~~
rtl49
Socrates wasn't wrong. The adoption of new media should reflect a rational
analysis of its benefits and drawbacks.

Writing enables us to store, transmit, and reflect upon information in ways
that surpass speech. One negative consequence is that we get less practice in
exercising memory, and we encounter more information than we could commit to
memory in any case.

Social media enables us to get current information on the doings of people
whose lives interest us. One negative consequence is that the information
users encounter is subject to manipulation by those who dictate the content of
the website, with the result that most users have reduced intellectual
autonomy. What's more, much of the information presented is not relevant to
users, which wastes much of the finite attention they possess. Data collected
about users can be and is used to advance interests contrary to their own.
Some of these issues are intrinsic to social media as a concept, others
specific to the platforms that currently dominate.

Either way, it cannot reasonably be presumed that those opposed to the use of
social media are simply Luddites.

~~~
peteretep
Can you cite that exposure to written material has a negative impact on
memory? It seems like an extraordinary claim.

~~~
JulianMorrison
One way to test it: there are significant numbers of muslims who as a matter
of religious practise, fully commit the Quran to memory for recitation, this
is one of the few modern traditions to use the old style of word-perfect oral
memory. And there are plenty of "control" muslims from essentially the same
backgrounds who don't bother. Comparing them might be interesting.

------
hatty
This doesn't seem groundbreaking or mysterious. Battery stats are available
for every application in settings > battery. I took a moment to reflect on the
background usage for Facebook, and I turned that off. I did not delete the
app. You can do the same thing in general > background app refresh. You'll
still get notifications, and your newsfeed will refresh only when you open the
app.

~~~
infogulch
Until facebook forces its app to run in the background again by "accidentally"
playing silent audio to get around that setting.[1]

[https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/3opxhm/facebook_app...](https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/3opxhm/facebook_app_appears_to_use_silent_audio_for/)

~~~
gpmcadam
To be fair, it's only a matter of time before Apple patches this, or in this
case, Facebook "pushes a fix".

Otherwise the advice is sound, disabling backround app refresh is the better
approach if you care about the app functionality and don't want to use the
sub-par mobile browsing experience.

There's no need to lose out if you don't want to, regardless of the
sensational headline.

~~~
ohitsdom
> To be fair, it's only a matter of time before Apple patches this

I don't think that's being "fair" to the consumer. Sure it may get fixed in
the future, but it's an issue now. And even if/when this specific issue got
fixed, you can bet Facebook and others will look for other ways to get around
this "limitation".

------
0x0
What's weird is that every time this story gets some traction, facebook
apparently claim it's "not true", or admit there was a small "bug" that kept
the app active.

This sounds pretty crazy to me. You really have to go out of your way to run
in the background on iOS, particularly for more than a few seconds/minutes
after being backgrounded, and especially when background processing is turned
off. Yet, still I often see "time on screen 1.5hours; time in background
4hours". Even after the admitted "bugs" were "fixed".

It's hard to believe this is an accident.

~~~
thecupisblue
It's not an accident or bug, they're just trying to spin it away. Their apps
aren't engineered or architected, they're hacked together and held by miracle
glue and it's gone so far that I bet even they aren't sure if they can rewrite
it from scratch. That is the reason for all the leaks, bugs and drains they
have. They even brag about their hacks.

~~~
ethanbond
Yeah, it's a really sad culture. Who could've guessed that "move fast and
break things" results in lots of broken things?

------
r1ch
It's bad enough that FB have to offer a "Lite" version for people lacking
high-end smart phones. It's basically a wrapper around the mobile site + push
notifications. I recently switched to it and don't really miss anything from
the original app, and as a bonus I get chat without having to install the
equally bloated FB Messenger app.

[https://www.facebook.com/lite/](https://www.facebook.com/lite/)

Signed APKs are available from various sites, the Google Play rollout doesn't
seem to include Western countries.

~~~
hacker42
I wished this was available on iOS.

------
soylentcola
It goes for other phones as well. I ditched the app a while back as they kept
trying to push separate apps for chat and such and generally just because I
don't read Facebook that often.

Switched over to a third party app called "Tinfoil for Facebook" which
essentially just puts the mobile site in a sandboxed and somewhat optimized
wrapper for easy mobile browsing. Battery improved as you'd expect by getting
rid of one program that does a decent amount of stuff in the background.
Nothing massive but it did make a difference.

