Facebook is found in hot water again with its iPhone users. Tests have revealed that uninstalling Facebook iOS app can increase the battery life of an iPhone by about 15% and also free up space as much as 500MB, which can be useful on entry-level 8GB or 16GB variants of iPhones.
The tests were run by the Guardian as a part of an experiment using iPhone 6s Plus for a week without the main Facebook app. The publication claims it received similar results when a similar experiment was conducted on other iPhones.
During the test period, the iPhone user continued using Facebook via iPhone's Safari browser for the same amount of time and did not remove the standalone Messenger app, which is mandatory to communicate with friends in the list. These tests were conducted after users complained of a similar issue on Android smartphones and uninstalling the main Facebook app helped them save up to 20 percent on the battery drainage.
Facebook can be used just like an app using Safari browser. Progressive Web apps offer a great solution as an alternate to using mobile apps, which consume more memory and CPU performance. Users can create a Facebook shortcut on an iPhone home-screen to instantly access the world's largest social networking platform with a single tap.
This is not the first time Facebook app has been linked to performance issues in mobile devices. Last year, Facebook addressed few bugs in its iOS app that caused iPhone battery draining issues by releasing a patch. Facebook's engineering manager Ari Grant at the time said the app's background activities caused the issue and that it had fixed it to provide optimum performance.
Facebook hasn't issued any official statement regarding the tests run by the Guardian, but the publication said the social network juggernaut is investigating the matter.
