Facebook is the world’s most popular social network, so it’s little surprise that many of us log ample time on the mobile app every single day. However, it might be bleeding your battery dry on both iPhone and Android phones.

Facebook’s apps have long been suspected of being energy hogs, but the company said it addressed those glitches on iOS last year. It must not be the whole story, however, as The Guardian recently ran a test that compared the native iOS app against the mobile web version of Facebook on an iPhone 6s Plus.

The result? When using the App Store app, writer Samuel Gibbs ended each day with an average of 15% less battery charge still available. He tested the theory for a week using the native iOS app on the phone, and then repeated the same approach with the app uninstalled, using the web version instead. He used both for approximately the same amount of time daily, and had the phone off the charger for the same period of time each day. And it wasn’t just him, either: Gibbs says he enlisted several other iPhone users to try the same experiment, and they reported similar results, as well.

If you think Android users are immune, that’s definitely not the case: Gibbs ran a similar test on a Google Nexus 6P recently and found that his phone had about 20% more battery life left at the end of the evening when using the web version instead of the native app. Other users have also reported that their Android phones seem to load faster once Facebook is out of the picture.

Given how quickly this story has spread across the Internet, we have a feeling Facebook will be forced to redouble its efforts on app efficiency – because right now, a lot of people are trying to sort out whether the minor inconvenience of using a mobile web app is worth trading hours of battery life for. And we imagine many aren’t going to think too fondly of the apps after considering that equation.

Source: The Guardian