Image sharing social app Snapchat is the number one “smartphone performance killer”, according to the latest AVG Android App Performance Report. Compiled by Online security company AVG Technologies N.V., the report saw Snapchat dethrone previous top-spot holders, Facebook & Spotify, thanks to its simultaneous use of your device’s camera, WiFi, mobile data & GPS functionality.
Also climbing to the top of the report was blogging platform Tumblr, which emerged as the highest, traffic-consuming app for the period. Despite the relatively low-level Content viewed on the platform – primarily news, short video clips, blogs & some pictures – Tumblr used more data than Netflix & Spotify combined.
Here are some more findings from the report:
Topping the list of hidden, battery-draining services this quarter was the innocuously named, “com.sec.android.fwupgrade,” which was responsible for delivering periodic Samsung updates to Android devices via WiFi. As with the similarly update-heavy Samsung Security Policy Update (KNOX) & Google Play apps, the service had a massive impact on the battery life of your device, said the report.
Google Chrome emerged as the 2nd-highest storage-consuming app this quarter thanks to its collection of user browsing data over time, joining more obvious apps, such as Spotify & Amazon Kindle.
Facebook had a new contender, this quarter, with its monitoring app, Facebook Pages Manager. The app stored a lot of local Content as it tracked page statistics, followers & comments while on the move
AVG’s research had found a host of apps which silently drained smartphone resources in the background without the users’ knowledge or action. These apps were differentiated in the report as those that run at start-up, versus those that are run by the user.
The following apps consumed the most, overall battery drain, storage usage & mobile data combined:
- A bad forecast: Both The Weather Channel & Words with Friends were surprise entrants in the start-up chart – with the apps seemingly having no clear need to run invisibly in the background
- A drain on your wallet & smartphone: With 2 of its shopping apps in the top 10 ‘run by user’ list, if users wanted to save data & battery life on the go, they may want to steer clear of Amazon
“The goal of these reports is not to alarm smartphone users, but rather to enable them to make informed choices about the apps they run on a daily basis,” said Tony Anscombe, Senior Security Evangelist, at AVG Technologies, in the blogpost. “Apps are meant to enhance, not to detract from your smartphone experience, but with so many options, we are in danger of overloading our devices. If you are one of the people who feels like they are fighting a constant battle with their device’s battery, or never have enough storage to save your favorite clips and images, then we want to help you take back control.”
Click here to download the full report.
Image Credit: AVG Blog
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