Smartphone struggling under the weight of it’s own apps? AVG, a well known antivirus and cleaning software provider has put together it’s latest study which pinpoints which apps on your smartphone consume the most battery, data and performance on Android smartphones and tablets, and drops some helpful tips on how to help keep your performance frosty.
More after the break.
It looks like Samsung’s “bloatware” is still power hungry as ever, especially in the battery drain category, though compared to the last study AVG put together there are a lot less Samsung apps in the top 10 this time. Samsung’s Beaming and Security Updates service appear as the two worst run-at-startup apps while the WatchOn remote app was the most energy consuming of the lot.
Facebook, Instagram, Spotify and Google’s Chrome Browser are on the top of the list in terms of hogging storage; but it’s previous number 1 spot holder the NY Times app seems to have interestingly skipped the list all together this time. Facebook, Spotify and Instagram are also top three worst apps if you want to keep your devices running smoothly, all of which were in the top 5 last quarter. The Amazon AppStore has also hit the top 5 this year as well.
Social media and video apps take the biggest bite in terms of data usage, Instagram, Spotify, Facebook, Netflix and Tumblr are by far the highest ranking. thougn the Daily Mail app is the worst offender. Because of their consistent ranking in almost every category these apps have been listed as AVG’s top 10 overall performance sappers of Q4 2014.
AVG does have some tips if you are indeed suffering from performance issues on your mobile:
- Turn off unnecessary notifications and notification apps
- Turn off app specific features that you don’t use, such as location tracking
- Regularly delete cache data for larger apps to save space
- Where possible, limit the amount of data consumed by adjusting refresh intervals and/or WiFi only settings
- Lower your display brightness and turn off wireless features (WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, etc) when you’re not using them
If you want to check out more statistics from the report like commonly installed apps and statistics, you can read the full details here.
