If your iPhone battery struggles to make it through a full day, and you don’t want to add an ugly hump to your device, Guardian tech writer Samuel Gibbs has found that deleting the Facebook app and using Safari instead can boost battery life by up to 15%.
Gibbs spent a week comparing battery usage when using the app against a week using Facebook’s mobile site in Safari, finding that he averaged 15% more remaining battery life at the end of each day. He recruited a bunch of others to repeat the experiment, with similar results reported.
A simple tip means that you don’t even sacrifice much convenience by doing so …
Gibbs created a Safari shortcut for Facebook to place on his homescreen in place of the app, retaining the convenience of one-tap access to the service.
Battery usage by the Facebook app ran amok last year even when sleeping, an issue the company later resolved, but the app remains one of the biggest battery drains, and this experiment shows just how much difference it can make.
You can even place a shortcut to Facebook in Safari on the homescreen that looks almost identical to the app’s icon (the white is a little less bright but you need eagle eyes to see). The only restriction was the Share-to function, which does not exist for websites, meaning that to share photos I had to manually hit the “post photos” button on the mobile site.
iPhone 6s/Plus users would, though, lose the convenience of the 3D Touch features added last month, as well as video broadcasting for U.S. users.
Apple launched an official Smart Battery Case for the iPhone 6/6ss back in December for $99. Third-party battery cases are available for a range of iPhone models from around $35.
