google now...worth the battery drain?

[johnriii]

I've had my S4 for two months now, and one of the features i had planned to use was Google now. however, one week in I turned it on and set it up. went to bed, and the next morning, I had lost 31% battery, just in idle. google services was the main culprit, even though I hadn't touched the phone in about 5.5 hours. immediately I went to "google" this, and sure enough, others had the same issues with Google Now and maps. however, there were others who claim no huge surge in battery usage while utilizing Google now. so my question is this: is there a "definitive" way to optimize Google Now so that it doesn't eat my battery? many sites give partial answers to this, but I work two jobs, I don't have time to puzzle a solution together. (hell, I should be asleep now!)

I'm asking those of you who do use Google now, is it really a battery hog, or am I just paranoid from being a Rezound/thunderbolt owner? if it really is a battery hog, is it worth it? thanks in advance for any clarification I can get on this subject.

 

[fatboy97]

Personally, I have Google Now on, but only use it for some local sports teams and my stocks. Occasionally, I do see some other things I have searched for on my home PC showing up, but not a great deal of things... I swipe them off and I'm done. Also, I do leave mine on the charger all night so it's fully charged by morning and my entire day... and I'm usually around 65-70% battery life by the time I plug it in again for the night... and by night I do mean when I go to bed again... so that is generally a 16-17 hour day.

Additionally, I was one of the first Thunderbolt owners (first day)... never had issues with that device either... I did leave that after a year since I had a year upgrade, so I picked up the Droid Razr Maxx next before getting the S4 on it's release date.

 

[Almeuit]

I've always found it odd that Google now drains the S4 so bad. I've never turned it off on my HTC One and my battery is fine.

Sent from my T-Mobile HTC One using AC Forums.

 

[johnriii]

I don't think this is a universal thing or exclusive to the S4. I've seen posts from people with the One who have had the same issues. I know people with various phones with similar issues/questions. But I'm glad YOUR experience with Google now works for you.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk 2

 

[STSVA]

I suspect it largely depends on whether Google Now is set to use location services constantly, or whether those are disabled within the app and in settings.

 

[garublador]

I find the first couple days it seems to be worse and then levels off. There was an update to Google Services a month or two ago that improved the battery performance quite a bit. I find that with Google Now and Tasker running I lose about 2% battery per hour while idle. I rarely end up below 40% at the end of the day so it's worth it to me. It's especially nice on vacation or in unfamiliar places because of how much useful information it can give and the Gmail stuff (flight information and package delivery information) is nice, too.