Free Smartphone Apps May Be Draining Your Battery More Than You Know

Researchers at Purdue University discovered that many free apps which users have installed on their smartphones, tablets and other devices, may be using far more battery power than expected, doing things “behind the scenes”. These things include user tracking and downloading ads to your device. For example, while playing Angry Birds, hidden code within the app actually connects you to the internet and begins sending and receiving packets of data. This accounts for up to 75% of total power usage while playing the game. The game itself may only use as little as 25%. Other apps, such as FChess and NYTimes were tested as well, demonstrating the same negative effects, though Angry Birds was the worst offender by far. This added battery drain hardly makes the apps free, and the secret upload of tracking information doesn’t make things any better. Apps released by universities and similar institutions appear to be pretty safe from this. It’s the commercialized apps you need to wary of.