Facebook Fixes iOS App Battery-Draining Issue

If you use the Facebook for iOS app, you might have noticed that it is very battery intensive, lowering your precious charge level far faster than it should. Users have become increasingly vocal about this, and in light of that outcry, Facebook issued a statement this week saying it was looking into the matter. Earlier today, the social network pushed out an app update, and though its update log doesn't mention it, the new version fixes the battery issue.

In a status posted earlier this evening, Facebook's Ari Grant detailed some of the issues that plagued the social network's iOS app. One such issue was a "CPU spin" in its network code, according to Grant, which he explained thusly:

A CPU spin is like a child in a car asking, "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"with the question not resulting in any progress to reaching the destination. This repeated processing causes our app to use more battery than intended.

In addition to that, the iOS'a audio sessions management caused it some problems. If you tapped out of the app on your iPhone after watching a video, the audio would, at times, stay open — essentially, it worked as if the app were still playing the audio, only silently. Today's app update corrected this, removing background audio entirely, as well as the CPU spin issue, says Facebook.

You can download the new version now from the App Store.

SOURCE: Facebook