Since the iOS 9 rolled out in September, the majority of Apple mobile device users have upgraded to the new software. The iOS 9 enables users to monitor the battery usage of every app in particular. This way a lot of iOS users got to the conclusion that the Facebook app causes serious battery drain in their devices. With the update of the Facebook app released yesterday Facebook has addressed a number of problems that may have caused the battery drain. Other issues will be fixed in the near future according to Facebook representatives.
After releasing the latest version of the Facebook app, the company’s representatives also offered some explanations regarding the battery drain issue. It seems that the Facebook app was draining iPhone batteries due to two major causes identified so far. The first of them was a CPU spin in Facebook’s network code.his particular issue made the CPU work almost constantly, without a specific result. In other word, the CPU was instructed by the Facebook app to do something even when it wasn’t actually needed. Due to the repeated unnecessary processing the battery of iPhones would be drained in a fast rhythm by the Facebook app.
Another problem that was identified by Facebook in their app was related to audio playback. If users accessed a video on their Facebook app, even if they left the app, in certain cases the audio session sometimes would not stop. Even if the Facebook app was closed, the audio playback seems to silently continue and us up battery. It seems that this would happen only if users leave the Facebook app whilst watching a video.
According to Facebook’s Ari Grant there is no connection between the Facebook app draining iPhone batteries and the optional Location History feature in the Facebook app. Or anything related to location for that matter. He also stated that Facebook is continuing its work in order to improve battery usage of their app. The first steps were taken in this direction through the newly released version of the Facebook app. According to Facebook users should immediately notice improvements in their battery usage.