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Good comment. Might be worth mentioning that turning GPS off reduces the accuracy of your location, but does not prevent it from being known: https://www.theve

by nkurz 9y ago

Good comment. Might be worth mentioning that turning GPS off reduces the accuracy of your location, but does not prevent it from being known: https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/21/16684818/google-location-tracking-cell-tower-data-android-os-firebase-privacy https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/21/16684818/google-location... GPS is also the biggest battery hog on the device. I'd be surprised that this is true. I used several battery monitor apps on several phones, and never found this to the case. It's a simple receiver, and doesn't require much power to do so. If you find a correspondence, it may be more likely that the power is actually being used by the apps that are using GPS, rather than the GPS itself: http://alienmantech.com/blog/android-disable-gps-save-battery-power/ http://alienmantech.com/blog/android-disable-gps-save-batter...

newen 9y ago
Maps is a huge battery hog in Android. I've always attributed that to the GPS since I basically only use GPS for maps.
godelski 9y ago
I have noticed it on all my phones. On my Pixel 2 I usually get 2-3 days of battery life. But if I use maps and don't force close the app after I'm done my battery will barely last a day. So I'd call GPS (or more accurately the Maps app) my biggest battery hog, and by far.
TeMPOraL 9y ago
>> GPS is also the biggest battery hog on the device. Something is, but I find it very hard to believe it's the GPS itself. It's, after all, a completely passive system. What eats battery is transmissions and computation; with GPS, the first doesn't happen, and there isn't much of the second either. I guess what happens is (on some phones; I've kept GPS always active on my Galaxy S4 and S7, and never noticed a difference) having GPS active makes various services run in your system, which may or may not be poorly written / poorly integrated with phone's power management.
- ryandrake 9y ago
  On modern phones, you are unlikely to observe any power savings by turning off GPS or "location services". The GPS is only going to use significant battery power when it is acquiring or actively calculating fixes. No device or OS vendor would ship software that burns the GPS at all times--your device's battery wouldn't last more than a few hours. The grandparent is totally incorrect about the GPS being the biggest battery hog on the device. Not even close, unless you are, 24 hours a day, navigating or running some other application that requires continuous (1 second duty cycle) GPS fixes. Even then, your backlight is likely consuming an order of magnitude more power.
- rcxdude 9y ago
  While GPS is not a huge power hog in comparison to other things on phones, the cost of listening on radio is not negligible, which is why most low-power radio protocols put a lot of emphasis on only listening in certain time windows.
turc1656 9y ago
Yes, you are correct - I am conflating the GPS hardware with the Google Maps app. As someone else mentioned, if you don't force-close the app after you're done using it, it continues to drain your battery very significantly.

by nkurz 9y ago

newen 9y ago

Maps is a huge battery hog in Android. I've always attributed that to the GPS since I basically only use GPS for maps.

godelski 9y ago

I have noticed it on all my phones. On my Pixel 2 I usually get 2-3 days of battery life. But if I use maps and don't force close the app after I'm done my battery will barely last a day. So I'd call GPS (or more accurately the Maps app) my biggest battery hog, and by far.

TeMPOraL 9y ago

>> GPS is also the biggest battery hog on the device. Something is, but I find it very hard to believe it's the GPS itself. It's, after all, a completely passive system. What eats battery is transmissions and computation; with GPS, the first doesn't happen, and there isn't much of the second either. I guess what happens is (on some phones; I've kept GPS always active on my Galaxy S4 and S7, and never noticed a difference) having GPS active makes various services run in your system, which may or may not be poorly written / poorly integrated with phone's power management.

ryandrake 9y ago
On modern phones, you are unlikely to observe any power savings by turning off GPS or "location services". The GPS is only going to use significant battery power when it is acquiring or actively calculating fixes. No device or OS vendor would ship software that burns the GPS at all times--your device's battery wouldn't last more than a few hours. The grandparent is totally incorrect about the GPS being the biggest battery hog on the device. Not even close, unless you are, 24 hours a day, navigating or running some other application that requires continuous (1 second duty cycle) GPS fixes. Even then, your backlight is likely consuming an order of magnitude more power.
rcxdude 9y ago
While GPS is not a huge power hog in comparison to other things on phones, the cost of listening on radio is not negligible, which is why most low-power radio protocols put a lot of emphasis on only listening in certain time windows.

turc1656 9y ago

Yes, you are correct - I am conflating the GPS hardware with the Google Maps app. As someone else mentioned, if you don't force-close the app after you're done using it, it continues to drain your battery very significantly.