That said, I feel like disabling a lot of things would improve battery life
but depending on the apps in question, battery life may not matter much if you
can't use the app. It's more an overarching effort I've made to only install
dedicated apps for things that I really use enough to need a dedicated app.
Since I only check Facebook 2 or 3 times during a typical week it didn't seem
to be very important for me to keep their app(s). I can still check it out
every so often when I'm bored and want to see what people are up to but I
don't have yet another background app taking up resources or battery capacity.

~~~
regularjack
m.facebook.com works pretty well too. I started using it due to Facebook
asking for more and more permissions for its mobile app and never looked back.

~~~
TheCapn
I'm the same as you. When they started wanting (virtually) total control of my
phone I axed the app and made a bookmark on my browser. It works amazingly
well, arguably better than the app for my needs since I'm mostly a consumer,
it has its issues occasionally when trying to make posts but that's pretty few
and far between.

------
thewarrior
A tip for all you Android users out there.

Step 1 : Uninstall both Facebook and Facebook Messenger.

Step 2 (Optional) : Use Metal instead of the Facebook App :
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nam.fbwrap...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nam.fbwrapper)

Step 3 (Optional) :Use Disa instead of Facebook Messenger :
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.disa](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.disa)

Step 4 : Enjoy your vastly improved responsiveness and battery life.

~~~
kemayo
For iOS there's Friendly: [https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/friendly-for-
facebook/id4001...](https://itunes.apple.com/in/app/friendly-for-
facebook/id400169658?mt=8)

A review-ish thing: [http://www.guidingtech.com/41701/facebook-ios-app-
alternativ...](http://www.guidingtech.com/41701/facebook-ios-app-alternative/)

------
tedmiston
This seems like a roundabout to go about finding the useful data. If a few
others could just open Settings > Battery > Last 7 Days, then tap on Facebook,
I'd like to see your numbers.

48 min on screen, 13 min background, 2% of overall battery

Note: Background App Refresh for Fb was set to off!

The ratio of background time to screen time is high but Facebook isn't the
worst offender. For example:

Instagram - 5.8 hrs on screen, 1.5 hrs background, 18%

Snapchat - 57 min on screen, 1.4 hrs background (whoa), 3%

~~~
cowpewter
My top few:

* Facebook - 2.7 hrs screen, 4.5 hrs bg, 42%

* Tumblr - 2.8 hrs screen, 27 min bg, 19%

* Safari - 1.1 hrs screen, 11%

Facebook does seem to be a prime offender in my case, but I don't think I have
background refresh disabled.

~~~
bpicolo
Facebook: 14 min on, 1.8 back, 3%. (iPhone 6 iOS 9.2.x)

Overall, those Facebook numbers are fine (for Last 7 days). Nothing like 15%

------
ulfw
It's one of the shittiest apps anyway. 111MB size? I mean honestly. What
exactly does THAT mobile app need 111 Megabytes for?

~~~
5h
Looking at my phone, a few make me wonder how we got here today.

Skype 149MB, Chrome 134MB, Sheets 122MB, Slides 115MB, Docs 101MB, Outlook
101MB, HSBC 73.97MB, Uber 60.98, Fitbit 79.77 ...

Skpye, HSBC, Uber & Fitbit all seem way larger than they should be

I've never knowingly used the Slides app.

~~~
pjc50
I had a look at app sizes on my phone and noticed a "cluster" around 60MB. I
wonder if there's some common, huge, framework?

~~~
mahyarm
Binary serialization definition classes can take a large amount of binary
size. Create 100 model types for protobuf with a lot of variables and you can
have 3.5MB of C++ binary!

------
izzydata
Disabling your facebook account saves up to 15% of your life.

edit: Damn, someone already made this joke. Sorry guys. I thought I was being
clever.

------
cavisne
I bet putting my phone in airplane mode would save battery too.. That said its
another reason why it was smart to split out messenger. If I had to chose
between text and calls or messenger I would have to pick messenger. Facebook I
can take or leave but events is pretty important, plus instant articles are
great (as an example of something you cant get in the browser).

~~~
exelius
The point is that most of us probably don't use the app all that much anymore,
so removing it probably isn't a big inconvenience.

The article also mentions something I noticed a while ago too: mobile Safari
is both faster and better on battery life than Chrome or any alternate
browser. This makes sense - the alternative browsers are essentially running
Safari under the hood anyway - but is still true.

However, I found this to be true on my MacBook Pro as well: Safari uses far
less power and is significantly faster than Chrome. And while I think Chrome
is far superior to Safari as far as features go, it's also hard to justify why
my browser consumes more resources than VMWare Fusion running Windows 10.

