Google has issued a statement to Lifehacker denying that Google Now excessively drains the battery life of iOS devices.
Users have been complaining that Google Now via the Google Search app is killing their battery life. Some have taken to disabling Location Reporting for the app to resolve the issue.
However, Google disagrees with these reports.
Reports that Google Now drains battery life are incorrect. We understand people’s concern about seeing the Location Services icon stay on when they use Google Now. Many apps that keep the icon on actually do drain the phone’s battery because they require very accurate location. (For example a navigation app has to run your GPS all the time to keep you from missing your turn.) Google Now is built very differently: it uses cell towers and wifi hot spots for much lower battery impact.
We extensively tested Google Now on iOS for months and didn’t see reports of significant battery impact — we would encourage you to try it in the Google Search app for a few days and we don’t expect you to see significant impact on your battery. If you are seeing a problem, please do tell us (just tap feedback in the app settings). We take user feedback very seriously.
Have you experienced abnormal battery drain when using the app? Let us know in the comments. You can download Google Search from the App Store for free.
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Users have been complaining that Google Now via the Google Search app is killing their battery life. Some have taken to disabling Location Reporting for the app to resolve the issue.
However, Google disagrees with these reports.
Reports that Google Now drains battery life are incorrect. We understand people’s concern about seeing the Location Services icon stay on when they use Google Now. Many apps that keep the icon on actually do drain the phone’s battery because they require very accurate location. (For example a navigation app has to run your GPS all the time to keep you from missing your turn.) Google Now is built very differently: it uses cell towers and wifi hot spots for much lower battery impact.
We extensively tested Google Now on iOS for months and didn’t see reports of significant battery impact — we would encourage you to try it in the Google Search app for a few days and we don’t expect you to see significant impact on your battery. If you are seeing a problem, please do tell us (just tap feedback in the app settings). We take user feedback very seriously.
Have you experienced abnormal battery drain when using the app? Let us know in the comments. You can download Google Search from the App Store for free.
Read More