Facebook Apologizes For Robbing Your iPhone’s Battery Life, Offers Partial Fix With App Update
Facebook's software developers have identified a couple of issues that could negatively affect the battery life on iOS devices when installing and using the official Facebook app. The latest update to the Facebook iOS app addresses those issues, though the social network is continuing to investigate why some users have experienced noticeably degraded battery life.
More than a minor nuisance, there have been several reports of Facebook's iOS app draining battery life on iPhone and iPad devices at an unusually fast clip. Many of those experiencing the issue note that it occurs even when disabling the app's background refresh option, which in theory would force the app to lie dormant when not in use.
Ari Grant, an engineering manager at Facebook, explained two of the culprits that have been identified so far. One of those culprits is what's called a CPU spin, which Facebook uncovered in its network code.
"A CPU spin is like a child in a car asking, 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' with the question not resulting in any progress to reaching the destination. This repeated processing causes our app to use more battery than intended," Grant explained.
The other issue is how the iOS app handles audio sessions. After watching a video, the audio session sometimes stays awake. Even though it's not doing anything at that point, it consumes battery life simply by being open.
Grant says Facebook fixed both of those issues in the latest app update and that you should see improvements to battery life after installing it.
More than a minor nuisance, there have been several reports of Facebook's iOS app draining battery life on iPhone and iPad devices at an unusually fast clip. Many of those experiencing the issue note that it occurs even when disabling the app's background refresh option, which in theory would force the app to lie dormant when not in use.
Ari Grant, an engineering manager at Facebook, explained two of the culprits that have been identified so far. One of those culprits is what's called a CPU spin, which Facebook uncovered in its network code.
"A CPU spin is like a child in a car asking, 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' with the question not resulting in any progress to reaching the destination. This repeated processing causes our app to use more battery than intended," Grant explained.
The other issue is how the iOS app handles audio sessions. After watching a video, the audio session sometimes stays awake. Even though it's not doing anything at that point, it consumes battery life simply by being open.
Grant says Facebook fixed both of those issues in the latest app update and that you should see improvements to battery life after installing it.
