Peter Mondrose
If you use Facebook on your iOS device and your battery is draining incredibly quickly, make sure to visit the App Store and update to the newest version of the app.
Facebook admitted this week that its iOS app was a battery drain, so it fixed the problem and pushed out a quick update.
Facebook developed a fix for a piece of code that used a phone’s processor in a way that made it work harder than necessary. The update also fixes an audio issue some customers were experiencing.
Previously, if you watched a video on the app and switched to another app to do something else, the audio component of the video sometimes continued to run. While music apps often do the same thing, so users can continue listening to music while working. Facebook’s app just stayed awake, using up power.
“Our fixes will solve this audio issue and remove background audio completely,” Ari Grant, a Facebook mobile engineer, said in a post.
Here’s how Facebook explained the CPU issue and fix — “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,” Grant explained. “This repeated processing causes our app to use more battery than intended. The version released [Thursday] has some improvements that should start making this better.”
Facebook made both changes after many customers complained about the audio and battery drain issued following the release of Apple iOS 9. Customers can see which apps are using the most battery power in a new setting inside the most recent version of Apple’s mobile OS.
