AVG Reveals Which Of The World’s Favorite Apps Cache In On Your Phone–Or Don’t

Latest App Performance and Trend Report ranks newcomers Snapchat, YouTube and Google Maps among top 10 Android ‘resources hog’ list, while Netflix is ‘most improved’

Today, AVG® Technologies(NYSE: AVG), the leading provider of software services to secure devices, data and people, revealed that Snapchat, YouTube and Google Maps are the top 3 apps most likely to drain Android device resources. The AVG Android App Performance and Trend Report H1 2016 outlines, for the period of January through April, 2016, which of the most popular apps had the most pronounced effect on battery, storage and data, highlighting that photo, video and location apps likely contribute most to draining device battery life, in particular.

The H1 2016 report also recognizes ‘most improved’ apps, such as Netflix, previously a top ‘resource hog,’ but which did not make our top 10 charts this time around. Similarly, AppLock, a password protector for smart phones that showed up among the current report’s top 10 battery-draining apps, has improved its performance since this April, indicating that the app’s latest update may have addressed the problem.

In our internal testing of most-used apps’ behaviors, it appears that while Snapchat removes images and videos from conversations, the app’s cache is only partially deleted. We also found that YouTube stores a fair amount of cached files, as much as 270 MB. The remaining apps on AVG’s top 10 lists for H1 comprise mostly similar messaging, video, music and shopping apps—unsurprising inclusions on lists of resource-taxing apps. However, an interesting exception to this pattern is The Weather Channel app, which initiates at start-up (which users likely do not realize), immediately drawing on your network plan.

“Our latest report exposes some quirky app behavior. For instance, I question why a weather app needs to be constantly connected rather than updating on demand,” said Tony Anscombe, senior security evangelist for AVG Technologies. “You could also say that Snapchat’s keeping cached files around undermines its Mission Impossible-esque ‘self-destruct’ approach to messaging. Ultimately, if you have more than a few of these apps or types of apps on your phone or tablet, they could be to blame for those annoyingly regular low battery or low storage notifications.”

The report also highlighted other interesting general app usage trends, including:

• Today’s average Android smartphone and tablet user has 33 apps installed on their device.
• The 50 most-used apps include obvious entries, like Android’s own Google Search box or YouTube, but also surprises, such as TripAdvisor, which has increasingly started pushing users from its website to the mobile app.
• Seven of the top 10 most-used smartphones are 2-4-year-old Samsung Galaxy S phones. Sony Xperia devices make up the remainder of this list.

An all-in-one cleaner and optimizer like AVG Cleaner^TM for Android^TM can help keep tabs on the top mobile resource-hogging apps on your devices.

The full report can be downloaded here.