~~~
cavisne
Very true, although chrome has recently updated to use the new iOS web view
and it's much nicer. Chrome does need a lot of work on OS X but I'm too locked
into things like devtools at this point

------
diogenescynic
I uninstalled Facebook on my iPhone 6 Plus last week, after reading a few of
these articles. In my anecdotal experience, it's saving me anywhere from
20-40% of battery a day.

------
nilkn
The Facebook app is one of the worst out there (among high profile apps), but
their mobile website is one of the very best. I just use the latter.

------
Kiro
> On average I had 15% more battery left by 10.30pm each day.

I wouldn't rely on this study. Why not use a battery measurement tool instead?

~~~
forgottenpass
15% is a big enough difference that such a coarse methodology is fine to draw
preliminary conclusions. Of course you could instrument better, but this is a
writer at The Guardian, of whom I don't expect the technical prowess to do so,
and the article (or what I skimmed of it) doesn't overstate his findings.

------
Ali_cpp
Their app also leaks memory like HELL. Just take a look at the storage being
used by it in Settings.app under memory usage. I periodically delete the app &
reinstall it to free up all that space. Sloppy engineering...

~~~
0x0
It'd be more accurate to say it leaks disk space (probably for cache), not
memory. But I agree it's pretty brutal.

~~~
Ali_cpp
I took everyone's advice. Deleted the app for good & I'm going to give the
mobile web app a try. So far, so good.

------
joshstrange
But at what cost? /s

Joking aside I've got a couple friends who don't use the app and will only use
the web version and watching them use it is painful. It's not as easily to
move around and do everything you can do on the mobile app. Also they normally
take this stance with messenger as well which makes talking in groups with
them painful as they are always slow to respond. If we were all on iOS we
would probably just use iMessage but with the mix of iOS/Android FB is the
best medium normally to plan/talk.

------
88e282102ae2e5b
The study had a small sample size and no controlled (or even measured) use of
the phones. I'm not entirely convinced this effect is real.

~~~
skrebe
Agreed, super vague details about the usage, how long the web client was used,
who are the users etc. Doesn't mention how drained the battery was
with/without the app at the end of each day. Such studies, apart from
providing some basic information aren't very good at proving any specifics.

------
overcast
I had the same experience months ago, the built in battery usage indicator
always had it at the top, and it was a confirmed issue that was "resolved" in
future builds. Decided it was best for Facebook and myself to depart for the
new year. Too much time, and battery usage wasted. Removed app, deactivated
account, 6S lasts for almost two days.

------
Reason077
The author does not explain whether he turned "Background App Refresh" OFF for
the Facebook app.

When this setting is OFF, Facebook should not be able to use CPU when it is
not on screen.

Facebook have been caught using dirty tricks in the past to get around the
Background App Refresh setting, but my understanding is that those were fixed.

------
fixermark
I find this on my Android phone also. Fortunately, m.facebook.com works really
well for managing a Facebook account.

~~~
Spooks
I definitely prefer the m.facebook.com over the actual app, I haven't used the
app for a while, so it would be unfair for me to judge it now. But I have no
need to download the official app.

------
thrownaway2424
This is true for lots of apps. For example I don't use the Gmail app nor any
other mail app for iOS because the sync traffic kills the battery. I just use
Gmail's excellent mobile web site, which also means I don't get interrupted by
notifications and I read my email at the time and place of my own choosing.
Calendar is another battery killer. I found that I can use calendar apps but I
can't sync the calendars of middle managers at work because all they do all
day long is attend meetings and fiddle with their schedules, and again the
sync traffic clobbers the battery. But if I just sync my own calendars it
doesn't seem to matter. I wonder if the Facebook battery usage is proportional
to how many friends you have in your network, of if it just uses a lot of
energy regardless.

~~~
jchendy
> which also means I don't get interrupted by notifications and I read my
> email at the time and place of my own choosing

FWIW, you can also turn off notifications with the app, which is what I've
done for as long as I've had a smart phone.

------
FussyZeus
For other iPhone users: I've gotten quite used to using the Paper app. It's an
excellent interface (though it's a lot of gestures, so it has a learning
curve) and gets you all the same content with a whole lot less shit in my
experience (promoted posts and the like.) Also seems like it doesn't use the
background trickiness that the regular app is full of. You get your
notifications and messages same as in the regular one too, though a lot
prettier.

