Will Google Play Kill Your Android Phone’s Battery?
Here’s a lesser known consequence of the new Google Play store. Play now defaults to allowing apps to auto-update if you don’t uncheck that option when you manually update an app. This is convenient as well as a battery killer for somebody who has a lot of apps installed. I have about two hundred apps and my EVO 3D’s battery has just been getting murdered lately; it barely makes it through an eight hour work day with minimal use now. I’m convinced that this is happening because I’ve had the Play store for a while now and most of my apps are now updating automatically.
So now I’ve set my phone to only allow auto-updates when my phone is on Wi-Fi. Data costs aren’t an issue; I’m on an unlimited plan. What this is really about is the fact that I have Wi-Fi at home and rarely use it anywhere else. So I can be reasonably certain that if I’m on Wi-Fi I’m near a charger and thus don’t need to worry about my battery getting killed by multiple app downloads and installations.
That’s my theory anyway. We’ll see how it works out in real life.
