Which Smartphone Apps Drain Your Battery The Fastest?
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- When it comes to cell phones, battery life is often the most frustrating feature for most users, but it might be the apps running on the phone draining that battery so quickly.
"There are a lot of apps on your phone that may be draining the battery, hogging the storage, eating up the data, and you're not even using them," Deanna Contreras of AVG said.
AVG analyzed anonymous data from more than one million Android users to come up with the greediest apps in several categories.
Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger all made it into the top five when it came to guzzling battery life, data, and storage combined. Those apps drain overall performance whether or not they are in use – called auto run apps.
"You aren't using it, but it's still running it using those resources in the background," Contreras said.
While battery drain may be annoying, AVG's list of traffic hogs identifies those who most likely drain your data plan, and actually cost money.
Some of the greediest apps may be surprising.
"We were surprised that weather apps were actually some of the greediest. These small little apps that you only use a few seconds of the day," Contreras said.
To reduce data drain, the apps can be disabled, or deleted all together.
Gaming apps were left off the list, because they are notorious data hogs. But, out of the gaming apps examined, Candy Crush was the biggest data hog, primarily because it's always collecting information.