Also: Speaking as an iOS developer, I can say with certainty that Facebook
only gets away with this because it's Facebook. We've had a few binaries
rejected for bad optimization, I can't believe Apple is kowtowing to Facebook
so hard as to allow such atrocious software into the App Store.

Well, actually I can believe it. Still ticks me off though.

~~~
acheron
Yes, I still use Paper too. Unfortunately it seems like Facebook has given up
on it: there hasn't been an update in quite awhile, it's missing some features
of the web site (nested replies are the most obvious in my experience), and
they've started removing some of the news categories. Hope they come back to
it, though considering the main reasons I use it are a) no ads and b) don't
have to install separate Messenger app, the app's existence probably goes
against all corporate policy, so it's probably being left for dead.

------
binarymax
Note: if you had location services on for Facebook, and then uninstall the
app, Facebook location services remains ON, because it is part of the iOS base
install. I'm not sure whether it continues sending info to their servers, but
to be certain make sure to disable it after uninstalling.

~~~
acdha
Do you have a citation for that? If you've uninstalled the Facebook app it
shouldn't even show up in location services (or the system services).

------
esaym
I mainly have the app installed so I can use the "Nearby Friends" feature as I
enjoy spying on my wife and random friends.

I think the video calling is pretty good too on the app. Of course the last
time I video called someone was in the early 2000's using 320x240 webcams so I
might be a little biased quality wise.

I haven't really noticed battery drain but since I normally work at home, I
keep my phone on "Airplane" mode so I don't waste battery maintaining a cell
connection (the phone has wifi calling which can receive calls and sms).

This is a samsung galaxy core prime. If I don't use it and let it sit there at
idle, after 2 days it will have only used 20-30% battery.

~~~
jacquesm
> I mainly have the app installed so I can use the "Nearby Friends" feature as
> I enjoy spying on my wife and random friends.

Creepy.

------
Tepix
I uninstalled Facebook for iOS a while ago when they started blocking the
messenger feature. You can access instant messages using their web client. No
need to install either app really.

------
misiti3780
I notice similar improvements after removing Facebook from my phone - it's
been gone a year - most people I hang out with rarely use Facebook anymore
anyways

------
TACIXAT
On Android, there was no way to tell it to not run in the background 24/7\.
That's what led me to uninstall it. I've recently replaced it with the mobile
site running in Hermit.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chimbori.h...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.chimbori.hermitcrab&hl=en)

~~~
StavrosK
Android 6 does that (killing background apps) by default, so it's probably
going to be better there. That said, I never installed Facebook, because it's
just not that useful versus the website.

------
wnevets
It's easily the worst app on the android. I've switched to using a chrome
shortcut with notifications enabled, haven't looked back.

------
mrmondo
Not only did it save me battery life, if also made me more productive. I found
that Facebook has become just not rally relevant these days?

------
ehmorris
I use the app occasionally, and it's only used 2% of my battery on average
over the past 7 days, according to the battery section in my settings. I
turned off background refresh.

Strange that the author is going through a guesstimate process when there's a
built-in tool that'll tell you exactly how much juice an app uses, and if it's
mostly from background activity.

------
cm2187
What I don't understand is that neither in the privacy/location services or in
the facebook app setting can I find a setting to disable access to the gps for
the facebook app. I am not naive enough to assume facebook doesn't log gps
locations. Does the app have a behind the scene access in iOS?

~~~
ascagnel_
Settings -> Privacy (grey palm icon at the bottom of the 3rd group) ->
Location Services. You can block location data gathering at the phone OS
level; however, that won't help you against FB attempting geolocate your
phone's IP server-side.

