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start_select t1_j6diikv wrote

Reply to comment by nicuramar in Facebook secretly killed users batteries, worker claims in lawsuit by tyteen4a03

You are right but FB, TikTok, Instagram etc are all hogs from the second they are opened. You are downloading high quality images and videos left and right, even if you don’t look at them.

I understand why people would think it does it “in the background”. It’s because they get a simple push notification which has no effect on their battery…. Then they open it in Facebook, and even if they immediately close it, it probably downloaded 10mb of content in that half of a second.

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whateverisok t1_j6f3pqf wrote

To be fair, there are settings to disable the automatic downloads of media (primarily used for WiFi vs. Cellular automatic download, but can be disabled completely).

And it's part of them trying to get a better user experience so that when you open/scroll through the app, everything's already loaded.

Obviously, there's a detriment and a double-edged sword: either the app sucks because it takes long to load your feed or the app sucks because it drains your battery

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