Worse Than Usual Battery Drain? It Might Be The Google Keyboard.

[TNCattleDog]

So, I usually have great battery life but over the last month or so my battery drain has been awful. On an average day I would finish up with at least more than 60%, but recently my phone has been shutting off due to depleted battery after only 8 hours with my screen brightness at 40% and only 1 hour of screen time! Battery stats show that Google Play Services has been using up to 50% battery.

So I did the usual cache clear and uninstall apps that I've not used but that did not help.

Then an interesting thing happened.... I do an awful lot of texting at work and remembered that I changed from "Thumb Keyboard" to the Google Keyboard based on what I had read in a thread here. I went into my apps and uninstalled the google KB and since doing so, I am back to finishing my day with roughly 60% battery left. Interestingly, today was a busier day than normal so I actually talked on my phone a bit more as well as texted more.

EDIT: Since removing the google keyboard, Google Services is down to 8% battery use.

So, if anyone else is having issues with battery drain, and you are using the google keyboard, try uninstalling it and use another keyboard for a few days and see if it makes a difference.

David

 

[jmarkey77]

I'll give it a shot next week. Thanks.

SQUIRREL!!!

 

[somnambulator]

ironically some Google apps are by far the biggest battery drains in android. Hangouts is a prime example. Thanks for bringing to light the Google keyboard as well.

Sent from Tapatalk using my xposed VZW G2

 

[goobs10]

ironically some Google apps are by far the biggest battery drains in android. Hangouts is a prime example. Thanks for bringing to light the Google keyboard as well.

Sent from Tapatalk using my xposed VZW G2

Would it be wise to disable these battery draining apps or do they only drain the battery if you use them?

 

[mumfoau]

Interesting. I'm using the Google now launcher and as many Google apps as I can to make this as close to a nexus as possible and I've not noticed any significant battery drain! Yesterday for example I was on Wi-Fi or Strong LTE for the majority of the day and got about 15 hours of battery and was sitting at about 45% when we went to bed!

Sent from my LG G2 using Tapatalk

 

[TNCattleDog]

So, after several days of use, I am almost back to normal battery life since uninstalling the google keyboard. Google services is now down to about 20% and I'm finishing the day in the 60 to 70% battery range.

But, that's not the whole story.... Around the same time I installed the google keyboard, I also started using Sunshine Calendar. I noticed in the settings that the sync time maximum is every 30 minutes and my guess was it was continually trying to sync most of the day. So, uninstalling it gave me back about 10% more battery for the day so I'm back to my normal battery reserve at the end of the day.

An interesting though is "why do people worry about battery life so much?" For me, I work in a large hospital and although I usually work 10 hour shifts, my days can sometimes go much longer. My team (MD's, PA's and NP's) all communicate via text which is very important for keeping up with our patients, etc. If there was to be an emergency, and we had to stay longer, which has happened many times, I want to know that my phone can keep up with the extra hours.
Yes, we do have charging stations but I move around quite a bit and don't have more than 30 minutes to leave my phone to charge. So for me, having a long lasting battery is critical...

David