Facebook has had an ongoing problem developing on Android for a while now. Facebook’s central item officer, Chris Cox, even encouraged his staff to switch to Android in order to live with the issues and figure them out. A recent independent test by Tech World Zone found that the problems have persisted and that life could be a lot better without the Facebook app.
Photo: Getty
After reading Russell Holly’s story from January on Android Central detailing his issues with the app, TWZ’s Ashu decided to test for themselves and see if the problems were still there. Holly found that his Android’s performance and battery life improved dramatically when the Facebook app was removed from the phone. A group of Redditors subsequently jumped in with tests of their own and reported dramatically improved performance when the app was deleted.
For TWZ’s latest trial the writer tried out the Metal app for Android, which is just a wrapper for Facebook’s mobile site. Using a Huawei Nexus 6P for testing, the phone had 20% more battery life over the course of a day. This remained true every day over the course of a week.
Taking a look at Android’s built-in battery monitoring statistics, Facebook didn’t appear to be using an inordinate amount of power. But it seems that various Android administrations were using more battery life in the background and the overall experience was slowed down as well.
The fact is, Facebook has a lot going on when it’s constantly running and this probably isn’t just a case of negligence on the social media giant’s part.
TWZ reached out to the company for comment and a representative replied:
We have heard reports of a few people encountering speed issues coming from our Android application. We are investigating this and will update you as often as possible. We are focused on keeping on enhancing these issues.
The representative did not address the issues with battery life.
It’s not enough to say that this will be true for everyone because one man tested one phone but it seems that the previous, more detailed user experiences remain true. The best way to find out is to just try it for yourself.
Users seem to have had a positive experience with the Metal app. Tinfoil is also well-regarded and you can always just run Facebook in Chrome. There’s something to be said for having fewer notifications the minute you open your phone.
This story originally appeared on Gizmodo
Comments
5 responses to “Save Your Android Phone’s Battery By Deleting The Facebook App”
could it just be that their battery lasts longer cause their not on Facebook all day?
I had to delete the app as my phone was losing most of its charge over night when I wasn’t using it.
Maybe it was because I only turn networking on whenever I need it, and the app may have been trying to unsuccessfully communicate with the mothership all night. Either way the phone stopped draining as soon as I removed the app from it.
The webpage in Chrome works fine for me. If I ever want to use any of the app only features (temp display pics, uploading video) I’ll install the app, do my business, then uninstall.
I ended up deleting the app a few years back, switching to the mobile site. It’s a shame that the mobile site no longer lets you send and receive messages any more though. I can visit messenger.com if I pick “request desktop site”, but that isn’t particularly useful on a small screen.
Yeah. Really hate being forced to use apps when web pages will do. It’s really annoying that you can’t message pages from the app or the web browser, forcing me to go to desktop mode or use my PC.
I tolerated the messenger app until the recent update that added some crappy snapchat features. I’ve since uninstalled it and use a third party app called “Lite Facebook” which works well enough
The facebook app on Android has always been shit, they’ll do an update then videos won’t load and it crashes constantly. I’m gonna try the Metal app now that I know about it.