Whats the risk?

[anon(8702321)]

I just got a galaxy note 4, but am wondering how risky it is to use widgets that we've downloaded. Do they use extra battery? And same goes for live wallpapers? (Droid Live Grass wallpaper fyi)

 

[vinnie_boombhats]

"Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is.”

― Will Rogers

It depends on what the widgets actually do, I would imagine. Which widgets are you looking at? One would think that a "living" wallpaper, would draw more energy than a static one.

 

[anon(8702321)]

Im looking at the devexpert weather widget

 

[vinnie_boombhats]

I am not an expert by any means, but I think that a weather widget will in fact use some extra battery power. Depending on how often you have it updating your weather.

 

[natehoy]

Widgets draw power based on what they do, just like any other app. If a widget just shows information from the phone, it doesn't draw much power at all. If it checks the Internet continuously or runs some intensive process to generate whatever it is showing, it can potentially draw a lot of power.

Most weather apps/widgets use location services and data during the update process. They don't use much otherwise if they are well-written and use a decent ad service (or no ad service at all, if it's a paid app). Set your weather app to update itself, say, every hour or two and you shouldn't see much difference.