~~~
cm2187
That's my point. I don't see the facebook app in this list. Despite having it
installed and being logged in.

~~~
ascagnel_
In that case, you may not have done anything in the app that asks for location
(only then will the app attempt to register itself for location privileges).

------
knodi123
about 3 years ago, I switched from the FB app to the FB mobile site, and
performance on that site skyrocketed. I don't know how you screw up a mobile
app that badly, but they found a way.

Shocking to read that 3 years later (today) it's still a horrible app, vastly
inferior to the mobile web version.

------
runjake
Another point of reference on battery use:

I use the Facebook app for maybe 5 minutes total a week on my iPhone. Under
the Battery settings for the past 24 hours, it shows it's used 5% of my
battery for "background tasks". I don't recall opening the Facebook app in the
past 24 hours.

------
gargs
It doesn't get mentioned quite as frequently, but one major benefit of using
their mobile site is the capability to use iOS share and content blocking
extensions. Find something interesting? Just open it in a new tab so that you
don't lose your position in the feed.

------
koberstein
Probably because the app is constantly scanning for beacons.
[https://www.facebook.com/business/a/facebook-bluetooth-
beaco...](https://www.facebook.com/business/a/facebook-bluetooth-beacons)

------
k_bx
The only big issue with mobile app I found is that you can't just "send to" an
image into it to create a post. Not sure if web standards are being developed
towards that direction, since I am not sure how would that even look like in
terms of user-experience.

------
rjohnk
On my admittedly low-end 1st gen Moto E, Facebook gobbles up RAM and limited
storage space like the plague. It's web interface for me.

Makes me wonder if they are downloading an entire SQL database onto my phone.
It's terrible app in terms of lightness

------
mesozoic
This is one of the poorest executions of an experiment I've ever read about.
Read the post and the author obviously has no idea about methodology and then
goes on to claim very precise results in his headline.

------
jasonshah1233
While I don't have quantifiable metrics, I think this is true of Instagram as
well. I noticed that, after uninstalling Instagram, I was able to get through
a full day on my 2-yr-old Moto X (vs. dying around 8pm).

~~~
raesene4
that chimes with my experience. I've got a MotoG 3rd Gen which has a pretty
good battery life. I installed Instagram and it was draining much faster and
looking at the battery information it had drained about 20-30% of the charge
and much more than any other app.

------
CM30
Wonder how much battery life removing Twitter saves? I'd have thought that'd
update far more often than Facebook, which would kill more and more of the
battery every time the news feed refreshes.

------
macintux
Interesting talk from Facebook engineers about their iOS efforts over the
years: [https://youtu.be/XhXC4SKOGfQ](https://youtu.be/XhXC4SKOGfQ)

------
kerneltime
I installed opera mobile and use it exclusively for FB and use incognito mode
while on desktop.. that said some how FB ads still picks up on my amazon
shopping trends.. need to dig through more.

~~~
digi_owl
Unless you use something like Tor and the relevant browser, they still have
your IP address and things like browser user agent to "fingerprint" you.

------
pazra
Surely it can't be doing anything in the background if you use the task manage
to kill the app? If so, uninstallation isn't the only option in order to save
battery life.

------
morgante
> I accessed Facebook for the same amount of time, and for the same purposes,
> using the social network’s excellent mobile site within Safari, as I had
> done using the app.

He claims this but I'm incredibly skeptical and it doesn't seem like any
actual controls were put in place.

The app is a much more addictive experience than the mobile web version, not
to mention that it packs in more functionality. Push notifications alone
probably double my daily Facebook usage.

------
tedmiston
One unmentioned downside - I'm not sure that it's possible to use Facebook
Login without the mobile app.

------
reynoldsbd
Considering how bad the situation is with some other apps in terms of battery
usage (looking at Yik Yak and Snapchat) I'm actually impressed that the
Facebook app manages to keep consumption this low.

I'd be interested in seeing more rigorous numbers rather than just comparison
to "... a week with the app." That doesn't tell me whether the 15% was from
background computation or actual foreground usage.

------
slac
On my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge, Facebook is preinstalled and cannot be removed.
I guess I can always log out.

------
perseusprime11
It will also save 40% of your time.

------
api
Facebook has found this odd niche that involves being utterly creepy and
obnoxious but very hard to get rid of. It's like the corporate version of a
crazy manipulative codependent "friend" who you can't get out of your life
because your friends are into them.

------
ZoF
Uninstalling Facebook from my life increased productivity by 15% as well.

------
Amanjeev
I wonder if its the same for Facebook messenger app.

------
mephi5t0
disable background app refresh in the settings?

------
alexgrcs
So this is what React Native is for?

------
drchiu
Perhaps the battery savings are because people stop checking their social
network 5-10x per day?

------
cwyers
You can keep the battery fully charged even longer if you turn the phone off,
too.

------
heavymark
That seems pretty obvious, in that it's the app most users spend the most of
their time on. I'm surprised the percentage isn't even higher. If a person
spends 30 or 40% of their time using their phone in the Facebook app, it's
clearly going to use a large percentage of the battery life. Not being of bad
app coding, but rather battery use is based on how much a user spends using
different apps or different features.

~~~
verbify
Somebody didn't read the article:

> Testing reveals Facebook iOS app drains battery life, even when it isn’t
> being used, and that using Safari instead will make an iPhone last longer

and

> I accessed Facebook for the same amount of time, and for the same purposes,
> using the social network’s excellent mobile site within Safari, as I had
> done using the app.

