5+ WORST Apps for Your iPhone’s Battery Life

The latest iPhones have some of the best batteries in any Apple handset yet. But that doesn’t mean that certain apps still can’t drain them faster than others.

You probably know that some apps are notorious for eating up battery life. And in most cases, those reputations are well-earned. Here are some of the worst battery life offenders on your iPhone — and what you can do about them. Continue reading to browse 5+ WORST Apps for Your iPhone's Battery Life.

Social Media Apps

There’s a good chance that you use at least one social media app on a regular basis — but there’s also a good chance that it’s draining your battery. Facebook, in particular is a notorious battery hog. And that’s probably made worse by the fact that social media itself is fairly addictive.

It’s recommended that you disable Background App Refresh, Location Services and Bluetooth for social media apps that don’t need them. As an alternative, you can access some social media apps (like Facebook) through a web browser instead.

News Apps

News apps keep you informed and educated, but they can also put a serious toll on your iPhone’s battery. That’s especially true if you have several news apps (such as Fox, NBC, CNN, etc.) that are constantly refreshing in the background and sending you breaking news notifications.

Try to limit your news apps and disable notifications for most of the non-critical ones. You can also try just using the native and battery-friendly Apple News app. Just search for your local news organizations and see if they have a channel on the service.

Navigation Apps

Navigation apps are certainly handy, but they’re also pretty bad for your battery. That’s because they often use Background App Refresh, Location Services and hardware like your phone’s GPS chip to keep their data current. (This also goes for location-using ride share apps like Uber or Lyft.)

To cut down on their battery drainage, when recommend going into Location Services and setting the apps to only use your location when they’re open. Unless you have a specific reason to use a third-party app like Waze or Google Maps, it may also be worth ditching them in favor of the native Apple Maps. It’s better for battery life — and comes with some privacy bonuses, too.

Messenger Apps

Messaging apps are also fairly infamous for being really bad for your iPhone’s battery life. Some, like Skype, are even worse than others. That’s because many of these apps are fetching new messages and other content in the background, even when you aren’t using them.

Unfortunately, there isn’t really a way to mitigate drainage without impacting the functionality of many messaging apps. But we still recommend looking over their permissions to see what can be turned off. It may also be worth limiting your messaging apps to a few ones that you actually use.

Games & Streaming Apps

As you might expect, mobile games and video streaming apps are some of the worst battery drainers out there. That’s because they’re using up cellular or Wi-Fi bandwidth, putting a strain on your phone’s graphics and processor, playing sound, and likely keeping your iPhone’s display brightly lit.

If there’s a major downside to using Netflix other similar apps, it’s that they can't really reduce their battery drainage. You can try only streaming content over Wi-Fi. But if you’re a frequent iPhone video streamer or mobile gamer, you may just need to carry around an extra battery pack during your day.