Is YouTube sucking up your battery? Google makes major change to Android app and users claim ‘it uses a lot of power’
GOOGLE recently offered a big YouTube performance boost for Android owners – but users say its zapping their battery.
The boost meant playback performance was shown in higher resolutions, while power consumption was lowered on select Android devices.
Sounds like a win-win right?
Well, not quite.
Collectively, that’s a ton of battery life – and thus, electricity – to waste by Google’s hands.
Reddit user u/Phascinate
Some YouTube users say the software upgrade – called dav1d – has reduced their battery performance since Google enabled it inside the YouTube app, Forbes reported.
Dav1d landed in the March 2024 Google Play System Update.
In a post on LinkedIn, Google software development manager Arif Dikici said: “Most devices can decode 720p30 in software using dav1d.
“Apps need to opt into dav1d to benefit for now yet soon it will become the default av1 software decoder.”
Android devices eligible for the upgrade are devices that don’t have built-in hardware support for the increasingly popular AV1 video format.
Currently, only the newest devices have built-in support.
This leaves many with older devices struggling to use YouTube without draining their battery.
“Some YouTube videos are now just blanking out and stuttering to a pause if I’m doing stuff in another window/screen until I get back and press play again on my desktop,” one user wrote in a thread on Reddit.
Another wrote: “Did this change just happen today? I noticed my phone was draining abnormally fast when watching YouTube the past few days so this probably explains it if not.”
While a third onlooker wrote: “It would be nice to just have the option in Settings to switch it back off.
“Collectively, that’s a ton of battery life – and thus, electricity – to waste by Google’s hands.”
Android battery tricks
It’s unclear if the issue will be resolved.
But there are other in-built settings you can enable to avoid fast battery drain.
Google has revealed eight different settings that you should check to “use less battery”.
The list of eight settings are:
- Let your screen turn off sooner.
- Reduce screen brightness.
- Set the brightness to change automatically.
- Turn off keyboard sounds or vibrations.
- Restrict apps with high battery use.
- Turn on adaptive battery.
- Delete unused accounts.
- Turn on dark theme.
Must-know Android tips to boost your phone
Get the most out of your Android smartphone with these little-known hacks: